Narrowing the gap

ASEE Prism, Mar 2003

LONDON-The "digital divide" is the gap that keeps high technology beyond the reach of the world's poorest residents, especially those in Third World countries. Now a British business group is working to help bridge that virtual chasm by funneling thousands of discarded corporate computers to schools in disadvantaged parts of the globe.

Within the next five years, more than 600 million PCs will be junked by U.K. companies. Because companies have to upgrade their technical equipment so often, most of these redundant machines are in perfect working order. Yet many are broken up and buried in landfills. So the Prince of Wales's International Business Leaders Forum created an initiative called the Digital Partnership to put some of those computers into the hands of children and teachers in the developing world. "The digital divide is real," the Partnership says. "Access to the Internet and computers does not in itself solve poverty, but it provides an essential and transforming means ... to improve education, build vital skills, and contribute to health, social, and enterprise development." Companies ultimately benefit by helping to develop betterers have already been sent to schools in South Africa, and by later this year, it's hoped that 170,000 computers will reach about 4,000 schools there. Workshops are being established to help train locals to refurbish the machines, and teachers are being shown how best to utilize the computers in classrooms. The machines will run the Windows XP and Office XP suite of programs, and Microsoft is waiving software fees for the schools. Locals will be offered feebased lessons, and it's hoped those fees will help pay for maintaining the computers. The Digital Partnership wants to initiate further pilot programs in Brazil, India, and possibly Russia and Poland. It's a good effort that should help make the digital divide a hit narrower.