Today, in our final Digital Leaders Week blog post, we’re looking at the issue of digital inclusion.
As you look around, it may seem as if everyone is online. In the street, on the bus, in cafes and shops, most people seem to be glued to their smartphones. But a number of articles on our blog have highlighted the digital divide in society, between those who have access to digital technologies and those who don’t.
In 2018, we focused on digital exclusion among young people:
“One of the biggest myths of modern times is that all children and young people are ‘digital natives’. That is, they have developed an understanding of digital technologies as they’ve grown up, rather than as adults. But this view has been heavily contested, with research highlighting that young people are not a “homogeneous generation of digital children”.
Our blog went on to highlight research by Carnegie Trust UK which found that as many as 300,000 young people in the UK lack basic digital skills.
Schools and local authorities have been tackling digital exclusion in a number of interesting initiatives. We’ve reported on a ‘bring your own device’ scheme in secondary schools in Inverclyde, where children were encouraged to work in pairs or groups to help with communication, partnership working and sharing of knowledge. Another project – BBC Micro: Bit gave children the opportunity to learn how to code.
Recently, a new project was launched to ensure young people have equal access to digital technologies. During 2019, Digital Access for All (DAFA) will be working on a series of pilots to test out different ways of improving digital access for children and young people.
As our blog underlined, addressing digital exclusion among young people is crucial for their future development.
“Failure to tackle the issues of integrating “digital” successfully into the curriculum, and digital exclusion in schools and at home could also have serious implications. If a significant portion of the next generation is digitally excluded this potentially puts them at a significant disadvantage in terms of employment and further education.
However, the digital divide is not confined to the younger generations. This month, new research has shown that one-fifth of the population do not have foundational digital skills, such as using an internet browser or connecting a device to a wi-fi network. Nearly one in ten of the population have zero digital skills.
There are good reasons why people dislike going online, such as concerns about security and affordability. But being “digitally disadvantaged” matters because it can exclude individuals from earnings, employability, communications and retail transactions benefits. As government moves increasingly towards a digital by default position, the need for everyone to improve their digital skills will become more important.
A lot of work is going on to address digital exclusion, including research into its causes, funding initiatives and training programmes. Local government is also playing its part.
In 2017, the London Borough of Croydon was named Digital Council of the Year at the Local Government Chronicle (LGC) Awards – a showcase event for sharing innovation and improvement in local government. Among the initiatives that impressed the judges was Go ON Croydon, which aimed to help people struggling with technology or lacking digital skills.
“The Go ON Croydon project was introduced to support the 85,000 people in Croydon who do not have basic digital skills. Reaching out to organisations such as community and faith groups, this year-long programme set out to highlight and promote the council’s digital skills initiatives. One scheme promoted by the project was digital zones. Staffed by volunteer digital champions and located in banks or retail stores, these physical spaces provided places where people could go to have their questions answered and to improve their basic skills.”
The Go ON Croydon project clearly made an impact, with digital skills levels in Croydon increasing from 70% to 79% within one year.
Throughout this Digital Leaders Week, we’ve highlighted just some of the ways in which the public, private and third sectors are working to help people make the most of the tremendous opportunities presented by digital technologies.
Digital doesn’t have all the answers, but it does provide examples of good practice from which organisations, communities and individuals can learn. As we enter a new “fourth industrial revolution”, where artificial intelligence, automation and robotics become more commonplace, our blog will continue to raise awareness of the challenges and opportunities presented by digital.
Some of our recent articles on digital technologies include:
To read more of our digital-themed blog posts, follow this link.
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