Technology has grown over the years to become increasingly influential in society. Today, over one billion adults, many of them illiterate, have never had the benefit of an education. There are roughly 135 million children worldwide who do not have access to a primary education; even those who do have such access are often educated in ill-equipped schools by poorly-trained teachers. Many more lack skills which will enable them to survive in an ever-advancing environment. Soon it will not be enough to simply be literate in the traditional sense of the word. The definition of literacy must be expanded to include not only the traditional and numerical components but also technological skills. In the future, access to technology and knowledge of how to use it will be vital factors of daily life.

Today, 60 percent of jobs involve technology and require skills to use it (Solomon, Allen, and Resta xvii). This number will continue to grow, and individuals who cannot keep up with a fast-paced, digitally-aided lifestyle will not be able to survive. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are constantly enhancing life as a whole; they make workplaces more efficient, connect individuals with the world as a whole, and give so-called “average” people access to information and resources that would otherwise be out of their reach. It is clear that society as a whole is keen on utilizing the opportunities that technology provides; those who use technology effectively tend to reap excellent rewards. Earnings are 43 percent greater for those who use technology on the job than for those who do not (Solomon, Allen, and Resta xvii). Those who cannot take advantage of what technology has to offer will be at a severe disadvantage compared to those who have technological skills.

In today's societies, for the most part, the reason behind a lack of technological aptitude is a lack of education in the field. This, in turn, results from a combination of several key factors which create a distinct divide between those who are at an advantage and those who are not. The popular belief continues to be that students who do not have access to an adequate technological education are simply those who do not have physical access to computers; however, this alone is not the case. The digital divide—a case of unequal access to modern ICTs to obtain and communicate knowledge within a society—still exists, but it no longer refers to simply who has computers and who doesn't ( Bridging ). Access to hardware alone cannot bridge the digital divide; other, more intricate factors are coming into play.

Even if students have computers available to them, they cannot benefit from them unless they also have access to useful software and online content, teachers who can instruct them with technology effectively and relevantly, and significant societal acceptance and support. As students, personal experiences with the ready availability of technology in school and at home has been vitally beneficial to our team members' academic success. Having been involved in the development of websites, creation of multimedia presentations, and virtual international collaboration, we have often found ourselves with many more tools and resources at our disposal than peers who have not had such experiences in the past. In the future, though, it will be imperative that all students have such opportunities and abilities to be able to keep up with tomorrow's societies. In order to make these opportunities available to all students, it is not enough to simply provide all schools with many computers. Hence, the aim of this website is to clarify, define, put in perspective, and provide solutions for other barriers to digital equity in the classroom.

In order to accomplish this goal, the website includes information from not only respectable secondary sources but also comprehensive primary research. Sources include works from such experts in the field as Andy Carvin, founder of the Digital Divide Network , Gwen Solomon, Barbara Monroe, Bonnie Bracey, and others. In addition, the website contains first-hand statistics, predictions, and figures from materials obtained from one of our team members at the World Summit on the Information Society, held in November of 2005 in Tunisia . These materials come from a variety of countries, organizations, and specific viewpoints, thereby providing a variety of data and specific examples. Finally, comprehensive interviews with key figures in the field, such as Ineke Aquarius of NairoBits , Carl-Markus Piswanger of the Federal Computing Centre in Austria , and Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, present a multitude of expert professional opinions on the topic. A wealth of information, combined with an innovative method of analysis and potential solutions, is this website's defining strength.

If the digital divide in education is ever to be overcome, societies and educational systems must tackle all sides of the issue. While physical access was once the single most important factor contributing to the digital divide, recent developments have made it possible for more people to own computers with Internet access. Physical access is still important, for obvious reasons, but the digital, human, and socioeconomic factors are growing in prominence and cannot be ignored. Not only are they each vital individually, but they also interact intricately to create a fine web of criteria that must be met before digital equity can truly be achieved. Physical access to computers and the Internet is required before digital access to software and online content can even be attempted, and they are also needed to train teachers and for use in the classroom. Teachers and students also need access to digital software and content; a lack of these may also discourage socioeconomic acceptance and ICT usage. Socioeconomic acceptance and funding is necessary to buy hardware and obtain internet access, and teachers need to be aware of ICT's usefulness in order to use it effectively. Only when all of these criteria are met can students gain the ICT skills that they will need to survive in tomorrow's world.