April 4

Digital Divide

In a recent #PBLchat conversation, I committed to scrounging up current findings related to the Digital Divide. Et, voilà:

At home:

Pew Research – Digital Divide persists

Some 5 million school-age children do not have a broadband internet connection at home, with low-income households accounting for a disproportionate share.

Pew Research – rural vs non-rural

Rural Americans are now 10 percentage points less likely than Americans overall to have home broadband; in 2007, there was a 16-point gap between rural Americans (35%) and all U.S. adults (51%) on this question.

Communication, Internet, Internet Of Things, Tile” by Pixabay shared under a CC0 1.0 license.

Hechinger – content divide

But now we need to add to the conversation of digital equity. How do you also improve quality of usage now that everybody has access? And not just give in to the whims of advertisers or what surfaces to the top of YouTube.

Common Sense Media – homework gap

Only 3 percent of teachers in high-poverty schools said that their students had the digital tools necessary to complete homework assignments, compared to 52 percent of teachers in more affluent schools.

At school:

EdTech – teacher prep, broadband speeds

Recent Education Week Research Center analysis found a near 10 percent disparity between high- and low-income teachers and their access to technology training.

Embrace Digital Literacy” by Wesley Fryer shared under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license.

Language Magazine – digital literacy

Today’s students carry cell phones in their pockets that are more powerful than the NASA command center that landed men on the moon in 1969, but many still do not have the basic technology skills they need for success in school and in life.

NEO blog – teaching across the divide

Focus on the positive, work with what you have and get creative.

NetRef White Paper: The Digital Divide in the Age of the Connected Classroom

The achievement gap between children from high- and low-income families is roughly 30 to 40 percent larger among children born in 2001 than among those born 25 years earlier.

 

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Posted April 4, 2018 by inspirepassion in category Deeper Learning

About the Author

I am a process-focused leader who uses collaboration, authenticity, and mentoring as key skills to inspire passion among learners of all ages. Aggregate eclectic professional experiences have honed my ability to coach others in designing and implementing courses of study using inquiry-/project-based learning (PBL).

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