Meaningful internet access goes beyond having easy and everyday access to broadband internet and digital devices. Equally important is whether Canadians can use their digital access for their benefit. That depends on their ability to acquire and apply the skills necessary to navigate the online world.
Many adults across the country face daily challenges with accessing and finding what they need online, reflecting a three-tiered digital divide. This divide describes differences in how people get connected, how they regularly use online resources and obtain what they need.
Regular and consistent access to devices and internet connections can certainly foster digital skills. But this knowledge is incomplete and unequally distributed without formal learning and opportunities for practice in supported and safe digital spaces.
(Matthias Sturm/adapted by IRPP)
Differing portraits of digital access
Government and telecommunication companies have focussed on the broadband infrastructure divide, arguing that when the whole country is connected people will figure out how to navigate online by themselves. But research shows this isn’t the case.
The differences between living with seamless and digital access can be illustrated through storytelling grounded in research.
With a colleague, I developed composite (fictional) profiles of two adults, Eva and Sandra, based on a review of research related to digital access, statistical analysis of data from the Canadian Internet Use Survey, and interviews we conducted with teachers and adult learners.
Hardware, printer, financial, IT inequities
Eva has seamless internet access and easily engages with daily tasks in digital spaces at home, in transit and at her place of employment, using hardware and software supplied and managed by an IT department. She responds to emails on the bus, using her unlimited, employer-paid 5G data talk-and-text plan, and renews her licence plate online. At work, she prints, signs, scans and returns a form.
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By contrast, Sandra spends a big chunk of her day navigating digital hurdles to accomplish what might be considered quick and easy tasks. They include bus trips to the local library for internet access and a local supply store to print and scan a form. To save time and her phone’s data plan — which she pays for out of her tight household budget — Sandra must stay at the library to accomplish other tasks requiring technology. She checks her college application and searches for a solution to her back pain. A lack of privacy, a noisy environment, extra costs and a lack of assistance are just a few of the barriers she must contend with.
It’s not all about broadband
As a PhD student, I have researched inequities in digital access since before the pandemic when it was not a mainstream topic.
During the pandemic, many of us experienced difficulties when in-person services were no longer available. If we had reliable ways to reach the “outside” world by going online, we saw how crucial this was.
But even when people have access to devices and internet connections, this knowledge is incomplete and unequally distributed without formal learning and opportunities for practice in supported and safe digital spaces.
Many adults go to adult education programs to learn and practice their digital skills — whether in adult literacy or settlement language training programs serving immigrants. These programs help adults develop functional literacy and language skills that help them to get further education, apprenticeship training, certification and employment.
As I saw myself over a fifteen-year period working in this field prior to my doctoral research, these programs are well positioned to offer digital learning opportunities as part of adult upgrading, vocational, language and literacy skills curriculums. Programs can be tailored to meet specific community literacy needs — for example, for Indigenous or Deaf learners, and can be offered in both official languages.
Digital learning skills, places to use them
Digital technologies have been an integral part of many adult education programs for years. Guided and facilitated by instructors, students are expected to: participate using digital devices, to use an email address to communicate, to complete online forms, and to work collaboratively online.
Some adult education programs have hired people to work as digital navigators who help adult learners or their teachers with learning or teaching online access.
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Yet many adult education programs must currently reapply for operational financing each year.
Sustained federal funding needed
Recently, I co-authored a paper published by the Institute of Research on Public Policy with Christine Pinsent-Johnson, a policy and research specialist. We argue that to meaningfully address digital divides, Employment and Social Development Canada should work with provincial and territorial governments to provide sustained, core funding to provincial and territorial adult education programs. (A French version of this paper is also available, which I discussed recently on Radio Canada).
These key adult education programs help Canadians acquire needed digital literacy skills for further education, apprenticeship training, certification and employment. Regular funding would stabilize operations, facilitate long-term planning and reduce administrative costs. It would do that particularly by ensuring predictable support for equipment purchases, IT infrastructure and software licensing.
National platform to share best practices
Additionally, we advocate for the creation of a national platform for educators to share learning materials and best practices. A similar platform for the federally funded settlement language programs could serve as a model.
Beyond this platform, we call for a cross-sectoral network to co-ordinate programs aimed at enhancing digital skills and access for underserved communities.
Such initiatives can connect provincial organizations with similar missions, leverage existing partnerships and forge new collaborations. They can serve as vital hubs for integrating informal and formal digital skills learning.
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One example is a not-for-profit organization like AlphaPlus, where I worked as a technology coach and researcher some years ago. This organization supports adult literacy programs in Ontario with professional development, and guides good practices for building digital technology capacity to support adult learners, for example, around AI. With regular funding and a mandate to co-ordinate efforts in digital skills development, such organizations could take on a much larger role supporting adult education programs.
A more consistent and sustained approach is needed to support and connect similar efforts across the country to ensure equitable access to digital resources and learning opportunities across diverse Canadian communities.
Such an approach will help citizens acquire the digital literacy skills and experience they need to participate meaningfully and effectively in Canadian society and the labour market.