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April 15, 2002
Digital Equity: It's Not Just about Access Anymore
By Gwen Solomon
Sure, most schools now have computers and Internet access, but are all students receiving the same high-quality learning experience? We examine the issues.
| What Is Digital Equity?
In simple terms, digital equity means all students have adequate access to information and communications technologies for learning and for preparing for the future-regardless of socioeconomic status, physical disability, language, race, gender, or any other characteristics that have been linked with unequal treatment.
Digital Equity Web Tour |
Knowing how to use computers, software, and the Internet is simply not enough anymore. To be prepared for today's digital society, all students must have the skills to find, understand, and use information, and, perhaps more importantly, to evaluate that information. In short, they must become people who are able to continually discern, adapt, and learn.
In the past several years, much has been invested to bring students and educators up to speed with technology. With passage of the 1994 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Congress created technology programs to promote experimentation, research, and the proliferation of good ideas. According to recent Benton Foundation reports, the United States has spent $38 billion over the past 10 years to bring technology and Internet connectivity to the nation's schools. At the end of the current funding cycle, E-rate telecommunications discounts for poor and rural schools and libraries will have totaled $10 billion. And Market Data Retrieval, Inc., estimates that with federal, local, and other funding, total spending for the 2000-2001 school year alone was approximately $5.53 billion. In addition, the recently passed ESEA authorizes as much as $1 billion each year for a new educational technology block grant.
The test for this federal commitment to technology in education promises to take many forms, but a key question we must ask ourselves is this: Did we achieve digital equity as we implemented these programs? This article will look at what we've achieved, what's left to accomplish, models of success, and challenges that still lie ahead.
Despite the seemingly impressive numbers reflecting growth in student-computer ratios and schools with Internet access (see charts, this page and far right), making a significant difference isn't easy. Problems that keep students from achieving their potential in any area, including technology, can seem intractable. Predictably, poverty remains the major factor inhibiting students' technology access, surpassing all other considerations, including ethnic or minority group affiliation (see "The Haves and the Have-Nots," at right).
NEXT: The New Inequities
Equity for Special Groups
Gwen Solomon is co-director of techLEARNING.com.
References
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