The Digital Divide - Factors, Use, and Ability

The Digital Divide

In week 2 of EDUC 5353 we are asked to 1) identify the "dividing factors" impacting our community members, 2) consider the "use" of technology by community members, 3) and consider the "cans and cannots" in our community.

Dividing Factors

Students at DeWitt Perry Middle School are predominantly Hispanic and economically disadvantaged, as shown in my previous post. So, socioeconomic status (SES) and ethnicity are certainly dividing factors to be considered for my community.
Other factors info: I don't have data on their parents' educational levels. Gender is fairly evenly distributed. I'm not sure of their parents' ages, but all of my students are of a similar age. All of my students live in the same geographic area, but their families are mainly from Central America. The mean household size is 5.6, with a median household size of 5, and with a range of 3 to 10 members.

"Use" of Technology

I polled my students about their access to and use of technology for other-than-school. These are the responses from 54 of my 121 students:

"What type(s) of device(s) do you have access to outside of school (other than your school-issued Chromebook)?"
96.1%  Mobile Device
60.9%  Laptop
49.0%  Tablet
23.5%  Desktop
**5.6% of students indicated they had no access to other devices at all.

"Do you have internet access at your house?"
85.2%  Yes
11.1%    Sometimes
3.7%    No

"What are your top 3 uses of internet for non-school activities?"
86.3%  Videos
60.8%  Games
56.9%  Social Media
47.1 % Texting/Messaging
41.7%  Music

"Do you do work for school at home?"
81.5%  Yes
18.5%  No

I was surprised at how many said they have access at home, since a common excuse I hear about why work wasn't done is, "I couldn't do my work because I didn't have internet." Another common excuse is, "My Chromebook ran out of battery."

Ability - "Cans and Cannots"

I did not poll my students about their parents' ability to use various technology devices. I do know that many of the parents that come to campus to use a computer need to have help translating pages to their native language. Once translated, they can usually operate the device with minimal assistance. I do feel there is a divide when it comes to mobile device versus laptop/desktop devices. It seems that more people know how to use apps on their mobile devices than know how to effectively use software on a laptop or desktop.

My Perspective

Any time I introduce a new app/piece of software to my students, they are eager to learn how to use it. Whether or not they continue using it partly depends on if its use is required for my class or another class, but also depends on how engaging it is. I've introduced several sites and apps to my students that they love to use when they finish other classwork - Khan Academy, BrainPop, Legends of Learning, Cool Math Games, Vocabulary.com, MedMyst, Code.org. There are also several sites and apps they only return to if required by an assignment - PHeT, HHMI, NewsELA. The fact that they're returning to sites and apps that are educational is encouraging.

I feel that if we provide more time and instruction on how to use educational sites we will have more students returning to them. In a recent professional development session, we were reminded that we are given time during the work day to collaborate, plan, and try new technology - it's not expected that we do it outside of our scheduled work day. If we expect our students to use a technology we must give them instruction and time to use it during the school day and not expect them to tackle it without teacher support when they're at home. To support their parents' learning, we can do something similar by providing a location and time for parents to receive instruction and have time to practice using technology while support is available.

Initially, I felt my Call to Action would be about ensuring access to the internet for all of my students because it seemed that was the primary issue. However, after polling my students I feel that since 85.2% of them have regular access, energies may be better spent on facilitating education on current technologies for both students and parents. For the 14.8% of students that don't have consistent access to the internet though, I would still like to find a possible solution. (Evidently I'm still a bit torn on which area to focus my energies currently.)

Citations

Defining The Digital Divide in my Community

EDUC 5353 - Week 1

For our Week 1 blog post in EDUC 5353, we are asked to introduce ourselves, make connections between readings, resources, and our community, and define the community we will focus our studies on for this course - Learning Technologies to Bridge the Digital Divide.

Introduction/About Me

My name is Haylee Carroll. I am currently an educator in Carrollton, TX, a suburb of Dallas-Fort Worth, and have been an educator for thirteen years. I've taught math, science, PE, health, and a variety of electives. I'm currently pursuing my a Master's in Education: Curriculum & Instruction - Educational Technology. This is my 2nd course in a series of ten.

The Digital Divide

The readings we were provided all focus on access (at home and/or at school) and use of technology (purpose and skill level) and the differences afforded to people based on location (urban or rural), age, gender, race/ethnicity, level of education (of parents for minors), and income. Van Dijk (2017) discusses how the digital divide was mainly an issue of physical access to a computer, software, and internet in the early years of digital divide research (1999-2002), and then transitioned more to an issue of how technology is used during daily life from 2005-2015. He uses the term "deepening divide" to describe this second level of the digital divide. Since most digital skill acquisition happens as a result of need and use of technology, if a user doesn't have access to current/relevant technologies they won't become skilled in its use. Van Dijk also found that those with higher education levels tended to use technologies more for work, career, and studying, while those with lower education levels tended to use technologies for entertainment, shopping, and messaging. 

