As the city prepares to install fiber optic Internet connections to low-income residents in the spring, advocacy groups said more must be done to be sure residents get the full benefits of their new connectivity.
While the city will pay for the new Internet access provided by ResTech Services, there is concern that without help, many residents will still be unable to purchase devices necessary for Internet use. Advocates said they hope the city and the community will help fund efforts to provide residents with devices and the skills needed to use them effectively.
The city-funded program in an effort to combat the so-called “digital divide” where low-income residents lack the Internet access needed to function and engage in the modern world. According to the Cap Times, the 2014 census revealed 9 percent of Madisonians do not own a computer and 12 percent said they did not have Internet access.
Kennedy Heights Community Center Executive Director Claude Gilmore said the ResTech program is an opportunity to bring residents into the digital age. He said he and other partners are hoping businesses will donate computers and tablets.
“I want to take advantage of this window,” Gilmore said. “People can be trained to use this technology … kids are really good at it, but parents and elders need work.”
City works to solve achievement gap, close the ‘digital divide’
Gilmore said the program will only work if all of the aspects of the digital divide are addressed.
Alyssa Kenney, executive director of DANEnet, said the issue of connectivity is a three-legged stool composed of Internet access, device access and technological literacy.
Kenney said she hopes the city will tap DANEnet to help instill digital literacy in those whom the program effects. DANEnet is a nonprofit seeking to make technology more accessible and already runs programs aimed at teaching people how to use their devices proficiently.
Kenney said education would be aimed primarily at adults since children seem to learn more readily. She said she hopes Madison schools will one day implement plans that would allow schools to provide devices to students and more libraries will move towards device checkouts.
Understanding how to use computers, she said, means more than just how to use devices well, but also how to avoid getting viruses that could damage devices that are already difficult to obtain.
“This is very exciting; we’re getting really close to at least starting to close the digital divide,” Kenney said.
Gilmore said many of the people he has spoken to do not have even basic computer skills, including how to navigate to Internet browsers or how to search for websites.
Gilmore said he hopes the community will step up and provide donations to aid in procuring new devices.
“This is the digital age and this is a great opportunity, but we have to do this right,” Gilmore said.
A previous version of this article incorrectly referred to Katie Kowalsky as DANEnet’s executive director instead Alyssa Kenney. The Badger Herald apologizes for this error.
