Fourth World People's University: Digital Divide
Fourth World People's University Winter 2021 Series: Digital Divide
Welcome to the Fourth World People’s University session on addressing the digital divide, February 26, 2021
ATD Fourth World has a unique way of building knowledge. In its Merging of Knowledge approach, it invites peer groups to discuss issues and possible solutions from perspectives that include people living in poverty. The groups comprise allies who support ATD and promote its values in their own lives, activists who have a lived experience of poverty, and full time volunteer corps members.
In the Fourth World People’s University (FWPU) winter session, ATD Fourth World members worked on two questions: What do we need to fully benefit from digital technology? How do people not benefit from technology? During the first two meetings, peer groups prepared presentations for the guests who would join us for our third meeting.
This FWPU session aimed to explore the questions and challenges ATD Fourth World members experienced with the increased dependence on technology caused by the CovId-19 pandemic. The impact on businesses, schools, and families — especially families who live in extreme poverty — prompted the preparation team to invite guests from the technology field, including website development, social work, tech support, and higher education. The brainstorming in peer groups is captured in the slide show.
Below are highlights from the dialogue in the third FWPU meeting. The meeting opened with an introduction of the guests, continued with presentations from a representative from each peer group and reactions from the guests, and concluded with open dialogue. Highlights from the session are organized into themes that came up during the dialogue.
About our guests
Leah Dienger: Social Program Global Leader at IBM Global Business Services,Dallas, TX
Daniel Grizer: IT Consultant and Administrator, New York, NY
Students from St. John’s University, Queens, NY,and Maxwell School,Syracuse, NY,Syracuse University's home for innovative, interdisciplinary teaching and research in the social sciences and public policy
Kirin Taylor: Research Fellow UNANIMA International,New York, NY; Adjunct Professor international relations, St. John’s University, Queens, NY
Adam Watts: Megawatts Creative, Calgary, Alberta; website developer and artist who founded a design and promotions company that offers a range of services to help websites succeed
Presentations from the peer groups are outlined in the slide show. To maintain privacy, participants are not identified by name.
Guests’ reactions
Adam: One point raised was security issues. Security involves first, strong passwords; and second, updated software. Most updated software is expensive and needs to be run on new devices. I suggest getting away from Windows and Mac and going to open-source software such as Linux, which can be run on a 15- year-old computer. I encourage people to get an old desktop and set it up to have a workable machine.
Dan: Tech has been very useful during the pandemic for people who relied on in-person services, including students and seniors. Everyone recognizes that tech is suboptimal, but we rely on itas a tool for communication.
Kirin: I do research on homeless people and trauma, and homeless families especially. One question was: What do we need to benefit from tech? I would say housing, but not only that. We need decenthousing that protects tech equipment from being damaged and gives people a place where they can use it.
Leah: We have to educate ourselves,elevate our voices, and advocate the best way to broaden access for people who may not have it. In my tech company, we talk about how to make things more secure and how to educate people better.
Dialogue: the discussion covered many areas. Here are a few highlights:
Safety and well being
Participant: When you lose the phone, it’s like you lose hope, you lose your mind. How to survive without the phone, especially at night, when you're isolated from everything (and I was by myself)? There is a bad side to technology, but there is a good side also. You can be safer; it can help you; there's someone to listen to what your emergency is and try to reach you and help you solve the situation.
Leah: We have a responsibility to manage ourselves, to learn when to click on email or accept a social invitation. There are clues to hold ourselves accountable and learn.
Dan: It's not easy dealing with recovering phones. Another thing: people like me always tell people to back up their important information. It’s a little annoying for a lot of people. The advantage with Cloud storage is that it’s automatic, and easy to find photos and numbers.
Kirin: Even when you do have housing, there is a need to have safety, which is where the gender divides and violence against women come in. You need security to use devices safely or without surveillance or coercion.
Dan: Continuous contact with people. Users can set small goals in how to improve their familiarity with tech. They (both youth and seniors) can get comfortable by using it while interacting with other people and learning. It’s important sometimes to pick up the phone to get all the other parts of the communications that we don’t get sitting in front of screens, but also just to get to chat with people.
Accessibility and keeping up with technology
Student: Thinking of migrants and displaced people who are moving around and not in homes, what can be done to make sure they have equipment and access to it? How inclusive is it, also, in terms of the languages available on the tablets and phones?
Adam: For portability and accessibility, such as access when you don't have a home base, I think we are getting closer to that reality because our methods of storage are changing to be more sophisticated, as are the power sources and hard drives.
Leah: We went out in the field and learned that most people did not have a desktop, but did have a mobile device. So the managers changed the app, but the experience of the app provoked a hundred questions, and we had to also modify what was on it. I found some kind of relief that we are heading in the direction of more and more awareness as these things come up.
Dan: A lot of people still have issues with mobile devices, particularly older people who are used to desktops. Many elders are not familiar with touch screens. For issues of connecting people to devices, you have to pay attention.
Adam: I work exclusively on the web. All the technology is not focusing on phones. It’s true that touch screens are not easy, but if you are going to have one device, it’s probably a phone that does everything.
Student: Having just one device is a reality for many families. Your life becomes your phone, and if you lose that and can’t afford another one… Thank you for covering that.
Education and technology
Student: A new question is about standardized education and testing including adult education and SAT or GED online tests as opposed to in-person testing. The issue is not only the technology but also knowing how to access information, how government and social services make that available to people.
Participant: Kids these days are so entwined, playing video games, taking the phone to the bathroom. My son is on the phone all the time, but got super anxious on screen for a test, or on screen in class, because what if he didn’t know the answer? There’s a lot of building confidence needed. There are situations where everyone needs to be in class and have human-to-human contact.
Leah: The pandemic turned everyone on their head and no one knew what to do. We are on the other side of the initial shock; we can talk about what worked and what didn’t work. We assume kids are familiar with technology, but we need to listen to the voices of those who experience it. Keep telling your stories so that we can find solutions.
Participant: Online school is a disaster for families, teachers, students, and parents, and even for older people. For my college classes online, I didn’t know how to do the steps to do the work, upload, download. The work is not the problem; it’s learning to use the technology.
Adam: One of the main issues here is that we were never thinking of doing school online. As a developer you can make a program very intuitive, easy for the end user, or you can just make it work. We are going to see huge leaps and bounds in the education world, but people need to be educated on the actual software first.
How can people be at the table, especially people living in poverty?
Participant: How is your social work background useful at IBM? How can we center design on the experiences of people living in poverty?
Leah: As social workers our job is to advocate for those who don’t have a voice. If you feel like you don’t have a voice, let’s work on that and bring it to the table. I loved that you opened up and shared about your challenges. That’s what we need to hear, and that voice needs to get to developers.
Student: The point you made about the need for devices, good devices and data (internet access): Seventy percent of all refugees have smartphones, which is good for education and learning, for every aspect of people’s lives. However, the United Nations learned that 90 percent of people have only 2g access, which is not enough for a Zoom call like we are on. Governments and companies need to collaborate to subsidize the internet and devices in order to improve lives with more equal access.
Participant: About education, virtual learning is something we all have to learn and navigate. Government has to learn. It can’t just put the whole country on virtual learning and expect everyone to have access and equal knowledge. We have to work on bridging that gap.
