The Digital Divide is very pertinent among the high poverty areas. Not only do the children in these areas lack access to technology at school, they may not have computers at home either. “In 2000, only 53% of children who lived in inner cities had access to a computer and 24% used the Internet, compared to 61% and 29% of rural children, and 73% and 35% of suburban children respectively” (Diversity and Technology: Classroom Implications of the Digital Divide). How are the children supposed to learn about technology if they do not even have it in their own homes? Many of these children are not able to go to the library to complete online homework due their parents’ work hours. Therefore, in order for all of the students to be included in the classroom and have the ability to complete the assigned homework, the teachers should not discuss technological concepts or assign online homework. Unfortunately, this means that the students who do have computers cannot obtain the knowledge they need to effectively use the technological devices. How can this dilemma be solved?
There are positive and negative effects of the digital divide in the classroom (How the Digital Divide Affects Classroom Instruction). The positives are related to teaching moments. For example, a student who knows more about technology can help educate another student with lower skills. The teacher can also use the digital divide as a part of a day’s lesson. The teacher can use the divide to his/her advantage by creating a research project out of it. The children could be given a list of acceptable questions to ask their fellow classmates and complete a poll or graph with the gathered data. The negative effects have more of an impact on the teacher than the positives do. As I discussed in the previous paragraph, homework is a complicated issue due to the technology gap among students. For teachers who are trying to incorporate technology into their curriculum, it is difficult to assign computer-based work since some students either have no access at all to a computer or have very little access. This problem can be reduced if the school has a computer lab that students are able to use throughout the day. The teacher could give free time and some of the students who do not have access to a computer at home can go to the computer lab to work on the assignment. Another negative effect of the digital divide on teacher instruction is loss of some students’ confidence due to the variance in technological skill levels. Young children are very intimidated by feelings of inferiority. This can be fixed by having the “superior” students teach the less knowledgeable ones.
There are a few reasons for the Digital Divide in education including lack of funding and lack of teacher training (Diversity and Technology: Classroom Implications of the Digital Divide). It is quite difficult for a school to be funded by the state or federal governments for technology. The school has to make a case for why expensive technology is a necessity. Since the federal government continues to make budget cuts for education, there is hardly enough for all schools to be benefited with the use of new technology. Teachers who are trained in technology are hard to find. Many teachers did not think that technology would advance to such an extent that it would be beneficial to know how to use basic technological devices. I remember having to assist my teachers with projectors in a few of my high school classes. I think that if a teacher does not understand how to use a device, it should not be incorporated into his/her classroom. School districts should have weekly or monthly technology seminars that the staff members are required to attend. Technology is continuously advancing and needs to be incorporated into the classrooms in order to help lessen the Digital Divide.
