I did not include internet access as a part of my plan because of my anecdotal experience of being here.. Unfortunately South HS is so predominantly in poverty that talking about your struggling situation is not uncommon. I have heard often of cell phone plans being cut off, but never internet in the home. I think this is because not only can you get almost all of your entertainment via wifi, but you also pay a lot of bills through internet access. I have a unique perspective on nation wide broadband. My hometown of Ponca City had “Ponca City Free Wifi” from the late 2000’s to present. You could definitely do something like pay an online bill with it, but you could not do any learning or entertainment with it. I felt like at that point, you could just go to a local hotspot like the library or Mcdonalds. The people who would need this the most would be the very last people to get it which would be the extremely rural and remote areas. This specifically is not really much of an equity issue for my school specifically because of the fact that we have no computers to send home and no homework sent home.
As an intervention specialist, accessibility is always at the forefront of my thinking. I will admit, probably think about it less when thinking about technology. One thing I really liked from Crossland et al (2018) was their thoughts on UDL and that it is for everyone and not just people with disabilities. I think this is something I did inadvertently in my technology intervention plan. One of my goals is that all class readings in core class be able to be read effectively with a screen reader (no pdfs). While this will help the students on my caseload, it will also help everyone else. Around two-thirds of the students in my school are reading below grade level, while one-third are on IEP’s. This middle third will have access, as well as anyone else who might simply do better with reading and listening. I definitely learned alot from the reading on title IV-A from ISTE (2018). I know there is no additional funds for us in Columbus City Schools as we just cut over fifty-million in budget. However, some funds could be reallocated to something that pertains to the goals of my TIP. Being budget conscious, I think reaching out to our large district and finding someone with extensive canvas skills could be paid supplementally to lead a training on improving our use of canvas at South HS.
For my situation I think our best option would be reallocating title IV-A funds from the every student succeeds act. This requires no new funds, simply removing something we might not find as helpful. To be able to do this I would need to know what these title IV-A funds are currently used on. I asked my principal, and she said she thought it was mostly used for PD of principals and coaches. We are losing all of our coaches next year, so it could be that we have extra money in this pot already next year. This would prevent having to argue that this new thing is more effective than something I already don’t really experience.
I extensively looked through our district website went through a lot to try to find this information at (CCS, 2026). I went through our district budget, south high school, general fund, high school, general operating, and supplies. Within supplies, the general supplies were registering but technology was listed at $0. I know this isn’t accurate, but it was what was on the website. This worried me because I think having accurate numbers on budget is important to knowing what is important enough to spend money on.
Columbus City Schools. (2026). Open budget: South High School—general fund supplies (FY2026). Columbus City Schools Open Budget
Crossland, A., Gray, T., and Reynold, J. (2018). ESSA and digital learning: Closing the digital accessibility gap. American Institute for Research. ED602482.pdf
ISTE. (2020). Using ESSA to fund Edtech: Getting the most out of the Title IV-A. [2020 UPDATES] USING ESSA TO FUND EDTECH.pdf
I believe there has to be a medium between free public wifi as a service (like you mentioned with your hometown) that is completely throttled to the point of basically only being able to load basic webpages (like pay bills, in your example) but not provide entertainment and the other side of that where the internet is open and everyone is freely enjoying 1 Gbps internet. Not to say that isn't something that we shouldn't do, but instead is something that is limited by infrastructure capabilities.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see communities provide these open wifi networks that allow people to enjoy the connection of the internet and the capabilities that allow it, because it is becoming increasingly like a utility that is a must-have to survive in the modern age. However, we do start to run the risk of "do we allow every website open?", "how do we know what/when to block?", etc., to avoid becoming a surveillance state and stepping on the toes of the First Amendment.
Most of the work that I do (developing curriculum for online schools) requires careful attention to accessibility. We typically do all of our work with a UDL perspective. I find that, like you, so many educators do this nearly automatically because we are always doing our best to support students in the best way possible. This is an area where I think collaborative professional development with a focus on UDL could benefit so many educators. Get together, share your best practices for making accessible readings as you mentioned, and help younger teachers or less tech savvy teachers also implement these best practices. It sounds like you are constantly finding creative, interesting ways to use technology, even in a district with no budget for it. Your district is fortunate to have you!
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