Dal 19 al 23 maggio torna nella capitale la terza "Settimana dell’alfabetizzazione digitale", promossa dalla Fondazione Mondo Digitale. I centri anziani e gli istituti che hanno partecipato alla VI edizione del corso "Nonni su Internet" invitano i cittadini romani a tornare nella scuola di quartiere per imparare come si scrive una lettera al computer, si invia un messaggio di posta elettronica o si usano i servizi on line della pubblica amministrazione.

A huge industry has been created responding to the perceived social malady, the "Digital Divide". This paper examines the concepts and strategies underlying the notion of the Digital Divide and concludes that it is little more than a marketing campaign for Internet service providers. The paper goes on to present an alternative approach — that of "effective use" — drawn from community informatics theory which recognizes that the Internet is not simply a source of information, but also a fundamental tool in the new digital economy.

This paper focuses on the effects of social-structural factors (age, ethnicity and gender) on university students’ use of web based instruction - WBI. The study uses data from registration questionnaires of students at the Open University of Israel. During the period between 1995 and 2002 there has been a continuous increase in the proportion of students who use the Internet and e-mail for study purposes.