The article on digital redlining by Gilliard and Culik was truly one of the most eye-opening things I have read in a while. The article gives a very in-depth explanation of what digital redlining is and its harmful effects that exacerbate the social and economic inequality in our society. Redlining as a concept found its origins during the 1930’s in the US, when people of certain racial and ethnic groups were prevented from accessing financial resources like mortgages. Digital redlining is essentially a 21st century resurrection of this phenomena, where students of certain socioeconomic groups are prevented from having equal access to information, which can ultimately put them at a big disadvantage in life. This primarily occurs when students at community colleges have a lot of restrictions placed on their access to information through the web when using computers on campus to do their research. Such restrictions often don’t exist in universities. By placing such restrictions on their computer use, community colleges severely limit students’ exposure to the world, and prevent them from having equal access to the opportunities that follow. Throughout my education, I have come across such restrictions placed on computers that I used in school, although I found this to be much more prevalent in grade school than in university. This is a very important subject that deserves much more serious attention than it gets. However, this article is also very US-centered. This really makes me wonder, is digital redlining as prevalent in Canada as it is in the US? This is something that should be investigated. But prior to transferring to UVic, I have personally attended some of the colleges here in BC. I’ve had a chance to use the computers in those campuses. Based on my experiences, I did not notice any additional restrictions placed on my access to information, compared to what I can access at UVic. Furthermore, the article describes how there is a deep class divide between community colleges and universities in the US. I believe this is not really the case in Canada. When I took classes in college, most of the people that I met were on a path to transferring to a university to finish their studies. Even if that wasn’t the case, I never felt there was a social divide between the students at colleges and universities here. So I believe Canada has a much more equitable higher education system, with much less of a socioeconomic divide between students attending colleges and universities. This further diminishes the harmful impact of digital redlining on people from any particular socioeconomic group in this country, compared to that of the US. But as stated before, these are just my anecdotal experiences. This is a question that warrants investigation in the Canadian context as well.