KewalRamani, et al. (2018) reveal that physical access is increasing, with mobile device access is climbing faster than high-speed/broadband internet access. While lower-income families are making gains in having internet access, there was still a 33% gap in 2015 between those in the lowest income range and those in the highest income range, closing from a 51% gap in 2010. While Black and Hispanic families show the lowest access, it seems to be income that is the driving force to allowing access.

Turner-Lee (2018) focused on family location for her research, finding that those in more rural areas and with lower income have lower access. Again though, I feel that it connects back to income as the defining variable since people living more remotely tend to have lower incomes overall.  

I feel that if appropriate devices and high-speed internet access can be made more accessible, we will see an increase in technology use for educational purposes. Many people with mobile access only focus on using apps on their mobile devices - those tend to be for entertainment. Users with high-speed access tend to have access to a non-mobile device, desktop, laptop, or Chromebook and are more able to easily access educational information. Chromebooks provide an inexpensive platform to access high-speed internet. If we can make high-speed internet less expensive/more accessible, we can potentially help those in the lowest income levels close the gap in the "deepening divide" Van Dijk (2017) described.

My focus area for this course will include the campus/district where I currently teach 7th grade science - DeWitt Perry Middle School in Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District (C-FB ISD). We are located in a suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex: Carrollton, TX. C-FB ISD spans parts of Dallas, Denton, and Collin counties. The Texas Education Agency report card provides the demographic and performance information that follows (2017–18 School Report Card 2018).

Student Population - 1,030

        Campus / District / State

• 96.4% / 95.5% / 95.7% Attendance Rate (2016-17)
• 79.7% / 56.0% / 52.4% Hispanic
• 8.2% / 11.5% / 4.4% Asian
• 6.6% / 12.9% / 27.8% White
• 3.2% / 16.4% / 12.6% African American
• 2.1% / 2.8% / 2.3% Two or More Races
• 0.2% / 0.3% / 0.4% American Indian
• 0.0% / 0.1% / 0.1% Pacific Islander
• 78.3% / 64.1% / 58.8% Economically Disadvantaged
• 45.7% / 29.3% / 18.8% English Learners
• 10.5% / 11.1% / 9.1% Special Education
• 7.0% / 15.8% / 16% Mobility

2018 Performance Rating

• Overall: Met Standard
• Student Achievement: Met Standard
• School Progress: Met Standard
• Closing the Gaps: Met Standard
• Distinctions Received in 7 of 7 categories: Academic Achievement in English Language Arts (ELA)/Reading, Academic Achievement in Mathematics, Academic Achievement in Science, Academic Achievement in Social Studies, Comparative Academic Growth, Comparative Closing the Gaps, and Postsecondary Readiness

Our campus is predominantly Hispanic and Economically Disadvantaged, and has over twice the percentage of English Learners as the state of Texas and over 50% more than C-FB ISD overall.

Community Profile 

The City of Carrollton claims a diverse local economy (City of Carrollton, TX) and boasts recognition in 19 different "Best of" and "Top of" type lists supported by local businesses, associations, and societies. While Carrollton holds several accolades that make it attractive to prospective residents, there is certainly a need felt by the large quantity of lowest socioeconomic status (SES) members - note 78.3% of Perry students mentioned above. 

Focus of Study

I plan to focus my Digital Divide study on the students served by the DeWitt Perry Middle School (DPMS) campus. In a previous course, EDUC 5373 - Innovative Leadership for the Digital Age Learning Environment, I focused my Technology Integration Plan on incorporating access to students of DPMS. I would like to continue my focus on the students I interact with every week and that we serve on my campus so I can help improve their quality of access. 

Citations

Human & Physical Resource Inventory

**I'm not sure how I managed to NOT post this with my initial Needs Assessment. I'm going to post it now, as my EDUC 5373 class is coming to a close. 

Technology Resource Inventory

As part of our Technology Needs Assessment, we also created a Resource Inventory. Again, I will focus on my campus for this initial information.

Human Resources

• On-campus Technology Specialist - responsible for device maintenance and repairs; may also assist with local connection issues
• Technology Integration Specialist - responsible for assisting teachers in small groups or one-on-one with selecting appropriate tools for instruction
• Digital Learning Project "Googler" - responsible for implementing Google's Digital Learning Project protocols to identify challenges, propose solutions, and implement strategies to close those gaps
• Librarian - responsible for cataloging technology devices and processing repair requests
• Teachers - responsible for designing curriculum and delivering instruction for their specific content areas
• Administrators - responsible for decisions about technology procurement
• Students - responsible for learning curriculum delivered by teachers and using technology to enhance and share that learning

Physical Resources

• Chromebooks - one per staff member and one per student
• Desktops - one per staff member and 4 computer labs (each with approximately 25 desktops)
• Document Cameras - one per teacher
• Interactive White Boards (IWB) - one per teacher
• Laptops - approximately 50
• iPads - approximately 50
• Calculators - approximately 350
• ProbeWare - 9 class sets