The Digital Divide: What Do We Actually Do About It?

Recently Forbes magazine published an article pleading for action to take palace that will close the digital divide. This is the phenomenon where children do not have access to necessary technology to assist them in learning and as a result, fall academically behind compared to more well off peers (Taylor 2020). The piece outlines a solid argument for addressing this issue, and correctly identifies how the outbreak of COVID-19 exacerbated these pre-existing problems. While it demands that people look beyond short term solutions to solve the problem, it does not have much to offer in terms of an actual plan to close the gap. Nor does it address the obstacles a long-term solution must contend with, such as infrastructure, budget, and training. Thankfully, there are plenty of real life case studies that offer valuable insight into restoring equity amongst students.

A recent poll by the Pew Research Center broke down how economic standing limits the access people have to technology. For example, about one fourth of households that make less than $30,000 a year do not own smartphones. Likewise, over forty percent of households in that same income bracket also admitted to not owning broadband, laptop, or desktop computers. In contrast, over 90% of American households that earn more than $100,000 a year had access to these resources; additionally about 60% reported owning all of these and at least one tablet. The report also identifies the connection between school performance and access to technology, evident in the homework gap (Vogels 2021).

Another important dynamic that overlaps with the digital divide is the gulf of the quality of education between rural and urban areas. One study of 37 countries showed that within every nation, students in urban schools outperformed their peers in rural settings (Gilbert 2021). A recent study performed at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China measured how addressing the technological gap between these areas could have long term benefits. The study observed the results of a 2004 attempt by the Chinese government to lessen this divide by introducing digital resources to rural classrooms. These attempts included using video technology to connect 100,000 rural students to teachers from better performing urban schools. The government also installed computer labs and multimedia technology into country schools (Gilbert 2021).

The study measured the success of the program using long term criteria rather than focusing on short term results such as standardized testing as similar studies had done. They found that rural students who had participated in the program outperformed their peers academically and were more likely to succeed in their chosen career field (Gilbert 2021). 

While the case study makes a salient point about how the digital divide affects students, there are a few factors that make its application less than universal. The project was the biggest instance of education technology intervention. In addition, connecting rural students with urban teachers meant investing in satellite infrastructure, which combined with equipment installation took about four years to complete (Gilbert 2021). It is a project with an overwhelming scale that requires dedication and funding. The United States, for example, suffers similar problems in education, but differs in its government, economics, and culture. Even with the results of the Tsinghua study, it is hard to imagine that an analogous program would find traction in this kind of environment. However, there are still cases that show how addressing technological inequity on a smaller scale is sustainable.

In 2015, the Palmdale County School District in Southern California implemented an attempt to close the digital divide. Dubbed the “Palmade Promise” was an attempt to lessen the disparity between technologically equipped and savvy schools and schools that lacked access to digital resources. The coordinator of Educational Technology at Palmdale, Christine Jones, spoke in an interview and outlined several major obstacles that had to be addressed when implementing the program. First, it had to be affordable, as the goal of the program was to make sure all 28 campuses and 19,000 students in the district had access to digital resources. Secondly, teachers needed to be trained in how to correctly use the technology and implement it in the classroom. Third, the plan needed to provide a solution that would work beyond the short-term (Miller 2020).

The plan the school board chose had to address all these factors. In the end, they went with a program called Promethean ActivPanel. The district was able to regulate the amount of budget by creating a centralized system and deciding how to divide funds directly rather than giving individual principals the responsibility of ordering equipment. This allowed the district to compare the unique needs of individual schools and give an appropriate amount of funding to each one. They also chose ActivPanel because their mobile distribution system within schools allowed for greater flexibility in distributing technology to classmates. In regard to the training of staff to use the new equipment, the school district utilized a multipronged strategy. This was important as studies show that 48% of teachers do not feel up to task to properly apply emerging technology in their classrooms. The school board purposefully chose software with a user friendly interface. In addition, they also created weekly training programs where teachers could consult with IT professionals. When it came to the question of the program’s long term viability, the answer was to ensure that a solid infrastructure existed. The centralized system not only made it easier on principals to decide what hardware and software to use, but also ensured that everything would be standardized to make IT support as simply as possible (Miller 2020).

These two examples illustrate the primary difficulties that exasperate the digital divide. They include a lack of infrastructure, a need to address cultural norms, budget management, and instructors who are ignorant in properly using the technology. While these obstacles may appear daunting, they are incredibly manageable, especially as emerging technology such as 5G offer new opportunities for educators to connect with students (Taylor 2020). In the end, the effort is worth it as it represents a substantial investment in the wellbeing of the next generation.

References

Gilbert, Katie. “3 Ways Technology Can Help Close the Education Gap between Rural and Urban Students.” Business Insider, Kellogg Insight, 6 Mar. 2021, www.businessinsider.com/how-can-technology-close-the-rural-and-urban-education-gap-2021-3.

Miller, Cheryl. “Close the Digital Learning GAP: How One DISTRICT Tackled Tech Disparity in the Classroom - Edsurge News.” EdSurge, Promethean, 23 Jan. 2020, www.edsurge.com/news/2020-01-20-close-the-digital-learning-gap-how-one-district-tackled-tech-disparity-in-the-classroom.

Taylor, Dr. Kiesha. “T-Mobile for Business Brandvoice: It's Time to Close the Digital Divide.” Forbes, T-Mobile for Business, 29 May 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/tmobile/2020/05/22/its-time-to-close-the-digital-divide/?sh=75fe6a3719b5.

Vogels, Emily A. “Digital Divide Persists Even as Americans with Lower Incomes Make Gains in Tech Adoption.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 22 June 2021, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/06/22/digital-divide-persists-even-as-americans-with-lower-incomes-make-gains-in-tech-adoption/.