could no longer use your phone you don’t
have Wi-Fi SMS or calling capability on
the back of your lanyard behind your
schedule you should have either a red or
a blue card first I asked the people
with the red cards to hold their card up
and while they’re doing that for the
people with the blue cards to hold their
card up look around roughly 2/7 of you
have red cards red means that you’re
connected that you have regular
unhindered access to technology well
blue means you don’t you have just
experienced the digital divide you can
put your cards back in a few years ago
people filled the streets during the
Occupy movement protesting the gulf
between the haves and the have-nots but
if you’re online the notion of a digital
divide is more invisible because if you
have regular access to the Internet you
have no idea about the have-nots the
people who have never been online it’s a
different kind of poverty not just a
lack of money but a lack of information
a lack of communication but let’s go
back to the cards for a second and put
that information in context as of this
year 2.0 eight billion people are
smartphone users that’s two sevenths of
the world’s population what about the
other five billion they don’t even have
access to basic technology the digital
divide is defined as the gap between
people
have access to technology and those who
don’t
when I say technology I mean information
and communication technologies like
telephone lines or wireless signals
phones and laptops are the most common
but when we think about the digital
divide it also deals with issues and
technologies and devices used in
different fields like medicine or
aerospace engineering or education the
digital divide is a serious issue that
we face in the world today but this
definition doesn’t scratch the surface
of the issue because the gap isn’t so
much about access to technology it’s
about the benefits that are derived from
that access the world is so incredibly
connected yet some countries aren’t
connected at all take a look at the
state of visualization by Gregor ish a
graphics editor at the New York Times
notice that in Europe there are many
people and many IP addresses in North
America there is still a high ratio of
IP addresses to people but then look at
parts of Africa most of India and much
of Southeast Asia in these places there
are many people but relatively few IP
addresses
according to Aisha’s website this map
shows over 80,000 populated places in
blue and while this map doesn’t take
into account the use of mobile phones to
access the Internet
it gives us a good idea of how deep the
digital divide really is it’s doesn’t
seem right to characterize it as just
the gap it’s more a chasm yes it is
different to know you have a phone and
to never be able to use it again
to never have had a phone at all but
consider how difficult it is for us to
live without our laptops or our phones
and I’m not trying to say that we’re too
dependent on technology I’m saying the
opposite that there are too many people
in the world who don’t have access to
even basic technology and even if they
do their education seldom allows them to
use it effectively in contrast our work
our education is often centered around
technology I am a geek girl I love
everything numbers elated I’m a
programmer on the robotics team and my
favorite book is Hitchhiker’s Guide to
the galaxy technology is so deeply
entwined in my life that I found it
inconceivable that there were 5 billion
people in the world that didn’t have
access to basic technology so as my girl
scouts gold award project and as a
global issues network or gin Action
project I went head to head with a
global issue I knew that the digital
divide existed but I didn’t have a name
for it until I joined the gin club the
global issues network Club in my
freshman year at SAS it was through the
club that I learned Lipper about global
issues in particular the digital divide
and also gained more confidence in
myself I realized that I could bring
about concrete change if I learned to
think globally and act locally I started
the digital divide committee in my
sophomore year just after had been
elected vice president every Tuesday we
met and continued to meet to discuss
possible solutions to the digital divide
and one day I had an idea to create a
curriculum for a basic computer skills
class this idea matured into a
full-fledged Ginn Action project and
later my Girl Scouts Gold Award even in
cities like the one we’re living in now
you don’t have to look very far to see a
digital divide in Singapore there are
many domestic helpers who are at a
disadvantage because of financial
reasons and often they have limited
skills outside of housework which puts
them at a disadvantage if they were for
any reason to lose their jobs
inspiration struck I’d watched my helper
Emma attend a computer class every
weekend for the past year organizations
that help domestic helpers exist like
the school email was going to but
classes that the schools are expensive
there are about $70 which is 10 percent
of a helpers average income so I thought
that teaching my curriculum to helpers
in my neighborhood would be a great
start and a win-win because it was a
free class and I could get immediate
feedback on my curriculum and teaching
style one Saturday I worked with my own
helper and two of my neighbors and
taught them the skills that we’d
outlined in our curriculum one helper
named cherry gave me honest and helpful
feedback that I implemented and future
presentations she told me to talk slower
to be more engaging and to create more
detailed slides also the project I got a
lot of suggestions about for the project
from a local Girl Scouts troop troop 60
who gave me ideas for possible
activities I could do with my students
once I was done teaching and the project
was presented as a workshop at the
global issues that were conference in
Bali last year in the end the project
was implemented here in Singapore and
the curriculum was taught at
underprivileged schools in Bangalore
India and salaat Mia Indonesia I hope
that by implementing the curriculum at
school I could empower students that in
the future these students would be able
to earn a living through the skills I
had taught them last summer I went to
India to Bangalore and taught 80 high
school students the basics of
in Microsoft Office and Internet safety
in two days the school I taught at
president’s the church school is
supported by a nonprofit organization
