Pew Research Center Report on Digital Readiness presents data from 50 states (including DC) on people’s skills to use information technology and assess its trustworthiness. 

In particular, researchers focused on three dimensions: digital skills necessary to initiate an online session, surf the internet and share content online;  trust or people’s beliefs about their capacity to determine the trustworthiness of information online and safeguard personal information; and use – the degree to which people use digital tools in the course of carrying out online tasks.  

Results revealed five clusters of respondents assigned into two general groups: 

Relatively Hesitant (less likely to use digital tools in their learning) – 52% of adults included three distinct groups:  

•  The Unprepared (14% of adults) have both low levels of digital skills and limited trust in online information.  
• Traditional Learners (5%) are active learners, but use traditional means to pursue their interests.  
• The Reluctant (33%) have higher levels of digital skills than The Unprepared, but very low levels of awareness of new “education tech” concepts and relatively lower levels of performing personal learning activities of any kind.  

Relatively more prepared (above average in their likeliness to use online tools for learning) – 48% of adults comprise of two distinct groups:    

•  Cautious Clickers (31%) have tech resources at their disposal, trust and confidence in using the internet, and the educational underpinnings to put digital resources to use for their learning pursuits. But they have not waded into e-learning to the extent the Digitally Ready have and are not as likely to have used the internet for some or all of their learning.   
• The Digitally Ready (17%) are active learners and confident in their ability to use digital tools to pursue learning. They have high demand for learning and use a range of tools to pursue it. 

Questions:

• If you were to apply this distinction to your students, would presented data match your experience?
• Does it matter who defines digital readiness (politically ‘impartial’ research center, librarians, educators)? Would you add something to dimensions that define digital readiness (digital skills, trust assessment, fluency of use)?
• Voices muted? It does not seem that sample includes self-governing territories of the US as well as United States Minor Outlying Islands. Who else might be overlooked?

Jessamyn West in her presentation (2014) addressed digital divide from the eyes of librarian in rural area. She mentioned several problems faced by people in rural communities whom she teaches introductory classes about technology:

1. Many people have access to internet only via phone and thus do not have access to full scale websites;
2. Bad design of governmental websites (especially healthcare.gov) prevents digitally awkward population from basic medical care;
3. Policies of certain digital services created by people who do not understand web either
4. Many problems of social/human nature (including disabilities, low literacy, etc.).
5. No national infrastructure for teaching people digital skills required to be a citizen;

• Do you feel that digital skills became essential factor of longevity these days? Considering data from Pew Research do you feel like reliance on digital technology pushes our students and us into risk groups with respect to access to healthcare, essential government services?
• West ends up her presentation noting that there is not enough research about digital divide. Do you agree with this statement?  My own search for works on “digital divide in the United States” published since 2016 came up with 70 400 search items in Google scholar and 58 344 items through our library’s catalogue.

Speaking of our students, final chapters of book by Smale and Regalado revisited the time constraints imposed on their learning tasks by access to fixed and mobile technology. Many students function on tight schedules in order to use the tech on campus, durinng commute, at home.

• Do you teach your students about time management? If yes what principles/advice do you share? 
• Smale and Regalado do not emphasize the digital readiness aspect of interaction with technology. How would you assess digital skills of students in your class? Which groups from Pew Research Report do you notice in your classrooms?
• Did you encounter cases of resistance to technology as strategy to control time? 
• What strategies against outages of learning systems (i.e. grades for semester lost by malfunction of LMS, etc.) are you aware of?
• What support do you as a teacher need in applying technology in your classes? 

Please feel free to comment on any of the questions that I raised or to share your reaction to any of the readings.