Crossing the Digital Divide

The Digital Divide is a term used a lot in ed tech circles - both as a challenge to be handled and as a new, and damaging, class distinction within the student population.  Although those on the 'wrong' side of the Divide are small in number, the seriousness is no less given our mission to teach every child.  Our own data from the recent survey confirms this, but there have also been recent studies, like this one from Evergreen Education Associates, which focuses on blended learning.

[read the eSchoolNews summary or download the full report]

For many educators and administrators, the existence, and persistence, of the divide becomes a reason not to push forward on adoption of technologies.   I can't count how many times I've heard "...but I can't put homework online because some kids don't have a computer at home".  The challenge for ed tech leaders clearly, is to devise effective workarounds to provide students with access to needed digital resources.

Edutopia, an excellent public K-12 education blog, recently compiled a number of resources on the issue, solution approaches, and discussion.

And if you're not convinced that this issue has a direct and immediate impact on many of our students, here's a short piece that aired on American Public Media's Morning Business Report about the burgeoning market for digital textbooks and how all the majors - Pearson, Cengage, et. al. - are going digital just in order to survive.