Speaker
Description
While the cities have rapidly advanced technologically over the years, the fact remains that rural areas still remains in a digital divide. Throughout the recent years more and more attention has been paid to develop the digital skills of older populations living in rural areas who tend to be excluded from the success of e-governance and new digital services. Recent discussion has been developed to learning digital skills to digital helpers (individuals who support the people in need) but less accounts have been re-considered the need to change the institutions in order to support overcoming from the rural digital divide. Taking the case study from Estonia, from an advanced e-country’s context, we provide insights into the potential for adopting the discussion to local anchor institutions such as libraries, post offices, village societies, day care centres. These institutions can be important digital partners to deliver or advise on digital and technology. For example, libraries in small villages in Estonia have become a place where people who do not have a computer or smart device can use the Internet or pay the bills. The paper draws on the experience of a five-year research project aimed at creating pioneering innovative digital learning approaches for rural older populations for inclusive digital development. We first show how community anchor institutions play a pivotal role in the digital divide in Estonia. Then we propose for a conceptual change to start to think about anchor institutions by prioritising and resourcing the engagement with helping to digitalisation ‘micro assets’ in rural context.
| Keywords | Digital Divide, Rural Areas, Anchor Institutions, Estonia |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