called Petra education trust this
nonprofit supports close to sixty
schools in Bangalore and their students
all come from lower income backgrounds
right at or below the poverty line
here’s a fun fact when I asked them how
many of them had computers at home only
a couple of my students raised their
hands but when I asked them about
Facebook nearly all of them had accounts
this just goes to show that the digital
divide manifests itself in different
ways in Singapore and in places on this
side of the divide we enjoy reliable
power fast internet and strong
infrastructure but on countries on the
other side of the divide there are
physical barriers other than just a lack
of money that hinder people’s access to
technology when I lived in India there
were planned power cuts because there
wasn’t enough energy to power the entire
city they had to rotate it between
neighborhoods and I was reminded of this
when I went back last summer the power
went out and his two students ran to get
a backup generator I was left wondering
what the bigger implications of such an
issue were every time the power went out
did they lose valuable class time did
they miss important lessons while I was
waiting for the power to come back on I
sat down with the kids and I asked them
what their dream jobs were I told him I
wanted to become a computer scientist
because yes it’s such an amazing field
it can be used in conjunction with many
others a girl named Ravana told me that
she wanted to become a software engineer
she’d already learned Microsoft Office
and now she wanted to start programming
a children it was a great idea after all
only 18% of all computer science degrees
are earned by women
and she was living in Bangalore a city
that is quickly shaping up to be India’s
Silicon Valley with a background in CS
where software engineering res wonna
could land a well-paying job and find a
sure way out of the poverty cycle after
the power came back on and after I
finished my presentation I split the
kids up into groups and gave them a task
they could choose to work with Microsoft
Word Excel or PowerPoint I encouraged
them to play around with different
thoughts sizes colors if they were
working with PowerPoint I told them to
try different slide transitions or
animations if they were working with
Excel I challenged them to create a
graph as the kids were working I passed
around a sheet of paper asking for
feedback one boy named Naveen wrote that
he’d like to write a company report
which was thrilling because I’d only
been there a few hours and these kids
were already thinking about the
practical applications for what I was
teaching them I knew that giving these
kids access to technology and more
importantly education so that they could
use it effectively was extremely
significant with greater access to
communication technology comes more
avenues for these people to express
themselves for their voices to be heard
one girl named Aishwarya was so taken by
the sheer possibility that Microsoft
Word offered that the school’s
headmaster later told me she started to
write stories that she would become an
author one day it makes me happy to say
that Bangalore wasn’t the only place
that the curriculum was implemented last
October it was taken to the Indonesian
island of Salaam Nia’s and taught two
teachers at an elementary school this no
doubt helped the project sustainability
because these teachers could be
instructing their students for
generations to come in addition they
were provided with refurbished computers
in a computer lab was set up which
greatly increased
access to technology I’m glad that we
were able to close the gap a little
through our small our contribution
seemed to be when we think about solving
global issues we tend to place focus on
one thing improving humanity save for
the issues that deal directly with
biodiversity or the environment we find
that we’re placing importance on
improving the human experience poverty
eradication education for all peace and
security human rights and with solving
the digital divide this is no different
even here in Singapore with the students
I was working with in the digital divide
committee I was forming relationships
and I’m proud to say that these students
are maturing or have already matured
into future leaders and it was the
face-to-face interactions that made it
meaningful with the kids in India with
the teachers in Indonesia with the
helpers here in Singapore I was able to
see firsthand the effects of what I was
doing my helper EEMA bought a new
computer with her savings the school’s
headmaster in India told me that these
kids are starting to use Microsoft Excel
to keep track of their finances
something I’m doing right now in my
personal finance class and I’m not
worried about what will happen to the
digital divide committee once I graduate
and leave SAS everyone involved is
dedicated to creating continuous change
and I know that the club and the
committee is in good hands
plus it doesn’t end with me here in
Singapore I plan to bring the curriculum
to college and I’ll create my own
digital divide committee there and
continue solving this issue so what
happens when the gap closes
closing the digital divide just wonders
for a country’s development it can
provide them with state-of-the-art
medical technology so that they can
improve their healthcare it can make
government’s more efficient it can
promote healthier economies and
education
it’s an equalizer equal access to
education can help alleviate gender
discrimination because it provides women
with more opportunities to progress
themselves in lines of work normally
dominated by men just like we saw with
rose Juana so I taught 80 students in
two days let’s say that number kept
growing that we expanded my curriculum
into 10 different ones that we gathered
a group of 100 other interested teachers
we could teach 80,000 students dividing
that 80,000 by the five billion I spoke
about at the beginning we get one over
six thousand two hundred and fifty which
means that if this was repeated just six
thousand two hundred and fifty times we
could close the gap there are what a
hundred people in the audience right now
how would you like to be an instrumental
part of solving a global issue to count
to six thousand two hundred and fifty
would take you an hour in an hour you
can educate ten kids with your
persistent dedication and hard work we could close the digital divide thank you