One of the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic was that many families don’t have reliable internet access at home. As schools close and classes move online, educators are installing mobile Wi-Fi hotspots on school buses and sending portable home hot spots to those who need them. We quickly came up with an improvised solution for homes without connectivity.
And even before the pandemic, educators were addressing the “homework gap,” or the disparity between students who can easily log in at home and access important school materials and those who don’t have reliable home internet. I was working to fill it.
As schools reopen and pandemic relief funds expire, this gap risks widening rapidly unless policymakers rethink how the country is connected. And it disproportionately impacts students of color and students from underserved communities.
This is the argument made by Nicole Turner Lee, director of the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution, in a new book.Digitally invisible: How the internet is creating a new underclass.”
“The truth is that most of these programs created during the pandemic have relied on philanthropy and private sector support, and will continue to do so,” she said, adding that they are helping students access their studies online. I am writing about my efforts to do so. She is calling for new federal legislation to “make these programs less susceptible to political change.”
E-Rate, the largest federal program providing Internet connectivity support to school districts and libraries, was created nearly 30 years ago. At the time, many of the technologies essential to today’s life and learning had not yet been invented, such as smartphones, social media, and AI chatbots. “We’ve had the same policy for a long time,” Turner-Lee told EdSurge. “We need a way to ensure schools have support for the kind of infrastructure they need.”
EdSurge connected with Turner Lee on this week’s EdSurge Podcast. The sociologist shares her experiences traveling across the country, including in Marion, Alabama, West Phoenix, Arizona, and Hartford, Connecticut, asking people to share how they connect and the challenges they face with digital access. I did.
Please check it out spotify, apple podcastor in the player below.
