Unequal Access to Personal Technology

This post aims to bring up an important topic in using personal technology in schools.  How does unequal access to technology between students, schools, and districts impact students and their future technological fluency?  Not all students have smart phones or access to a computer at home.  Not at schools have Chromebooks for every student or computers in the standard classroom.

If a teacher is incorporating technology into their classroom and will be utilizing student’s smartphones as a means of student feedback, what happens if a student does not have a smartphone to use?  One option for those students is to turn in their answer in the traditional way with a pencil and paper.  This still allows the student to participate but the student may feel left out of the response “game” and it would be more challenging for the teacher to consolidate all the assessment responses for analysis.  Another potential problem if a teacher wants students to complete online homework.  How do the student who have no computers at home participate?  Is it fair to ask them to take the extra steps to go to the public library to access the internet?  This would require significantly more effort compared to students have easy access to computers and the internet.

There is also unequal access to new technologies in various schools and districts.  Some schools have Chromebooks for each student where other schools have outdated desktop computers only.  Students who only have access to old desktops at school may have a harder time participating in online activities in the classroom or using the computer as an reference throughout the class.  There is enormous benefit to having mobile access to a computer that can be used in a standard classroom (not a computer lab).

This issue may be trivial or it may negatively impact students with unequal access throughout the country.  Are students with greater access to personal technology in the classroom more prepared for college or does it not make a difference?  These are important questions to consider when incorporating personal technology in your classroom.