Digital Divide
Freshly admitted college students rush to their new lives freshly and happily. Shops are happy to find their pockets are full of money and eager to spend somewhere for digital devices such as MP3, mobile phone, and laptop. Well, maybe not all of them, there’s divide between students from well-to-do families and poor families.
When the students from well-to-do-families rush to digital shops, the poor are worried about their tuition fees. They cannot afford the device. Some of them never know there are such things in the world before. Their wishes are paying the tuition fee and staying in the university for a better future. Go to university is their only hope to possibly have a better future. After ten-years hard working, some of the poor have to give up the chance because they cannot afford the tuition fee.
Whose fault it is? China is a developing country with unbalanced developing rate. When my friends from the West come to big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, they are surprised by the developed level of the cities. However, in the rural area, it is still poor. Some remote villages remain unchanged for 50 years.
When students from remote area come to university they find they are illiterate although they have been studied hard for 12 years. They are illiterate in terms of computer. They have to learn from the very beginning. Furthermore, since the homework in the college are assigned online, and the professors prefer electronic version of papers, they will find it is very inconvenient not having a computer.
Without a mobile phone, they will find they are isolated by their fellow students. When their fellow students sharing a SMS joke, they can’t join in; when their fellow students sharing pictures taken by mobile, they cannot; when their fellow students organizing an outing they will be forgotten. In order to avoid the isolation, some of the poor buy a mobile or a cheap computer when they get financial aid.
Then comes a policy that forbidden the poor students buy themselves a mobile or a computer, because they are “luxury”. I cannot agree with the policy. Digital divide cannot be expanded to a social divide. Digital devices cannot be the symbol of social class. Why forbid the poor to change their loneliness and isolation by having a cheap handset?
A study taken several months ago indicated that the tuition fee of Chinese Universities is the highest in the world if taken the GNP into consideration. It is about 7 times higher than that of Netherlands.
When the students from well-to-do-families rush to digital shops, the poor are worried about their tuition fees. They cannot afford the device. Some of them never know there are such things in the world before. Their wishes are paying the tuition fee and staying in the university for a better future. Go to university is their only hope to possibly have a better future. After ten-years hard working, some of the poor have to give up the chance because they cannot afford the tuition fee.
Whose fault it is? China is a developing country with unbalanced developing rate. When my friends from the West come to big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, they are surprised by the developed level of the cities. However, in the rural area, it is still poor. Some remote villages remain unchanged for 50 years.
When students from remote area come to university they find they are illiterate although they have been studied hard for 12 years. They are illiterate in terms of computer. They have to learn from the very beginning. Furthermore, since the homework in the college are assigned online, and the professors prefer electronic version of papers, they will find it is very inconvenient not having a computer.
Without a mobile phone, they will find they are isolated by their fellow students. When their fellow students sharing a SMS joke, they can’t join in; when their fellow students sharing pictures taken by mobile, they cannot; when their fellow students organizing an outing they will be forgotten. In order to avoid the isolation, some of the poor buy a mobile or a cheap computer when they get financial aid.
Then comes a policy that forbidden the poor students buy themselves a mobile or a computer, because they are “luxury”. I cannot agree with the policy. Digital divide cannot be expanded to a social divide. Digital devices cannot be the symbol of social class. Why forbid the poor to change their loneliness and isolation by having a cheap handset?
A study taken several months ago indicated that the tuition fee of Chinese Universities is the highest in the world if taken the GNP into consideration. It is about 7 times higher than that of Netherlands.
posted by Beaver at 9:06 PM
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