A recent article in Science Daily mentions a digital skills divide emerging among computer users. Tufts University conducted a study and found that the the "digital divide" in terms of access is narrowing, but there is a "significant 'digital skills divide" emerging. This study focused on the socio-economic digital divide. Tufts researchers examined the socio-economic status and differences in parents' Web use, skills and satisfaction. They found that parents in higher socio-economic levels spent a greater time on the web and had more sophisticated search and evaluation skills. Tufts' full study can be found in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology v29 (2) March/April 2008 p118-128.

It is interesting to notice that the while the digital access divide is shrinking, the digital skills divide is now emerging. What I would find equally interesting is measuring the digital skills divide across age groups. Just how willing is the younger generation to do sophisticated searches compared to older generations? What are the information evaluation skills across the generations? Can you compare different types of information gathering? For example: Compared to older people, are younger people better at finding podcasts of their favorite music, but not so good at evaluating health information or school project information? How are any of the age groups at evaluating scammers and phishers? If you've seen those fake ebay or banking emails/sites you know that requires some definite evaluation skills.

Just something to think about.