I have spent my career advocating for educational equality and the ruinous impact inequality can have on the lives of the most affected students. In particular, I have seen students denied access to technology the rest of us take for granted—like computers and WiFi. This can have measurable effects on a student’s educational outcomes today and economic outcomes later in life.
In this article, I’d like to present the problems as I see them today along with solutions we can deploy right now.
A Lack of Understanding
For as long as we’ve had the spark of consciousness, humans have leveraged technology to educate themselves, from the abacus and the chalkboard to today’s tablet computers. However, only recently have we studied the impact of technology on education and examined the problem deeply enough to find solutions.
Students without access to information and communication technologies both in the classroom and at home are at a distinct disadvantage. Not only are they excluded from the immense resources that are digitally distributed today, but they begin to lag in technological literacy. These skills impact educational outcomes and, if they remain underdeveloped, can exclude students from jobs that depend upon highly refined technology skills.
We can draw stark lines around the digital divide. According to an IEEE article that focused on internet access in the US, disparities showed up among the following populations:
- Black, Hispanic, and Native households. 55 percent of these students were disconnected despite being only 40 percent of the general population.
- Families who earn less than $50,000 a year.
You can see similar data to the IEEE report broken down state by state in this interactive map.
- In California, 25% (1.5M+) of students are without internet access. 60% of those students are Black, Latinx, and Native American
- 17% of students lack the necessary devices at home for distance learning.
- In the Bay Area specifically, 1.5M residents do not have access to a computer at home.
- 94,000 Bay Area residents lack any devices with internet access—including 17,000 students.
A closer look at the maps provided here by The Tech Exchange will show that this disparity is highly concentrated in historically underserved communities.
Numbers like this are a policy choice. Our current digital divide didn’t happen by accident. While that might be disheartening, I am inspired because it means we can also make a different choice once enough of us understand what’s really going on.
Too Many Educators Are Stuck in Technological Limbo
Students aren’t the only ones affected by inequitable access to technology. Many teachers find themselves ill-equipped to navigate the technological landscape that modern education demands.
That doesn’t mean teachers lack technical skills or haven’t been able to adapt to the presence of new technologies. They are simply not prepared with the strategies needed to teach across the digital divide. Many may still develop lesson plans assuming students have equal access to online resources or have had equal educational training on devices they do have access to.
Technological equity can be a blindspot despite teachers’ best intentions. In addition to the technical training needed to impart technological literacy in their students, many of today’s educators need simply to know what to advocate for. Is their classroom better served by iPads at every desk or a performance management system that can help students tangibly track their development? They need strategies to advocate for optimal results. Most importantly, they need to learn how to integrate effectively so that math lessons don’t devolve into rounds of Angry Birds.
As an educator and mother, I empathize with both sides of this struggle. As a teacher, you want to provide the best education you possibly can for each and every one of your students. When systemic complexities threaten our ability to do that, it’s deeply disheartening. On the other hand, I understand the frustration of parents who have done their best to prepare their child for a quality education only to hand them off to a teacher constrained by institutional barriers and unprepared to work through them.
Recontextualizing the Problem
Equitable access to education is not just a goal; it is a moral imperative. This article from the National Library of Medicine makes a convincing case that education equity (and thusly equitable access to technology) is a human right.
To paraphrase, when recontextualized as a human right, the appropriate response evolves from one that addresses individual human needs to “a more expansive view that the resources necessary for survival and the development of human potential should be available to all as a right based upon our common humanity.”
So, what might such a response look like?
First, governments and schools must audit their current tech stack, what it would take to develop an equitable tech stack, and most importantly the access that their student population has to devices and connections at home. These institutions then need to be given resources to provide students with the technology they need. Access to computers, mobile devices, and Wi-Fi should be treated as fundamental rights, not privileges enjoyed by districts with the most prosperous ZIP codes.
We need to provide grassroots education on a societal level about how best to articulate and think about this problem to parents, educators, administrators, policymakers, and even students themselves. It is hugely empowering to know what to demand, how to demand it, and why those demands are valid. It’s the first big step we can take together toward change.
To my fellow parents concerned about this issue, I hear you and I see you. When we’re staring down a monolithic system like public education, it’s easy to throw up your hands. It’s exhausting, and who has the time?
I urge you to stay positive (but maybe a little angry). Engage with your schools, demand change, and support initiatives aimed at eradicating educational inequality. It’s your right.
To my fellow educators concerned about this issue, I hear you and I see you. When we’re staring down a monolithic system like public policy and state resources allocation, it’s easy to throw up your hands. It’s exhausting, and who has the time?
I urge you to stay positive (but maybe a little angry). Engage with your local politicians, education advocacy groups, and tech companies with resources. Demand change, and support initiatives aimed at eradicating educational inequality. It’s your right.
An Unwritten Future
The digital divide is not an insurmountable challenge – it is a social issue that demands immediate attention, collaborative action, and tenacious leadership at all levels. We must come together to bridge the digital divide and ensure that no child suffers for reasons entirely beyond their control.
The road to educational equity is not an easy one, but it is one we must walk together. The technological divide may be stark, the numbers may seem overwhelming, and bad actors try to undercut good faith efforts at every step. With collective effort, we don’t have to settle for a future of diminished opportunities, social exclusion, and economic limitation. We can write a brighter future for every child.
Instead of a story of struggle, let’s tell a story about a world in which every student is thriving, that every teacher is wholeheartedly supported in their efforts, and that no child’s dream of the future is ever out of reach.