The Digital Divide – Rural vs Urban in Canada

The following blog post was co-authored by Michael Chow, Marshall Hartlen and Andrea Livingstone

You can follow Michael here and Andrea here

Marshall’s thoughts: I  am in the privileged urban side of the have/have nots. I have taken the availability of wi-fi and fast connection speeds for granted, and I am easily frustrated with lags in connection speed (this happens when working in my bedroom as our modem is not robust enough to deliver consistent full speed access at all hours) and then I am reminded of Louis CK’s frustrated rant  “Its going to space! Would you give it a minute to get back from space!” (Tyler, 2015).

I am becoming aware of this divide; however, in my professional day to day I deal with a lot of students who, like Andrea stated above, have poor or no access to the internet once they leave the school. The majority of these students live in rural areas, and the biggest percentage of this group live on any one of the three reserves that are nearby. This has an impact on the way I teach these students, I cannot expect them to engage in the plethora of e-based activities I have created, and I can also appreciate the strong disadvantage this puts these kids at. The sad thing is, that I see it affecting their social lives as well. Because they do not have access to the internet when they leave the school their digital network disappears, and with it the important social aspects of the high school experience, to a degree at least.

Andrea’s Thoughts: I can certainly relate to this topic since I have recently tried to get a decent internet connection at the farm that I inherited. Currently, in that area only dial-up exists which makes it near impossible to utilize the software system that my current employer is implementing to all franchisees. If I do not have a decent internet connection when I am at the farm, how will I be able to work?

In Burlington (urban) where I live, I have access to unlimited internet at very fast speeds for a reasonable cost, about $80 per month. In order to get a faster speed at the farm (Rural), I would need to spend $224.99 per month and $200 to $300 for installation for the satellite depending on a one year or two year contract. This would only give me a download speed of 25mbps and and upload speed of 4mbps and 200gb of data. This would just barely make the connection speed required to run the software required for my job (download speed of 20mbps and upload speed of 4-5mbps) and I could pretty much say goodbye to streaming NetFlix with only 200gb of data per month at that cost. The sad truth is, this is the best package they offer and it just came into effect over the last two weeks. I am sourcing other internet providers but the costs are much higher for what I would consider “run of the mill” internet service in my particular experience.

This topic certainly struck close to home and I sourced out some other articles on the topic to figure out how this rural divide in Canada is currently impacting Digital Learning.

Michael’s Thoughts: The tech sector in BC is growing so quickly that companies are running around to find qualified employees to work here in the information technology. BC has become the Silicon Valley North!  With that statement, am on the opposite ends with Andrea and Marshall in this sense that I have always lived in a city where easy access to high-speed technology, computer technology hardware and software is literally down the street from home and work and easy wi-fi spots (if I don’t want to turn on or buy a data plan.). I expect to have hi-tech in my area, and if I don’t, I look for a new provider. I can only imagine how frustrating it would be if I had interrupting service, or lack of internet service especially in the field that I am in now. Granted, if I living in a rural area, I would most likely would have chosen a different career field.

Current and former learners of mine don’t have an issue either as they are in the courses of graphic design where one needs to have hi-speed connections to run Adobe Creative Cloud, an online subscription for their classes. The only problem that I have seen is the cost of software for learners because as learners, they already are paying for their education. The monthly or yearly rate to buy Adobe Creative Cloud is bit much. In the past, learners could buy the software and install this on the computers. The software would be great for a couple of years, then the new version comes out. Nowadays, any updates to the software get done through the updates in our subscription. In honesty, I think it’s a money grab from Adobe!

Bullet Pointed Findings:

