Addressing the Digital Divide

It is difficult to speculate what I would do as a leader in educational technology to "make emerging technologies valuable to others while maintaining gender, cultural, and socioeconomic sensitivity." William Gibson's quote, "The future has arrived; it just wasn't equally distributed," brings to mind the fact that there are those in the world for whom technology is probably still a mystery while others complain about how overwhelming it could be in their daily lives.

With so much strife, so much turmoil in the world (which has always been the case), technology has placed us instantaneously in the middle of it all, making it seem so much closer, so much more urgent. Soloway says that one out of two people in the world has access to a cell phone, which means that thousands can be rallied, keeping them all informed during a melee, with the touch of a button. They have a little bit of the future at their fingertips, but just not enough to level the playing field of technology.

Perhaps working in my own educational community to provide technology awareness to students would be a start. Most students are unaware that there is something called emerging technology, since they are still grappling with understanding emerged technology that is right in their midst. They have access to laptops and computers in the school but those tools of technology are not used very much because a budgetary squeeze negates hiring instructors. It would probably be beneficial if students could take laptops home to enhance their sills but is is against the city department of education policy. It is extremely frustrating to see that in this country there is an unequal distribution of the "future" within our own communities.


Soloway, E. (n.d.). The digital divide: Leveling the playing field [Podcast]. Laureate Education, Inc., Walden University.

Thornburg, D. (2009). Diversity and globalism. [Vodcast]. Laureate Education, Inc., Walden University.

DVD vs VOD: And the winner is....

Thornburg defined the term Red Queen as pertaining to two competitive technologies that leave other technologies in their field behind as they jockey for dominance in the marketplace. The leader wins big by experiencing increasing returns where the market favors the leader by widening the gap between it and all competitors, providing it with extremely high profits, leveraging and linking other products to it, and forcing competitors to back down unless they have a superior product. (The leader need not have the best product in order to win.)

In choosing a mode for acquiring an assigned movie, I decided to purchase the video (DVD) rather than rent it or use the video on demand (VOD) options available. DVD rental companies like Netflix and Redbox are attempting to dominate the DVD market thereby having the opportunity to experience increasing returns as a result. VOD and download service providers, like Movielink and CinemaNow, providing videos through cable, satellite, or broadband networks, are also trying to dominate their market.

But the competition between DVD and VOD is an example of Red Queen. One of them, undoubtedly VOD, will be the emerged technology for viewing videos and the other will slowly fade and become an obsolete form of technology. Consumers are less inclined to travel to video stores to buy or rent videos and are impatient in waiting for them to arrive in the mail. Consumers often prefer to sit at home and instantly access videos when they want them through their computers or television sets using a setup box or software to stream over the internet. As a result, purchases of DVDs and their players are decreasing.

There was a time when the window between movies being released by studios on DVD and their availability on VOD was almost a month but now that window has condensed to same day. Consumers know that they do not have to wait to view their favorite movies/videos. However, at the moment, the quality of videos on DVDs (HD-DVDs, Blu-Rays) surpasses that of VOD but as the demand for VOD escalates the quality of its technology will improve. Also VOD videos are only available for 24 hours where DVDs remain viable for an unlimited amount of time. Again, it is just a matter of time before both offer the same advantages.

On the McLuhan tetrad, DVDs enhance the viewing of videos and VODs reverse the use of DVDs. Depending on the length of time it takes for VODs to emerge as the dominant technology for viewing videos, a Wild Card, that is being created/invented now, will probably emerge to obsolete VODs...but that may take a few years.

Anderson, C. (2004). Tech's long tail. [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/chris_anderson_of_wired_on_tech_s_long_tail.html

Hawk, T. (2005). The staying power of the dvd vs vod. dHomeUpgrade. Retrieved from http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/2005/04/23/the-staying-power-of-the-dvd-vs-vod/

Lawler, R. (2010). Studios giving up on dvd, pushing vod instead. Gigaom. Retrieved from http://gigaom.com/video/studios-giving-up-on-dvd-pushing-vod-instead/

Thornburg, D. (2008a). Emerging technologies and McLuhan's Laws of Media. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/courses/14936/CRS-WUWSUX8812-3730077/emerging_technologies_and_mcluhan

Thornburg, D. (2008b). Red Queens, butterflies, and strange attractors: Imperfect lenses into emergent technologies. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.