Becker H J
University of California, Irvine, USA.
Future Child. 2000 Fall-Winter;10(2):44-75.
As computer technology becomes increasingly prevalent throughout society, concerns have been raised about an emerging "digital divide" between those children who are benefitting and those who are being left behind. This article presents results from new analyses of national survey data describing children's differential access to computers in school and at home, and the varying conditions that affect how children experience computers. For example, responses from a nationwide survey of teachers suggest that, as of 1998, more than 75% of students had access to computers at school. In fact, those teaching lower-income students reported weekly use of computers more often than those teaching higher-income students. But the nature of children's experiences using computers in school varied greatly by subject and teacher objectives, and the data suggest that lower-income students use computers more often for repetitive practice, whereas higher-income students use computers more often for more sophisticated, intellectually complex applications. Differences between low-income and high-income children's access to home computers were far less subtle. Survey data indicate that only about 22% of children in families with annual incomes of less than $20,000 had access to a home computer, compared to 91% of those in families with annual incomes of more than $75,000. And among children with access, those in low-income families were reported to use the computer less than those in high-income families, perhaps because most low-income families with computers lacked a connection to the Internet. The two most predictive factors of children's use of home computers were the child's age and the computer's capabilities. The author concludes that home access to computers will be a continued area of inequality in American society, and that schools must play a critical role in ensuring equal opportunity for less-advantaged children to access the benefits of the more intellectually powerful uses of computer technology.
随着计算机技术在全社会日益普及，人们对受益的儿童与被落下的儿童之间正在出现的“数字鸿沟”表示担忧。本文展示了对全国性调查数据进行新分析的结果，这些数据描述了儿童在学校和家中使用计算机的差异，以及影响儿童使用计算机体验的不同条件。例如，一项全国性教师调查的结果表明，截至1998年，超过75%的学生在学校可以使用计算机。事实上，教低收入家庭学生的教师报告说，他们的学生每周使用计算机的频率比教高收入家庭学生的教师报告的频率更高。但是，儿童在学校使用计算机的体验性质因学科和教师目标的不同而有很大差异，数据表明，低收入家庭学生更多地将计算机用于重复性练习，而高收入家庭学生更多地将计算机用于更复杂、智力要求更高的应用。低收入和高收入家庭儿童在家中使用计算机的差异则要明显得多。调查数据显示，年收入低于2万美元家庭中的儿童，只有约22%可以使用家用计算机，而年收入超过7.5万美元家庭中的这一比例为91%。在可以使用计算机的儿童中，据报告低收入家庭的儿童使用计算机的频率低于高收入家庭的儿童，这可能是因为大多数有计算机的低收入家庭没有联网。儿童使用家用计算机的两个最具预测性的因素是儿童的年龄和计算机的性能。作者得出结论，在家中使用计算机将仍然是美国社会不平等的一个领域，学校必须发挥关键作用，确保处境不利的儿童有平等机会受益于计算机技术更强大的智力应用。
