Access to Technology Education

Lately, I have done a lot of reflecting on best practices of technology in the classroom. However, I have yet to really dig into the nitty gritty of whether all these strategies are equitable in all classrooms. Despite all the strategies I have spoken about, I have not touched on whether these are equitable and how technology affects students of diverse cultures and socio-economic backgrounds.

Screen Time for Entertainment: A privilege or distraction

In "The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens - 2021," Common Sense Media (2022) takes a closer look at media usage by our youth and breaks it down by ethnicity and income levels. When looking at this infographic, I was surprised that they found that students of color and students from lower-income households actually had a higher-than-average use of screen time for entertainment, as shown in the table below. 

Image Property of Common Sense Media

But what is the cause of this? Could it be that there are more options for entertainment in white households of higher incomes? I know that recreational activities do vary a ton from my working in a Title I school that was primarily Hispanic, then moving to a higher-income area that was more ethnically diverse. Aside from limited school and church activities, my previous students didn't talk much about plans over breaks or activities they were participating in outside of school. In my current school, that's all they talk about. What countries will they be visiting during their breaks, what play or sport are they involved in outside of school, the fantastic gymnastics summer camp they will partake in, or how they are going to Six Flags with their cousins again. Socio-economics would significantly impact these results as there are more opportunities for entertainment for certain people.

Screen Time Entertainment vs. Screen Time Learning

Image Property of Common Sense Media

So you would think these lower-income households would have equitable access to technology in their schools since they clocked more screen time than others, but that isn't the case. While all the students seemed to have comparable access to a phone, despite different usage, Common Sense Media shows lower-income students have more limited access to technology tools that would assist them in their education. While 67% of lower-income students having a laptop or desktop in 2021 doesn't seem too bad, that still means that 33% percent of those students are not receiving a fair chance of securing the same jobs as those in a higher income bracket. Technology is vital in the workforce today, and those students are not getting those skills. It's even crazier when one realizes these statistics were gathered during the pandemic when e-learning was essential, meaning 33% of students received very little education, widening the gap even further. Then throw in having access to both a computer and the internet. For some, this is impossible. It is something I personally saw when teaching at a Title I school. Some students waited weeks, sometimes months, to receive a government-funded hotspot from the school. I had students who would gather at the houses of friends and family to do their school work, but all that internet usage slowed down their connections. I even had a student who would sit outside a McDonald's every day to take part in class. How is that equitable?

Image Property of Project Tomorrow

However, this goes even further than kids needing access to a computer at home in the 21st century. Many need quality access at school, too. According to "Beyond the Homework Gap: Leveraging Technology to Support Equity of Learning Experiences in School" by Project Tomorrow (2022), even though many schools have embraced educational technology to "help students understand not only the mechanics of using workplace tools effectively but also [enable] them to have meaningful collaborative learning experiences while developing teamwork skills" (p. 8), there is still a discrepancy in equity. Project Tomorrow continues to state that while 55% of high schoolers in primarily white areas reported utilizing tech tools frequently to create a collaborative learning environment, only 45% of high schoolers in areas with more people of color have the same level of access and usage of these tools.

Additionally, schools serving students of color are less likely than their white counterparts to participate in online research, take tests online, and use email to get help (p. 8). This not only impacts their quality of learning but their ability to have the same opportunities to secure future careers. But why? When asked about this, teachers and students said the core of the problem was the inability to secure reliable internet connectivity. Despite this concern being voiced since 2014, more must be done to support these areas in digital learning (p. 9). It is, without a doubt, important for educators to stay up to date with all aspects of research related to teaching and our students. While we can research all the technology-based instruction we want, we also need to ensure that ALL of our students have the basics to access this. Even if you are not located in a predominately low-income area, our students are diverse and many are not comfortable sharing that they may not have access to things that we may see as essential. Something I have to think more about as an educator is that even if a child has access to a nice phone and social media, it doesn't mean they have the access they need for school work, and that is not their fault.