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A New Understanding of the Digital Divide

BY MARY BETH HERTZ
10/24/11

As an urban teacher whose students are often lacking access to a computer and the Internet at home, I have strong opinions and experiences with the digital divide. I decided to do some research to see where my students fit into the current trends.

What is the digital divide?
If you ask most people to define the digital divide, most of them would answer that it has to do with those who have access to technology and those who don't. Ten years ago, they would have been right. However, over the last ten years access to technology has become more and more ubiquitous. In fact, in a 2010 Pew study (Technology Trends Among People of Color), laptop ownership among African Americans and whites broke about even and the percentage of Hispanic and African American Internet users, which was 11 percent in 2000, rose to 21 percent in 2010. A 2011 study showed that 83 percent of American adults own a cell phone (Americans and Their Cell Phones). Recent advances in cell phone technology mean that more and more people are using their phones to access the internet. As a result, many previously unconnected populations are connected through their phones. In fact, another Pew study ("For minorities, new 'digital divide' seen") reported that 51 percent of Hispanics, 46 percent of African Americans, and only 33 percent of whites used their phones to access the Internet.

So what does this all mean?
We are looking at a completely different kind of divide. While access has increased substantially, the kind of access varies. Most minorities in the Pew studies reported using their phone for accessing email and the Internet. In 2010 only 56 percent of African American households reported having broadband access compared to 67 percent of white households (Home Broadband 2010). This creates an entertainment vs. empowerment divide. As one of the Pew studies suggests, you can't fill out a job application through a cell phone or update your résumé on a game console (another way that many minorities report they access the Internet). The divide has shifted from an access issue to a kind of access divide.

Another group that is often left out of the conversation are Americans with disabilities. The divide for these citizens has always been there, and assistive technologies have definitely made access easier (if the people who need them can afford them), there are no laws stating that websites need to be accessible to people with disabilities. Even something as simple as a Captcha can prove to be a nightmare for someone with a disability. There are groups right now working on making navigation of important sites more accessible to Americans with disabilities.

Most of the reports about the digital divide center around racial and socio-economic differences (a 2010 study confirmed that household income is the greatest predictor of Internet use). However, for those families in rural areas, access is still the number one issue. In a study of groups and organizations and their use of tech, farm organizations were one of 3 reported groups for whom tech doesn't dominate at all. In addition, there are still 4 percent of teens reporting that they have no Internet or computer at home.

What are some solutions?
As the studies suggest, the problem isn't access, it's the kind of access. Families, particularly minority families, are lacking in home broadband access. Just recently, Comcast launched Internet Essentials, a low-cost Internet service for families receiving free school lunches that is available wherever Comcast provides services. In addition, communities need to ensure that libraries stay open, schools can provide access to their labs after school, and organizations need to plan their communication strategies around the connection style of the populations they serve.

States also need to invest in broadband infrastructure to bring broadband services to rural households. Companies like Comcast could provide mobile labs that could visit communities in the same way bookmobiles used to travel the country.

Sadly, the dichotomy of haves and have-nots is not going away any time soon, but as long as we understand what this divide looks like and how it evolves and changes, we can better address the underlying causes and provide resources for all US citizens, regardless of ethnicity, geography or socio-economic status.

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Teachers Use Cell Phones in the Classroom

By JASON KOEBLER

October 26, 2011 US News & World Report

You won't find Willyn Webb telling her high school students to put away their cell phones, even though they are technically banned in her Colorado district. She's been using cell phones to augment her lessons at Delta County Opportunity School for years.

It all started when she forgot a stopwatch to time a student's speech, and another student whipped out a cell phone and used its built-in timer.

From there, Webb kept finding new uses for basic text-enabled cell phones. She now uses phones to poll students in class and send homework reminder text messages to students and parents. Students also use a Google text-messaging service that allows them to look up a variety of facts. After seeing how engaged Webb's students are, the school's principal has decided to look the other way.

Halfway across the country, Lisa Nielsen was disappointed with a cell phone ban Mayor Michael Bloomberg placed on New York City schools. As far back as 2008, she was encouraging teachers to reach students via text, and to allow students to use text messaging services to define words and look up facts and figures.

[Find out which high schools have the Most Connected Classrooms.]

Nielsen and Webb eventually connected via E-mails and text messages and coauthored a book of lesson plans calledTeaching Generation Text: Using Cell Phones to Enhance Learning.

"We think school should be preparing students for real life—and in real life, people use cell phones," says Nielsen, who authors the blog The Innovative Educator. "If you're making an artificial world inside the school, you're not preparing them for the real world."

New York City's cell phone ban persists—a spokesman for Bloomberg told the New York Daily News in July that the devices have no place in schools. "Mobile devices are major distractions that prevent all the other students in the classroom from learning," the spokesman said.

Education author and blogger Will Richardson writes, however, that cell phone bans can have detrimental effects on students.

