Solving the Problem of Technological Inequality as Educators

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the impacts that technology has on our classrooms throughout the country, and from doing my own research and reading all of my classmate’s blog posts, the amount of resources available to teachers and students is staggering. Technology has the capacity to radically alter the way we prepare our students for the workforce; however, I can’t shake the feeling that we are standing at the crossroads between creating two fundamentally different groups of learners and worker based solely on the amount of technology and funding a district has.

             

            I didn’t have the opportunity to attend a high school that was well-funded, for example we had a single computer lab and one laptop cart for an entire school, and only half of our classrooms were equipped with projectors. We didn’t have a single smart board, or elmo system throughout our district, and I ended up going to college with little to no background in the technology regularly used in classrooms today. I didn’t realize what I was missing out on until I saw what my university had to offer me through my undergraduate, as well as seeing the classrooms I substitute teach in on a daily basis. The difference one zip code makes in the resources available to our students and our ability to have them technologically prepared for their lives is alarming to say the least and is of the upmost importance to address as future educators.

             Without technological equality across all districts, we as a society are doing an incredibly disservice to our youth, and until our legislators act to ensure our students have an equal opportunity to succeed regardless of district, it is up to our educators to bridge the gap as best we can. We have to be as resourceful and creative with the technology we have access to in order to give our students the most exposure to different forms of technology as possible, and while I research the litany of ingenious technological assets available for education, I am consciously taking note of the materials with the lowest barrier to entry that can be implemented in any classroom, regardless of funding. To me, this class is about more than just harnessing technology as an educator, it is about addressing the problems our students will face without proper technological exposure due to a poorly funded district, and bridging the gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” as best we can before it becomes too wide to cross.