This article from EdSurge makes an interesting point about COVID. The claim is that while COVID did not create the digital divide and the possible impact on learning, it did require that everyone recognize the problem. Far more learners than we have recognized do not have the resources necessary, to move their efforts at learning from the school classroom to their homes. Like systemic racism, the other great injustice now even more glaringly obvious, an existing problem is now there for all to address.
The challenges for the Fall are not yet obvious, but with or without students returning to their classrooms the digital divide will remain.
Before COVID-19, Pew Research found that 25 percent of black teens had been unable to do their homework because of barriers to internet access at home, and 21 percent had used public Wi-Fi to do homework for the same reasons. That’s compared to 17 percent and 12 percent, respectively, for all U.S. teens.
The House has passed the HEROEs Act in May in an attempt to deal with some of challenges and now we wait for the Senate to consider what would be a way to partially address the educational needs associated with COVID.
The EdSurge article offers several suggestions for administrators – 1) prepare to provide Internet for all, 2) survey parents/caregivers to gain an understanding of what all students face attempting to learn from home, and 3) use the summer months to involve students and prepare for the challenges of the Fall.