The truth is, most of my students face many if not all of the dividing factors we talked about in class. The biggest one that affects them on a day to day basis is their socioeconomic status. This can make it difficult for basic needs like shelter, nourishing food, and proper hygeine. It also affects them needs within a technologically advancing world when you don't have wifi, a laptop, or anything with a modern operating system in your home. A lot of my students that have technology at home are working with technology that is usually over a decade old. Another dividing factor is the urban community they live in. A common misconception about digital divide is "well they can go to the library". I have been to the library nearest to them and one located in an affluent suburb. Both of these libraries are ran by the same entity "Columbus Metropolitan Library" and are within 20 minutes of one another. In the one on the south side or "inner-city"; its not as nice, has less features, and had ten times the homeless people as the one located in suburbia. All of this said, many of my students still face many large scale and systemic dividing factors like ethnicity, race, and education level. All of the students I teach fall into atleast one of these umbrellas of dividing factors, this makes it extremely difficult for this to even have the same level of exposure to modern hardware or operating systems.
Covid played a huge part in eventually widening the digital divide of the students in my community. As crazy as it sounds, the biggest way it did this was by shrinking the gap. The problem was, the gap shrunk really fast and with funds that were not sustainable. This cause two things to happen one of which is that money in really fast. Anyone in education knows that all money comes with a deadline to spend it by. A lot of money with a short deadline means inevitably in will be spent somewhat inequitably. That is money coming to our schools versus other schools and also how my school spent that money. The other problem for this is it takes a glaring problem and makes everyone think it isn't one. This is especially dangerous in schools because of the fact that that money has to be begged for over a long time. All the momentum to getting money for tech had gone away and now has to start back over at square zero.
I would say overall my school district does a bad job in terms of digital equity in comparison to other districts. The biggest way this is the case is not having one to one computers. I have heard some pretty wild numbers on why they couldn't have students carrying laptops back and forth from home and I can respect that thought process. However, that just means we need a computer for every student in every classroom. This points back pretty well to our reading this week from Jean Ayton(1980). While it doesn't necesarily talk about one to one technology, it talks about compliance over creativity, lack of freedom of choice, and extremely teacher directed environment. This is all immediately made better if not fixed with properly funded and properly used technology within the classroom.
Anyon, J. (1980). Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work. In Learning Power: Organizing for Education and Justice. (Oakes, J., Rogers, J., & Lipton, M). Teachers College Press.
Trent, I think you bring up a really interesting point: it's easy to see a large amount of the issues that lead directly to the Digital Divide in a myriad of our students. Sure, some are easier to pick out than others, but, as you mentioned, there is everything from a lack of proper hygiene to a lack of a home for some students.
ReplyDeleteWith that being said, the fact that your district hasn't gone one-to-one with technology yet is sort of astounding. What is the exact reasoning on why they can't have students transporting from home and back? That's a very common practice now, and seems like an antiquated line of thinking compared to the rest of the United States that are pushing for my one-to-one ed technology.
Trent, It sounds as if your district has really struggled to even begin to address access barriers. Brandon mentioned that it is easy to live in our little bubbles and assume that all students basically have one to one environments. Your reality shows that is certainly not the case. The Covid observation is also an astute one. So much EdTech innovation occurred after Covid and districts were drinking from a fire hose, trying to determine how to spend that money you discussed. It was an enormous task, and it seems to have exacerbated some of the existing digital equity issues.
ReplyDeleteHello Trent,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your honest reflection on your district’s digital equity challenges and the gap you are trying to close for your students. Your connection to Ayton’s (1980) discussion of compliance over creativity is especially strong, since limited access to classroom technology often leads to more teacher-directed instruction and fewer opportunities for student choice and agency. While I do not know the specific reasons your district has for not allowing students to carry laptops back and forth, your situation reminds me of my own high school experience and of many public schools in my home country. Due to economic constraints, many schools are still unable to provide students with laptops to take home or even enough computers in classrooms, widening the digital divide between students who can afford private education and those from low-income households.