Industrialized countries and privileged groups are increasing their access and effective use of ICT in their daily work (home, business, government) of at an exponential rate, and increasing productivity and lowering costs, and have increased trade with each other (through E-Commerce, E-Business and E-services (using the internet), and hence more growth. At the same time, developed countries and non-privileged groups have difficulty acquiring IT and using IT effectively because of the relatively small number of those who can afford to buy computers (illiteracy, low level of skills, high cost of access, speed of access, cultural impediments, poor mastery of the English language, etc.).

In this presentation, we relate the digital divide with development, highlighting the importance of avoiding the divide within the country and as compared with other countries. Then we define the components for measuring the digital divide in accordance with international criteria, such as the "Digital Access Index", which is developed by the International telecommunication Union. Since education is one of the measures of digital divide, we look at the UNESCO indicators for ICT in education, with particular emphasis on Jordan and some Arabic countries. Then we present some comparisons between countries to see where we stand in the digital divide as compared with others. Finally, we explore the methods and possibilities for bridging the digital divide and what are the elements to achieve that.