Jo Crowl-digital Divide

Jo Crowl Teac 259—Digital Divide Paper Children Left Behind: The Digital Divide Technology is rapidly evolving and enhancing global interaction and the exchange of information. Conference calls can occur with one party halfway across the world. Information change be exchanged instantaneously through email. As time progresses, more technological tools become available to use in the global workplace. Most of these tools, however, are not available for all students to use at any given time. Some students, depending on their situation at school and at home, are unable to work with technology and learn how to utilize it. The digital divide, as this is often called, stems from a lack of both technology and educators that creates a disparity between students based on the necessary skills that students are taught with technology compared to the skills students do not learn because of a technology deficiency. In a world that is continuously connected, students need not only the basic skills that enable them to utilize and apply technology but also a, as Tom Friedman says, “certain mental flexibility, self-motivation, and psychological mobility" (Hoar, 2006, p. 1). A lack of technology means more than simply a deficiency of resources for students. At the most base level, a lack of technology and education leads to a lack in fundamental skills that students need in order to survive in an ever-expanding workplace. There are more skills that need to be acquired by students that just the ones listed above. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills outlines several core areas in which skills are vital to survive in the 21st Century. These skills include life and career skills, learning and innovation skills, information, media, and technology skills, and core subjects and 21st century themes (“Framework for 21st Century Learning” 2009). Technology is a tool used to integrate and teach

these skills to students. Availability to these resources not only affects students and the quality of his or her education, but also the fundamentals of how a classroom is run by the teacher. Limited technology impacts not only what a student is able to do but also what a teacher is able to do with the students. Students who do not have computers available at home would not likely have basic computer skills such as word processing. Students may have limited knowledge about how to navigate the Internet. Using applications such as Powerpoint and Excel would likely be difficult due to the fact that many students would not have had the chance to work with these programs. A teacher with students who would not have computers available at home would find it would necessary to cater assignments to the limitations that come with not having a computer. Research assignments would have to be completed on class trips to the computer lab or media center. Homework would have to be something that could be completed without a computer, such as designing a poster, creative writing assignments that would not need to be typed, and other projects where the need for technology would be minimized. Class time, if possible, would be spent acquainting students with computers, how to navigate operating systems, using programs such as Microsoft Office, and how to navigate the Internet for academic purposes while still teaching the curriculum. This would be achieved through integrative projects that could be completed in class, such as Powerpoint presentations and research papers. “Learning through projects while equipped with technology tools allows students to be intellectually challenged while providing them with a realistic snapshot of what the modern office looks like,” writes a staff member at Edutopia (“Why Integrate Technology,” 2008). Unless students are presented with the opportunity to learn the necessary 21st Century Skills, they will be unable to compete for jobs against other students who went through school acquiring the skills necessary to work in a global and constantly changing workplace.

Works Cited Hoar, Jennifer. (June 15, 2006). The Digital Divide 2.0. Retrieved from http://my.unl.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl? course_id=_285275_1 (4/22/2009). Framework for 21st Century Learning. Retrieved from http://my.unl.edu/@@342D9560D209DE211CE04B338B35E9A0/courses/1/TEAC2590 07.20101/content/_3152455_1/Framework%20for%2021st%20Century%20Learning.pdf (3/16/2008). Why Integrate Technology into the Curriculum?: The Reasons are Many. Retrieved from http://my.unl.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp? tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_285275_1