Abstract:

The World Economic Forum in 2023, at Davos made a world challenge aiming to improve the lives of one billion people by 2025. Digital transformation must occur at all levels from private industries to government, but mainly in the day-by-day of eight billion people that have since 1995 the right to be connected. Improving digital inclusion is a key factor in fostering equal opportunities in education, business, and social mobility.

In this paper, we present a four-dimensional model to provide a framework that can help different institutions aiming to identify, create, and measure their efforts to help shorten the digital gap.

The dimensions are:
1. Access: refers to the time and quality of available interconnection channels. It encompasses several key aspects:
a. Availability: Involves the physical presence of technology and internet infrastructure necessary for connectivity.
b. Affordability: Whether they can afford the technology and the ongoing costs of internet services.
c. Usability: This includes the design of user interfaces, the availability of accessible technology for individuals with disabilities, and general user experience.
2. Skills and literacy: a measure of the knowledge and digital skills to successfully use the technology, including knowing how to operate devices, navigate the internet, use software, and understand digital security practices.
3. Target Audience: The age group to whom the educational materials are targeted.
4. Economic and social factors: This is often discussed in the context of bridging the gap between those who have easy access to computers and the internet, and those who do not. Not only is money crucial, but other factors such as availability impacted by infrastructure, geographic challenges, geopolitical issues, and geographic location may also play a significant role.

Understanding these dimensions can be challenging, so we have developed a geometrical visualization method inspired by "Factorial Experiments" and the Rubik's Cube. We propose the use of three separate cubes, each representing a socioeconomic level: High, Medium, and Low. Within each level, there is a 3D Rubik's Cube where the three dimensions —Skills, Access, and Target Audience— are represented. Each dimension consists of three levels that can be depicted using different colors.

To test our model, we identified 15 programs among our university networks. Then, we classified those programs in our hypercube and were able to identify our strengths and opportunities. After reviewing our findings, our first goal is to create a new program for low-skill, low-access, young people, and low socioeconomic levels in our classification.

Due to the rise of the generative IA to the mass market, people shone a spotlight on applications such as Chat-GPT or Dall-e triggering a boom in the use of these tools, also opening a menace for people without enough knowledge and information more likely to fall for fake news or deepfakes.

These two ideas, the hypercube and the rise of IA, helped us create a new perspective for a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) program based on AI and computer science named CS-AI. First, we want people to know the boundaries and strengths of these tools and in consequence, people will no longer be afraid of them. AI will be the excuse for the students to develop the science, math, and technological skills and knowledge they need, always with the perspective of humanities and arts.

Keywords:

Digital inclusion, model, economic forum.