The Digital Divide Inside and Outside of the Classroom

The Digital Divide Inside and Outside of the Classroom

In summer 2017 article entitled Promising Practices for Education Technology, author Molly Zielezinski provides a thoughtful overview of a digital divide with respect to classroom uses of technology.   In her research, she found that technology is often used for more "drill and kill" lower level thinking exercises for disadvantaged students while more creative and dynamic applications are found much more often in privileged classes.   Supplying devices to every student at first seemed to foster claims that "the digital divide is shrinking".   Comprehensive studies showing that technology is utilized in drastically different ways, though, illustrate why pedagogy is so important.

With that said, broadband connections outside of the home continue to be a central issue in bridging the digital divide.

A common statistic is that 1 in five families does not have broadband at home.  This is masked by students saying that they do have access to the internet at home through either their phone or a parent's phone.  This is where it gets nuanced, as connectivity through a phone is just not the same as broadband. 

  

First off, cell phone companies can control phone access and limit it in a way that broadband doesn't.  Additionally, speeds are often much slower and embedded applications are often just not feasible.   These types of limited connectivity relate back to some extent to the problem of what is being assigned in classrooms.    Students in wealthier classrooms often get assigned more open ended work, especially if some of it needs to be done at home.  With faster speeds and broader access to resources, wealthier students get exposed to more challenging learning digital environments and the skills that they strengthen just continue to widen the gap over time between rich and poor students.  Teaching with technology needs to be done in a manner that is authentic and interactive for all students.  Focusing on teaching is paramount, but focusing on home broadband access for all students is also needed in order to close the widening opportunity gap.