Skip to main content

Digital Exclusion and Inclusion in Poland—An Overview of Research and Educational Activities from Recent Decades

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
From Digital Divide to Digital Inclusion

Abstract

Digital competences are one of the basic skills in today's world. The deficiency or absence of skills in the efficient use of information and communication technologies creates an unfavourable phenomenon known as digital exclusion. Since the mid-1990s in Poland, i.e. since the first households were connected to the Internet, the problem of low digital competences has become one of the challenges for formal, non-formal, and informal education. This article shows how the level of digital exclusion and digital competences has changed over the last three decades. Based on an analysis of the literature, it was concluded that: (1) Digital exclusion in Poland changed with the level of digitisation; (2) In 1995–2000, the building of the information society in Poland began with the construction of Internet access points; (3) Owning a smartphone or a computer in Poland does not mean having high digital competence; (4) In the initial period, digital exclusion was determined mainly by economic aspects (the high price of equipment and Internet connection); (5) In the school year 1999/2000, less than 30% of schools had access to the Internet; (6) In 2004, Poland ranked 19th among 24 countries covered by the survey in relation to student access to computer equipment; (7) In 2003, only 1/3 of households had access to the Internet; (8) The beginning of the 2000s was marked by the near-universal computerisation of education; (9) European Funds became a driving force for minimising digital exclusion and improving digital competences among various social groups; (10) The COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a milestone in the development of the information society and the increase of digital competences; (11) The pandemic period also clearly showed which areas related to the use of ICT need to be strengthened; (12) Currently, about a tenth of citizens do not use the Internet in Poland; and (13) Digital exclusion mainly affects people of senior age.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The nasza-klasa.pl portal was established on 11 November 2006. In its prime, it attracted 14 million users; in comparison, Facebook in Poland currently has 16 million (Chada et al., 2020).

  2. 2.

    However, it must be taken into account that more than 1.5 million refugees have been officially residing in Poland since the start of the conflict in Ukraine (Office for Foreigners, 2023), but these figures do not include those arriving under visa-free traffic or on visas. According to the Border Guard, between 24 February 2022 and 3 July 2023, 13 million refugees from Ukraine crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border; some went to other EU countries or left for other continents.

References

Download references

Funding

The article was written under the Rethinking Media Literacy and Digital Skills in Europe project. REMEDIS project is supported in Poland by the National Science Centre—NCN [021/03/Y/HS6/00275] within the CHANSE ERA-NET Co-fund, which has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme [contract number 101004509].

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Łukasz Tomczyk .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Ethics declarations

Credit

Article conception, introduction, conclusion, coordination of work: Łukasz Tomczyk; Theoretical framework: Arif Daş & Nihal Daş; Overview of research results: Izabela Kielar. Support for REMEDIS project implementation: Jagiellonian University in Krakow; Linguistic proofreading: Christopher Walker.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Tomczyk, Ł., Kielar, I., Daş, A., Daş, N. (2023). Digital Exclusion and Inclusion in Poland—An Overview of Research and Educational Activities from Recent Decades. In: Tomczyk, Ł., Guillén-Gámez, F.D., Ruiz-Palmero, J., Habibi, A. (eds) From Digital Divide to Digital Inclusion. Lecture Notes in Educational Technology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-7645-4_20

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-7645-4_20

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-99-7644-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-99-7645-4

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics