Instructional Technology

Jordan Jarecke Teach 259 October 1st 2009 Digital Reality .09 The world has come a long way since the computers with the green screens, I can specifically remember this commercial where there was a man driving with a brand new computer that he was excited about and then a sign came up for the next version of that computer on a billboard in a instant. Technology does not wait for anything. With technology continuously growing it becomes extremely hard for every one on every different economical level to be equal in terms of technology, this is why we have what is called a digital divide. At the beginning of the digital divide 1.0 the problem was an equipment issue but now it has evolved into more of an access problem with the speed of the Internet, and the access to video, music and just plan faster research. The problem has come straight into the school systems and the families and staff that make up those school systems. There are two parts to the digital divide 2.0 in the school system the first is the access or low income families that populate our schools who do not have access to computers or Internet and second is the teachers who don’t want to use

technology. Jeff Mao says, “ There are more resources available electronically than on paper.”(Hoar, 2006) This fact is one that some people would think is just a known fact, but this little fact is a big problem for “39.8 million people” who are living in poverty. These people will most likely not have a computer let alone access to Internet. Paul Gorski asked a question in an article he wrote about high poverty schools, “ What does this mean, for example that they’re more likely to lack full access to computers and the Internet?”(Gorski, n.d) We have such a high poverty rate for children that attend the public schools we have in America and the only thing these kids and their parents want to do it keep them off the streets but how do we help with limited income and resources for these families? The other issue that these families are facing is with the teachers. We now that “99% of schools have Internet access”(slides NCES) and we are a step closer to closing the digital divide with our access, but the teachers seem to be the one’s who are becoming the other part of the problem because they do not want to use the computers. In the next two years I will be becoming a key role in the digital divide and I will have to face it personally and I have come

up with some ways to help close the divide. I will expect to face the problem of assigning homework to the kids and having some of them not have full access to Internet and therefore can not finish the assignment. What I intend to do is, make sure ahead of time that I have access to the computer lab and that the assignment is not so hard that it can be finished in the time provided to me with the computer lab. Now lets say that a child does not complete that assignment in the time we have in the computer lab, then I will come up to them personally and tell them that I will come early or stay as late as they wanted so they could finish in time. I will make sure that I give them plenty of time to finish the best they can. I have started to run into these types of problems in some volunteering that I do at Elliott Elementary and I see that they have laptops that are available for use and I would fully utilize this. I will let them take the computer to the library, if there is a subject the they have finished the home work in, or I would allow them to go to the back of the classroom and finish or if they need to use my desk to get away from the noise of the rest of the students they can so they can focus. I just want to make sure that I have a respect for my students of any socioeconomic status and they feel comfortable

in my classroom and that they can achieve anything they want because I will be willing to help.

Resources: Slides National Center for Education Statistics. (2009) U.S. Census Bureau, Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division (2008)

Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty08/pov08hi.ht ml Paul Gorski (n.d) The Question of Class Retrieved from http://my.unl.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp? tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_285304_1

Jennifer Hoar, (2006) The Digital Divide 2.0: Competing Involves More Than Just Computing Retrieved from http://my.unl.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl? course_id=_285275_1