• Rural students more likely to use computers in school (less children, more computers) (Looker and Thiessen, 2003).
• Rural – slower internet connection speeds (barrier to learning) (Looker and Thiessen, 2003). These findings were also echoed by Hassel and Dean (2015).
• Rural schools are less likely to have a dedicated technology coordinator (i.e. someone who specializes in ICT) – Resource discrepancy (Looker and Thiessen, 2003).
• Rural – less educational software available (Looker and Thiessen, 2003). Due to constricted school budgets smaller rural schools are not able to provide access to the robust software options available in larger urban schools.
• Rural – less likely to have different types of technical training for teachers (Looker and Thiessen, 2003).
• Digital Learning designed products for everybody, irrespective of their place of residence, rural or urban.  (Looker and Thiessen, 2003).
• Despite the limitations related to access for rural students, general usage rates are comparable between urban and rural students, and these limitations do not appear to inhibit effective usage of ICT when it is available (Looker and Thiessen, 2003).
• Rural students less likely to have access to computers at home (Looker and Thiessen, 2003).
• Rural schools often have a weaker economic base and cannot provide the same level of ICT funding as urban areas (Looker and Thiessen, 2003). This means that some rural students are not competing on a level playing field when it comes to ICT development because through no fault of their own they lack the appropriate tools to improve their ICT skills.
• “The problems associated with delivering E-Learning in rural areas, which most providers agree about is lack of suitable infrastructure for fast Internet connectivity” (Anand, Saxena and Saxena, 2012). The challenges of fast service delivery is a problem in rural areas around the world. The inability to deliver effective internet services to these rural populations, means they do not have access to the same level of information, even if for them they are equipped otherwise (financial wherewithal, appropriate hardware) to engage.
• “It is clear that high-quality teachers are a student’s primary ticket to academic success, the single most important school-based factor affecting student achievement” (Hassel & Dean, 2015).   Online courses staffed with top-notch teachers has the ability to bridge the gap between rural and urban. Students have the opportunity to engage real time with instructors, or participate on their own time afterward.
• Technology supported cities providing for a better interaction learning environment in learner-content, learner-instructor and learner-learner interaction are seen a notable factor for successful learning (Din, Haron, Ahmad & Rashid, 2015)
• First, it has a large labour pool of university-educated, tech-ready employees. The millennial population is increasing in the city, at five per cent between 2009 and 2014 – a key indicator for tech companies that CBRE tracks. Although that growth rate is half of Seattle’s, it’s still higher than in such cities as Dallas, Houston, and Atlanta. (Bula, 2016)
• In fact, it is a key ingredient to promote creative activities and learning is to provide
• internet accessibility that act as a catalyst for greater social interaction and information retrieval (Noorriati Din et al, 2013)
• An article by Boyd Cohen of Fast Company define smart city as cities which
• use information and communication technologies to be more effective and “intelligent”. He identified ten cities in the world as smart cities. These cities include; Vienna, Toronto, Paris, New York, London, Tokyo, Berlin, Copenhagen, Hong Kong and Berlin (Cohen, 2012). The term city is define based on the population size and its population density (Dijkstra and Poelman, 2012). In this paper the term technology supported cities or technology supported environment or smart cities will be used interchangeably.
• The Vancouver Economic Commission attributes the top talent in the region to the post-secondary education options available.
• “…thanks to a first-class education system is graduating tomorrow’s tech leaders and innovators from top-calibre institutions and speciality schools. Three of the top five ranked universities for software development in Canada are in the Vancouver area,” says the VEC. (Field, 2016)
• Similar percentages of the two engaged in different types of ICT related activities during that time frame, with only minor differences, such as: slightly more urban youth had accessed the Internet (93% versus 89%) and had sent e-mail (71% versus 66%). The YITS/PISA data parallel this result showing those in cities reporting slightly more time per month on the Internet and in electronic communication, but few differences by community size in the amount of time spent on other activities. (Looker and Thiessen, 2003).

References

Anand, R., Saxena, Sharad., Saxena, Shilpi., (2012). E-Learning and Its Impact on Rural Areas. I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 5, 46-52. doi:10.58515/ijmecs.2012.05.07. Retrieved from http://www.mecs-press.org/ijmecs/ijmecs-v4-n5/IJMECS-V4-N5-7.pdf  

Bula, F. (2016, November 20). B.C. tech sector growing so fast it’s hard to measure size of industry. Retrieved from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-tech-sector-growing-so-fast-its-hard-to-measure-size-of-industry/article32953219/

Tyler, D. (2015, October 10). Louis CK: Everything is amazing and nobody’s happy. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8LaT5Iiwo4  

Din, N., Haron, S., Ahmad, H., & Rashid, R. M. (2015, January 27). Technology Supported Cities and Effective Online Interaction for Learning. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042815000452

Field, J. (2016, October 14). Silicon Valley North: How Vancouver’s Tech Scene Is Evolving. The Blog. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

Hassel, B. & Dean, S. (2015). Technology and Rural Education. ROCI – Rural Opportunities Consortium of Idaho. Retrieved from

http://www.rociidaho.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/ROCI_2015_RuralTech_Final.pdf

Looker, D & Thiessen, V., (2003). The digital divide in Canadian schools: factors affecting student access to and use of information technology. Retrieved from http://www.cesc-csce.ca/pceradocs/2002/papers/EDLooker_OEN.pdf.