Wednesday, 9 August 2006

Is Digital Literacy a Nation’s Top Priority?

Certiport has presented the first phase of a research that identifies the importance of digital literacy among national governments worldwide. Based on World Report on Digital Literacy (WRDL), 62 percent of responding nations indicated digital literacy ranked as one of the top five issues facing their country today, including 13 percent of respondents that ranked it as their nation's highest priority.

"Getting to the heart of how nations perceive and address the Digital Divide is the key strength of the World Report on Digital Literacy," said David Saedi, president and CEO of Certiport. "More than a series of proxy measurements to gauge the impact of the Divide, this qualitative research focuses on the mind frame of leaders to understand the issues, concerns and influences that drive how national governments meet the challenges of reaching out to the digitally isolated."

Presented at the Certiport PATHWAYS(TM) 2006 world conference by Dr. Joyce Malyn-Smith of Education Development Center (EDC), the 2006 WRDL groups countries' efforts to bridge the Digital Divide into one of four mutually exclusive stages. Each successive stage charts a nation's progress in reaching the digitally isolated through outcomes-driven initiatives.

"One of the more encouraging findings of the study shows countries that implement programs to narrow the Digital Divide chose to create ICT infrastructure enhancement programs in tandem with digital literacy initiatives for its citizenry almost without exception," said Malyn-Smith. "This demonstrates a deeper understanding of government leaders that defines digital isolation as a personal-skills deficiency in addition to Internet inaccessibility or outmoded computer hardware, for example."

Among other initial findings is the country respondents' overall ranking of national priorities from 13 potential issues. Joining digital literacy in the list of top-five priorities responding countries confront are education and literacy, development of public services and infrastructure, economic development and global competitiveness and, finally, empowerment of underserved populations.