There has been considerable debate in recent months concerning the extent of the Digital Divide – the differences between those with computers and access to the internet from home and those without. Colleagues will know that the government is very keen to ensure that children without access to ICT and the internet at home are not disadvantaged in any way and, for the past two years, have insisted that schools’ ICT Development Plans include actions designed to address the Digital Divide.

In Autumn 2002 the ICT Advisory Team devised a questionnaire which was distributed to all Oxfordshire maintained schools with the request that they distribute it to all pupils, teachers and other staff. The intention of the questionnaire was to look at the extent of the Digital Divide in Oxfordshire and to provide feedback to schools in order that this could inform their policy on inclusion and equal opportunities.

We are very grateful to all who took the time and effort to administer the questionnaire. We had a very good response with more than 28,000 pupil returns. The Didcot Partnership provided us with the highest level of returns of any partnership with 2736 pupil responses.

Interestingly, the returns were split almost equally between males (13,949) and females (14,337). Furthermore in every category there was a very even balance between the responses of female and male pupils. For example, of the questionnaires returned, just over 90% of pupils were able to use a computer at home:

It is important at this point to remember that statistics can be misleading. In this case we must consider the possibility that, since the questionnaire was about the use of computers at home, those pupils that have computers may have been more inclined to return the questionnaire, thus possibly distorting the real picture. Nevertheless, while these figures may be marginally inflated, it is still reassuring to see that there is effectively no difference between female and male access to ICT.

As well as the very high proportion of pupils with access to a computer at home, there is also a high proportion of pupils that are able to access the internet from home:

When examining the returns geographically, the partnership with the lowest internet access from home still had more than two-thirds of its pupils connected (Drayton with 68%). The partnership with the highest percentage was Wheatley with 93%. Both of these, however, are based on a very low return which will make them statistically unsound and they should probably be discounted.

A sample of partnership statistics that may be of interest are: Burford/Henley 87%, Bicester/Witney 86%, Eynsham/Thame 85%,Warriner/Woodstock 84%,

Faringdon/Chipping Norton 83%, Chiltern Edge/Cumnor 82%, Didcot/Langtree 81%, Marston/Abingdon 80%, and Cooper 79%. In the main, the city partnerships have lower internet access, with the exception of North Oxford with 86%.

Computer Use Of those pupils with computers at home, 76.7% used them for schoolwork/homework, 85.5% for playing games, 73.2% for surfing the internet, with only 51.9% using them for e-mail and 24.4% using them for accessing chat rooms. This last statistic is a little bit worrying, with nearly a quarter of pupils using their PC for Chat. What does this mean? Of those pupils who visit Chat Rooms, it is the older pupils who do so in the main. Nevertheless, two in a hundred KS2 pupils do visit Chat Rooms and schools need to consider how they can make parents aware of the risks posed to their children in unsupervised Chat environments.

Location of Computers in the Home

The response to the question about location of the computer showed only a small number of younger pupils with unsupervised access. As one might expect, this percentage increases as pupils get older. Schools still have a role in ensuring that all parents are aware of the possible dangers of their children having unsupervised access to the Internet and should encourage locating computers with internet access in shared areas.

Internet use in schools is filtered, supervised and safe.  However, as more children use the net at home, at friends' homes, Internet cafes and libraries, where there may be no filtering or adult supervision, they need to be reminded of online dangers - especially from interactive services such as Chat Rooms and instant messaging.  The government has begun an advertising campaign to encourage parents to check that their children are surfing safely. The accompanying website 'Think U Know' is full of tips on what to do to stay safe.  http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/

Teacher Analysis

Our analysis is based on the returns from 2489 teachers. An amazing 92% of these members of staff have access to a computer at home and 88% of staff are able to access the internet from home. This is a very high level of computer ownership/access to Internet but again these figures may be inflated. Those aged over 60 have less access; teachers and other staff under 30 also have marginally lower access than those in their 30s and 40s. One could speculate on the reasons behind these trends.  As one might expect there is virtually no difference between the age group teachers teach and whether or not they have internet access, nor is there very much difference when compared on a geographical basis. Whilst this article has provided a brief overview of the data from the Digital Divide questionnaire, the next step will be to send every school that returned questionnaires, individual feedback by gender and age, set in the context of school, partnership and county.

To find out which schools returned the highest proportion of pupils’ returns (nearly 100% !) and won a Digital Camera follow this link.