PEW on Home Broadband Access

I follow PEW reports closely because the organization has the means to actually collect data. The newest report provides a description of home broadband access. Andy Carvin, long an advocate for issues associated with the digital divide, provides a nice analysis of this report.

Broadband access continues to become more prevalent, but education and income continue as significant predictors of who has access. Approx. half of all adults now report broadband access in their homes. Access speed is also related to patterns of use (this was reported in previous reports on this topic) and continues to be evident in the present data. Those with faster access connect more frequently and engage in most tasks more frequently (with the strange exception of looking up info on Wikipedia). These relationships could be interpreted in multiple ways. Perhaps access is a determinant of use. Perhaps folks with less interest simply do not invest in more costly access.

I  wish the analysis would have included data on the impact of children being present in households. I could not find comment on this issue.

Why should educators care? We should care because this issue should influence our assumptions about our students. If we make an assignment, do we assume students will be able to work on that assignment at home. Even if we expect students to complete the assignment in school, do we assume students are equally prepared to use the Internet to respond to the tasks we give them?

The situation is clearly improving. However, as more have access, the limitation of doing without or of having a slow connection can become a more significant problem.

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