The Digital Divide

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AaEMZat1x7XgOcsMSF8ty33YxEN_J6ZpzZdYD5owjZs/edit


I see the digital divide fairly clearly.  I have sort of seen this first hand in my own high school.  One of my best friends never had a computer at home growing up, which made doing online assignments difficult.  Therefore, she always went to the library to use the computer.  Two years ago that all changed.

As part of a one-to-one laptop program, every kid in my school, 7-12 grade was issued a Macbook laptop to use for the school year.  Not only did it benefit students without computers at home, but it really made it easier for all of us.  It also helped in classes such as Chemistry because we had a program that worked with our computers to collect information. However, we are only 1 of 10 schools in the entire state of Iowa that had this awesome opportunity.  There are plenty of other schools with students that are probably going through the same problem as my friend.

As far as dealing with this problem when I begin teaching, I will just try to do my best to make sure the kids have access during school hours and try to make assignments not ridiculously long, so hopefully they will be able to finish the during class.  That way they shouldn't have a problem trying to get to a computer outside of school hours.  This may sound like I would be cutting down on assignments, but I think sometimes teachers overload students, and there is plenty they can learn right there in the classroom with a computer, without having to finish it at home. I would also encourage teachers to talk together to see if there are any programs out there like the one-to-one program.  I know we get technology grants to keep the program going, so it is definitely something worth looking into.

As teachers, I think doing the above is something we can do to lessen the digital divide.  It is in our hands to try our best to make sure our students have access to digital opportunities and they should not be limited because they don't have access outside of school.