Digitally Divided

Dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic was no easy task for anyone, but for teachers and students, it meant navigating through uncharted waters most of us never imagined. But, being the ever-adaptable teachers that we are, we prepared ourselves for Zoom meetings, digital activities, and whatever virtual challenges might come our way.  What I personally wasn’t prepared for though, was just how deep the digital divide would affect my students' learning and my ability to provide high-quality lessons to all of my students.

 

So, you may be asking yourself, what exactly is the digital divide in education?  According to the ACT Center for Equity in Learning, "The digital divide in education is the gap between those with sufficient knowledge of and access to technology and those without."  In my school district, this divide was deeper than the Mississippi River that flows through our state, and our little parish wasn't ready for all of the challenges.  When the district announced we would be pivoting to virtual schooling, we all realized that there would be difficult times ahead, but we certainly didn't anticipate what was to come.

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The first issue we ran into dealt with the availability of technology itself.  Over 65% of our student population does not have access to a desktop computer or laptop at home.  The only devices in their homes are cell phones, and with miniature screens and keyboards, that's definitely not very efficient for completing school work.  In addition, what if there are multiple students in one household and only one phone?  This was a major obstacle for the district to tackle in order to have a successful virtual school program.  Luckily, our district worked very hard throughout the previous years to launch a 1:1 Chromebook initiative. This means that our schools were able to provide every student with their own device.  Since it was the beginning of a new school year though, and students were just coming off of their summer break, the students were not in possession of the Chromebooks.  This presented a challenge in itself, as some students and parents needed transportation to the school to pick up their devices.  This may not seem like an issue, but some families do not have transportation and rely on buses (which were not being utilized at the time) to get to and from school.  This resulted in teachers and administrators actually driving to these students' homes to distribute devices.  This caused a delay for certain students receiving devices which in turn resulted in the students being even more behind in their work.      

 

Another major issue was internet availability.  It's 2020, and everyone has internet access, right?  Wrong.  Our little community in Louisiana has many students who either cannot afford internet access or live in rural areas where there is no internet available.  Other students have internet access, but the speed and bandwidth are so poor, that it makes uploading, downloading, and completing assignments nearly impossible.  The solution was to give hot spots to students without internet access, but this was not foolproof either. Once again, there was the problem of transportation to pick up the equipment, and oftentimes the hotspots had technical issues.  As you can see, some students were at a major disadvantage due to the digital divide that affects rural communities and lower-income families.

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