Skip to main content

Online classes and digital divide in times of COVID-19

Over 850 Million Children Barred From Education Due To COVID-19 ...
Source - Google
As the COVID-19 cases rise in India, there is justified pressure to keep universities closed. From schools giving mass promotion to giving online coursework to college students to office staff working from home, the internet is the answer to many problems. But what about the billions of people who can’t get online?

Among the many inequalities exposed by COVID-19, the digital divide is not only one of the starkest, but also among the most surprising. Internet access at home is pitifully low in India, particularly those households belonging to rural India, having the worst internet access problems.  According to World Health Organization WHO, 3.7 billion people in the world have no internet access and most of the people reside in the poorer countries, where the need to spread information on how to combat COVID-19 is most urgent. According to data collected by the National Sample Survey as a part of the Survey on Education (2014), only 27%   of households in India have some members having access to the Internet. In fact, only half of the households that have any access to the internet, own a computing device, including smartphones.  There is an urban-rural divide; 27% have access to the internet in urban areas and only 5% in rural areas.

Tips for Webinars, Virtual Meetings & Video Conferencing During ...
Source - Google

Zooming into student’s lives with online classes, the ages-old video conferencing has taken over the world by storm. Most Deans look hopefully at an online solution to the unexpected advent of COVID-19. While it would be fairly easy to connect to one set of students, reaching others through the internet would be tough. At the same time, compliance with physical attendance is easier to identify compared to unearthing the non-compliance of e-attendance.  Then, not only would pedagogy be compromised, but the inequity in terms of what one can deliver to students, can be glaring. Given the current crisis, this does not auger well for holding online classes for students who have gone back home.  It is perhaps this view that makes people apprehensive about online classes.

To decrease the digital divide gap, we must tackle the problems of internet affordability, low awareness & education levels, and poor infrastructure.

A large group of people cannot access online courses provided by their university and are also unable to use the internet in general due to the high costs involved in buying a device, getting an internet connection, etc. The government can give tariff subsidies to encourage users to buy these goods. Internet service providers can provide users affordable plans which can give optimum internet speed in remote areas as well, which comes under good internet infrastructure i.e. physical hardware, transmission, and software used to interconnect computers and users on the Internet.

Visualizing the State of Global Internet Connectivity - Nextgov
Source - Google



 According to research, the top barrier to internet penetration in developing countries is relevance in the native ecosystem. This is because, in most cases, people cannot find content, online services, or web and mobile applications in their primary language. Moreover, most people in rural areas lack the necessary prerequisite education to understand a lot of online content. To encourage internet adoption in such places, local content and applications need to be developed in languages that can be understood by the local populace. Besides this, privacy, trust, and data security issues that tend to scare away many potential users need to be addressed by formulating policy frameworks that ensure online websites protect their users’ data and online activity. The problem of the digital divide is just a symptom that points us to a much deeper problem in our economic development. Just like COVID-19, much work needs to be done in terms of netizen’s awareness and to bridge the gap between urban and rural areas; And just like the three basic necessities viz. Food, clothing, and a home, internet access to everyone should also be included in this list so that more and more citizens are educated and contribute to national development as a whole.
By Kanksha Anjaria
(IITRAM Student)

                                                                                                         

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Superstitions

  “WHAT?” “So, you are telling me that you lost the job because of a random black cat who crossed the road?” “YES.” The yes made me write this article. When Advik started preparing for this job interview two years ago, every single person of our society knew that he would make it. There was no doubt about it. Never thought he would lose it for reaching late, that too because of a cat. He is one of the most amazing persons I have ever met. I look up to him so many times. Hearing something like this from him is the last thing I expected. Superstitions are not new to any of us. They have been intertwined with us since forever. The above is just one of the many examples we hear every day. Debugging Superstitions Some deny them while some worship them. It is actually a personal outlook. They are neither myths nor boons but disoriented beliefs born out of ignorance and science causalities from the past. For example, Friday the 13 th is considered bad because of unfortunate...
2 comments
Read more

Do you see it?

I am of the opinion that nature is an awfully simple institution and there is an infinite beauty to it. There aren’t an awful lot of rules that govern the nature. Actually, there is just the one - survival of the fittest. In spite of this, even the tiniest, the slowest, the most fragile forms of life have found a way to keep living in this home of ours, creating a beautiful, intricate balance that one cannot admire enough in a lifetime. It begs the question whether survival is really that difficult. When nature decides to inhabit a life form, it provides them with all the necessary resources for it to survive- food and water for sustenance, ability to perceive their surroundings for threats and intelligence for protection from those threats. The available resources are always more than enough for the fit to survive. The balance of nature is maintained if th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Unwelcome!

It was evening time; the doorbell rang; my mother asked me to open the door. I opened the door and saw my uncle standing with his luggage, smiling at me. I invited him to come in and touched his feet as he proceeded. Everybody gathered - chit-chat began, Mumma was preparing tea, and suddenly out of nowhere, uncle asked me how my studies were going. I gave him an awkward smile and said that it was going well. I thought the conversation might end here, but he seemed more interested in my studies than me:') He further asked me that then in which year I am, I said in the final year. As soon as I said the word 'final' - I was able to see the light of enlightenment behind him and the innumerous life lessons he was going to give me. I prepared myself, one ear for the information to enter and the other to let it exit, mind blank, neck flexible to move up-down, and an expressionless face.    Then the unwanted career counseling began-    Round 1 - "The interview!"  ...
Post a Comment
Read more