"First, it teaches them that they don't deserve to be empowered with technology the same way adults are. Second, that the tools that adults use all the time in their everyday lives to communicate are not relevant to their own communication needs. [And] third, that they can't be trusted (or taught, for that matter) to use phones appropriately in school," he writes.

Nielsen says using cell phones in the classroom makes sense, especially in schools that don't have the latest-and-greatest technology. Most students have a text messaging-enabled cell phone, she says, and if they don't have one, they can easily share. An April 2010 study by Pew Research Center found that 75 percent of 12-to-17-year-olds own a cell phone.

[Learn more about technology in the classroom.]

"Cell phones are the most ubiquitous device in American households today," Nielsen says. "I work with teachers and students who would much rather use their phone than a computer—they've got instant access to the world; it doesn't have to boot up."

Cell phones' multiple features make them more cost-effective than many classroom gadgets, she says. Cell phone programs such as Poll Everywhere, which lets teachers poll up to 40 students for free, completely replaces expensive student response polling systems, which Nielsen says are "kind of a pain to learn to use."

She adds, "No one has to learn to use their own phones. Even if I had millions of dollars to waste, it's better for students to use the phones they already own."

[Read about other innovative programs in the STEM Education Center.]

Both Webb and Nielsen say that encouraging students to use cell phones turns the phones into educational tools, not distractions or cheating devices.

"You start managing the cell phone use, teaching them cell phone etiquette," Webb says. Instead of trying to hide their phones all the time, her students use them for class. "It takes the cat and mouse game out of it."

Webb suggests skeptical teachers and administrators start by encouraging students to use cell phones outside the classroom for homework. She recommends a free, text-based service called ChaCha, where people are paid to quickly search and answer students' questions.

She's even found administrative uses for cell phones, which now help her school save money that it used to spend on printing take-home flyers.

"We don't have a secretary calling every student who is absent; we just do it through text messaging," she says. "There's no more mailing about back-to-school night. We're saving money in paper expenses and stamps, and we're getting immediate responses."

See how your school stacks up in our rankings of Best High Schools. Have something of interest to share? Send your news to us at highschoolnotes@usnews.com.

Digital Divide???

Is there a digital divide? How does it manifest itself and what implications does it have for us as educators? What are some solutions that have already happened or might be found in the future? Remember to post a copy of your post on your personal blog

A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute

The Waldorf Method: Passing on Technology in the Classroom

By Francesca Duffy on October 25, 2011 4:53 PM | 2 Comments | 1 Recommendation

Read the NY Times article: A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute

At the Waldorf School of the Peninsula in Los Altos, Calif., you might notice something missing from every classroom—computers! In a feature in The New York Times, the school is described as one of 160 "Waldorf" schools in the country operating under the premises that learning and creativity are fostered through physical activity and hands-on tasks, and not through a technology-centered curriculum. For example, instead of using iPads to teach students how to do fractions, teachers might use pieces of cake or cut-up apple to "make learning both irresistible and highly tactile."

Ironically, many students at these private schools are the children of Silicon Valley employees who work for Google, Apple, and Hewlett-Packard. One parent interviewed said that the "the idea that an app on an iPad can better teach" his kids was "ridiculous," while other parents told the Times that their kids would easily be able to pick up technological skills when they get older, since Google and other companies now make technology easy to use.

According to research performed by an affiliated group of the Association of Waldorf Schools, 94 percent of students who graduated from Waldorf high schools between 1994 and 2004 ended up attending college (and prestigious ones at that), though the Times points out that most of the students who attend these schools already come from families who highly value education. And, unlike public schools, the Waldorf schools are not required to follow standardized testing mandates.

The Times also highlights differing opinions among education experts regarding technology use in schools. Ann Flynn, director of education technology for the National School Boards Association, says, "If schools have access to the tools and can afford them, but are not using the tools, they are cheating our children." However, author Paul Thomas, a former teacher and an associate professor of education at Furman University, opines that teaching is a "human experience," and that "Technology is a distraction when we need literacy, numeracy and critical thinking."

Non-linear Power Point

Reflect on non-linear Power Point. Is this something you could use with students? What (if any) is the value of this over traditional PPTs?
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How YouTube Is Changing The Classroom

OCTOBER 12, 2011 | 3:47 PM

BY KYLE STOKES

As long as there have been teachers, they’ve battled the same problems: How can they reach students of multiple ability levels at once, cover more course material in limited time, and find more time to engage with students one-on-one?

Some educators think they’ve found a solution to all three problems in, of all things, YouTube.

A small group of teachers nationwide is replacing in-class lectures with short online videos students watch at home. This flip-flop of homework and lecture — from which the model gets its name, “the flipped classroom” — leaves class time open for students to complete their assignments with their teacher standing by to offer one-on-one help.

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http://stateimpact.npr.org/indiana/2011/10/12/how-youtube-is-changing-the-classroom/

Digital Storytelling