MICTS: Municipal ICT schools - A means for bridging the digital divide between rural and urban communities

There is a substantial difference in use and development of information and communication technologies and services between and within countries. Some denote this phenomenon as the digital divide. This paper addresses the competence aspect of the digital divide. It proposes municipal ICT schools as one model aimed to bridge this gap and provides an assessment of the model based on the results from a field trial in three rural municipalities in Norway. The model brings the benefits of increased competence of ICT in the communities but in addition have a potential with regard to stimulating talent development, serving as a resource for local business and offering meeting places in the communities for building social capital. The model may be successfully implemented within reasonable economic limitations but is also challenging in several ways, for instance on how teaching resources are recruited and supported. The purpose of the paper is to bring forward the discussion about how to bring all people, also those in rural areas, to be participators in the information technology age. © 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers.