Vail, Kathleen (2003). Next Generation Divide – Think the gap between technology haves and have-nots has been closed? Think again. American School Board Journal, Retrieved February 7, 2005 from http://www.asbj.com/2003/07/0703technologyfocus2.html

Since the mid-1990’s, poor, minority students have benefited from the acquisition of computers and Internet connections in schools and classrooms. According to the United States Department of Education, there has been a marked increase in internet-connected computers in schools and their use by low-income, including African American and Hispanic, students since 2000, While this is a clear step in the right direction to help close the achievement gap between poor and rich students, it is not enough. In order to equal their playing field, poor students need increased home access. In states like Texas and North Carolina, efforts have been made to give poor families either used computers along with parent training and orientation or machines that provide only internet access; therefore, allowing learning to continue beyond the classroom. Teachers of these underprivileged students must have adequate technology training to help bring together all of the technology opportunities provided the students. Although this requires extensive time and effort on the teachers’ parts, it can be done with incentives and help in the form of peer mentoring, technology coaching, and proving relevance to teachers’ goals. This is asking a lot of budget-strained, poorer school systems, so many schools have turned to business partners and organizations for technology support for both teachers (i.e. online content) and students (i.e. free after school computer classes). With constructive support and training of teachers as the key to unlocking the potential of all students as technology-savvy students, these combined improvements for the education of poor students should help close “the gap between the technology haves and have-nots.”

This article was of particular interest to me as I have taught in two schools since the mid-1990’s, one of which is a low achieving, Title I school and the other is a high achieving, more affluently populated school. Both schools are very well equipped with computers and Internet access. However, the similarities stopped there. In the former school, the teachers received more technology training (Our school system sends a glut of resource teachers to low-achieving schools) than in the latter school. In the latter school, the students are much more computer literate than the former school. In both schools, the children were taught to use basically the same software programs, search engines, Internet resources, etc. What I did observe agrees with the gist of this article. The students who do not have computer and/or Internet access at home were at a greater disadvantage than the other students. They were not as comfortable with using technology to enhance their learning. They were not as inclined to turn to technology as a tool or resource. They were unable to benefit by its uses for homework or building prior knowledge. In short, their academic achievement was negatively effected by the lack of home access. As for the teacher training, while teachers often seem to resent the time required of learning technology skills and the additional obligations in the classroom, this attitude is shortsighted. For, as I have learned from the two different school environments, teachers with more training are more inclined to regularly use the computers/internet to enhance students’ learning than their less trained colleagues (for all the same reasons that students would). Therefore, it is most important to go beyond merely supplying schools with the technology equipment in order to leave no child behind!

Submitted by Linda Ferrara

SLM 521