Digital Divide/Digital Inequaltiy

Chrissy Lee Boise State University ED TECH 501 Digital Divide & Inequality 

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Digital Divide/Digital Inequaltiy

Digital divide is the gap between those who do and do not have access or the skills to use technology. It is an economic and social inequality between groups of people. The need to access internet and fast broadband speed is essential for every home to have access to it in this day in age. We all know the importance of the information we can access through the internet, but there is still so many households that do not have the internet or computers to access it.        

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Digital Divide/Digital Inequaltiy

Inequalities in access to and use of the internet has to do with lower levels of connectivity among gender, racial and ethnic minorities, people with lower incomes, rural residents and less educated people. Technology is constantly advancing and because of the above factors many people can not afford or access faster internet speed or computers that make using the internet easier to use.  

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Digital Divide/Digital Inequaltiy

Our government leaders understand the importance of access to the internet and fast broadband speed at an affordable price. They have taken action to make sure every household has access to the internet with fast broadband. Some of these solutions are more computers with longer hours at public libraries, tax benefits for companies offering a lower price for internet, technology initiatives for schools, and free education on developing basic computer skills.  

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Digital Divide/Digital Inequaltiy

Working for an online virtual school, I recognized that there is a digital divide among families attending. Three evident issues are how many computers per student, slow internet speed and parent's inadequate computer skills. All these issues cause high levels of frustration and in return creates a negative learning experience for the student. I will be discussing each issue and some solutions to this digital inequality.

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Digital Divide/Digital Inequaltiy

1 computer is provided for every 3 students enrolled at INSPIRE. Students are required to attend 5-6 hours a day. Sharing computers gives less time for lessons to be completed at student's learning pace. Also online Interventions for Math or Reading is limited to how much time is spent on computer.  Higher income families have more than one computer. More time on lessons, interventions and supplemental activities. Student's who are struggling are given more online interventions and if that student has more time on the computer he or she can reach learning goals faster.  

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Digital Divide/Digital Inequaltiy

The obvious solution would be for the school to raise more funds to be able to provide each student enrolled with a computer. This is timely, expensive and is a process that may or may not happen. In the meantime, working with parents to create a schedule between computer users in the home or skipping some lessons and replacing with more hands on activities that don't require as much computer time. Also incorporating interventions that do not require computer access, such as a letter mastery folder to work on mastering letter name and sound recognition.

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Digital Divide/Digital Inequaltiy

There are a lot of students who attend an online school from rural cities or that have lower income levels. Because of these factors, they can not afford fast internet speed. With slower internet speed it takes a long time to complete lessons for the day. The videos take a while to upload and may freeze. When students attend a Live Lesson, the video and audio lag and sometimes kicks them out of the lesson. Many assessments from lessons require students to record their answers and with slow internet, is sometimes does not work. Some online educational games and interventions are limited to the speed of their internet.

Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that's simple, beautiful and fun. By Chrissy Branson Lee

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Digital Divide/Digital Inequaltiy

We all know how frustrating slow internet speed can be. Some solutions for my Live Lessons would be showing less videos, waiting for responses or to pull up documents, and using the chat pod to ask questions and have students answer if my voice is lagging. With certain lessons that have more videos or uploads, I can either skip some of those or give them an extension on the due date if it takes longer. I can also implement offline interventions for those who are frustrated with slow internet speed. This information would be gathered during welcome calls at the beginning of the school year to make a plan with parents to reduce frustration.

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Digital Divide/Digital Inequaltiy

Parents who have inadequate computer skills are less confident and require a lot more training when entering a virtual online school. Simple tasks as emailing or opening a lesson can be overwhelming. I have found that almost half of our families have basic computer skills. This is shown through their inability to navigate through our online program. They have problems marking attendance, finding and accessing grades and submitting assignments. I still have parents emailing me assessments because they just can not figure out how to use drop box to submit them to me.

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Digital Divide/Digital Inequaltiy

Some solutions would be the school offering free basic computer training for not just the school learning management system but how to use other programs, upload documents, or search the internet. Also providing a 24/7 tech support for any students and family is incredible beneficial. When parents have difficulties figuring out how to upload assessments, they can mail a hard copy in with free mailing envelopes. Some students may need extensions on due dates.

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Digital Divide/Digital Inequaltiy

Since almost all school work and teaching is done on the internet at an online school, addressing the digital divide issues are at the top of the list. Creating solutions immediately to combat the frustration of slow internet, lack of computers and inadequate computer skills should be one of the first things completed when families enroll. Creating a plan around this digital divide will make it a much more pleasant experience for the families and students.

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Digital Divide/Digital Inequaltiy

http://www.eszter.com/research/pubs/dimaggio-etal-digitalinequality.pdf  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_divide  http://www.consumerfed.org/pdfs/digitaldivide.pdf  http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/netp2010-execsumm.pdf

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