Participate 3 - Accessing Digital Learning Communities

What barriers might impede students’ opportunities to access digital learning? 

Students in low socioeconomic areas are behind in access to digital learning due to slower Internet connections and little access to high-speed. Although there are more classrooms with computer access, the access gap remains a huge issue for many students. Minority and disadvantaged students experience inequity issues with technology, in addition to females, the handicapped and students in rural areas. Research shows that that wealthy schools have a computer ratio per student of 53:1 while poor districts have a 73.1 ratio.  This is valuable information that caused me to think about how women and handicapped students deal with inequity issues.  Limited hardware and software can result in a decrease in the types of students who have access to technology.  It appears that gifted learners have more access to computers than average and low-level learners. Handicapped students miss out on many opportunities due to the lack of adaptive devices and special software.  In addition, girls sometimes have a negative attitude toward some of the mathematically designed programs which highlight gender bias.  “Despite the promise of emerging technology, it is important to remember that technology and equity are not inevitable partners."

What might we do to eliminate such barriers?

Originally, the equity with technology issue focused on unequal physical access to technology at home and at school.  Now the attention focuses on the inequity, due to an unequal distribution of Internet access regarding race, income and education.  Owning a computer simply does not level the inequality, but high socioeconomic students are more likely to complete their homework assignments with computers at home as compared to low socioeconomic students. The inequity of computer use pertaining to the ability level of the student is worth exploring to find solutions. In some classes of low socioeconomic schools, students occasionally use computers for routine activities such as looking up definitions whereas in the high socioeconomic schools, students are more likely to use computers in a more advanced way to carry out statistical analyses, simulations and data analysis. Slow Internet connections will continue to be a problem in rural areas due to the unavailability of high speed Internet. One help might be to send students home with devices that have software that will work without being connected to a wireless router.  Applications such as videos that run on the device can be used.