Digital Divide: The Hole in the Wall 2004
Distributed by Chip Taylor Communications, 2 East View Drive, Derry, NH 03038-4812; 800-876-CHIP (2447)
Produced in association with Globalvision, Inc.
Directed by Rory O’Conner
VHS, color, 52 min.
Jr. High - Adult
Technology, Urban Studies, Information Literacy
Date Entered: 04/20/2005
Reviewed by LaRoi Lawton, Library & Learning Resources Department, Bronx Community College of the City University of New YorkSince the mid-1990s the explosion of the Internet has prompting intense speculation about its ultimate impact upon the economy, society and politics. Many hope that the Internet will be a powerful new force capable of transforming existing patterns of social inequality, strengthening linkages between citizens and representatives, facilitating new forms of public engagement and communication, and widening opportunities for the development of a global civic society. Digital Divide takes the viewer to the streets of New Delhi, India where Indian researcher Sugata Mitra places a high-speed computer in a wall near an Indian slum that ends with intriguing results: within hours, and without instruction, children begin browsing the Internet, read the news, download games, and listen to music. This video shows Mitra implementing this experiment in other areas with the same results. As a result, Dr. Mitra, the scientist who pioneered the use of IT to educate slum children, has been conferred the 2005 Dewang Mehta Award for Innovation in Information Technology. The findings of this experiment suggests that groups of children could learn to use computers and the Internet on their own, irrespective of who or where they are.