Digital Badge #B - Chapter 2

Credit for photo to Barry D on Flickr

Firstly, my interest was piqued when reviewing the digital divides and participation gaps. Mostly, though, my interest was heightened because my family, although a white, single-parent family, is and has been beneath the poverty line mostly due to our fleeing and surviving domestic violence. For years, I have tried to provide my children with the best possible education, even moving to the more affluent areas to keep them in better schools. Unfortunately, this put added financial or time management strain on my children and me, which still resulted in financial hardship that led to a digital divide between my children and their peers in our neighborhoods and communities. Even in my case, coming after my children, I no longer possess my own computer or laptop, making homework more difficult and discouraging for me as it is technology intensive. For these reasons, I empathize and sympathize with minorities suffering from participation gaps, where students do not have access to the latest technologies at school or at home, which then becomes a major factor in their low participation and achievements in school. Although many articles indicate that this divide is narrowing, it seems that is only because of the aptly named "war on the middle class", such that, instead of the racial minorities increasing in capabilities and access, many families are falling to lower levels than before. For teachers, this is a hard hurdle to overcome, and I am not sure how, without the added funds that good schools have (schools rely on property taxes, so often good schools are within good geographic neighborhoods), it would be quite difficult to expect students to access online content. While local libraries often have free access to computers, printing often has costs associated with it (per page), and many times, there are long wait times for use. I have a great concern for all students, but for our minority children, as we want all children to succeed, regardless of their class, creed, sex, color, ethnicity, or culture, among other things. Although I have been brainstorming for a number of days on how a teacher in a struggling school could help students achieve more through an increased participation, I am not sure how children could not be penalized for their lack of access, as school libraries often close when the schools do, and local community libraries in the struggling neighborhoods have been reported to close even earlier (6pm) due to the same types of budget crunches that minority and impoverished households do. One way I have chosen to adapt to students' limitations is to allow for some adaptability of students' methods to fulfill technology-based assignments. For instance, because I was having difficulty using Prezi, an online Web 2.0 tool, I converted Piktochart to perform similar plans. Although this method took a little longer, I was pleased with the end result, and I can only imagine what I could have accomplished with a little more time and practice.

Image credit to Harnoni [Nelson] on Piktochart
Photos credit to Chris Harrison on Flickr, dougbelshaw on Flickr, and LShave on Flickr

Secondly, I was very interested in our what our book (Maloy, et al, 2013, pp. 24-26) asks us, as future teachers, to consider and reflect upon, and the ideas the book contains. We are asked to consider our viewpoints, reasons for, and readiness to facilitate technology into increased learning opportunities for our students. We are probed with questions about goals, teaching method plans, and technological knowledge regarding students' use of and interest in technology in the classroom. These are hard-hitting and ever-changing questions as we evolve in our pedagogical education, and I only have answers to some of them. I strongly believe in the "free and equal access" that public education was founded upon, and as economies fail, that it becomes all the more important. I believe that the best strategies for teaching are with mixed applications using both computer-based and non-computer based technologies - especially where money is becoming an increasing issue across the board in middle-class America. I am interested in increasing my knowledge of the types of technologies my children are currently using at their BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) school, as they love the freedom and self-direction that it brings, but also in its limitations, and in determining what students with less access can do (hint: my 14-year old has been waiting for a device to bring to school with him, and devices have been stolen or lost in the past, irreplaceable due to our financial constraints). Some ideas I have had for facilitating technological use in a school that has access is to stretch my curriculum across a number of methods in my classroom - from utilizing small collaborative groups to participate in activities and solve problems (and how about tasking them with creating an applicable activity, together with carrying it out?) - to obtaining clickers and a projection to laptop system so that children can maintain anonymity while discussing concepts, or during question and answer sessions, and our choices do not stop there! The latter idea would be phenomenal, as even if the school was struggling and could not provide me with a computer, and the students did not have one, I could bring in a laptop. The only question would be how to afford the clickers. If clickers were not available, perhaps I could use small scraps of paper, but this would be time consuming. I recall a time, long ago, where my children's school teacher wrote grant proposals and successfully obtained funds to improve not only school grounds, but classroom supplies, as well. There were some grants which she involved the students in helping her apply for - through actions on the grounds. These may be some ways to improve the technologies in struggling schools. Similarly, most students have parents with mobile phones, and the number of smart phones is growing rapidly across all classes - perhaps, as the book suggests, a task could be for a student to utilize an app - such as the Atoms app - and bring in one interesting fact about it, or forward results to me. Before this class, and book, I was not aware there were so many technological  advances for helping us, as teachers, to bridge gaps.
I believe that, if all else were to fail, I could resort to movies, cd's, and projected interviews using my own technological devices (iPad, iPhone, laptop) to mix and match teaching techniques, and I plan to use every resource available to me - whiteboard (blackboards have become obsolete), projections of powerpoint presentations, youtube.com videos, apps, online quizzes, and more. I will have to start with anonymous questionnaires, however, to be sure that my students have access to some forms of technology and tailor my methods and planning to my students' capabilities and needs. Perhaps, I could also interview other students who face such challenges!

Finally,and in an inter-woven manner, how to overcome the digital disconnect has interested me as it pertains to the above areas, and beyond. For instance, when studying in this class, I came home to ask my children if they had heard of these tools, and though they had not (as suspected), the level of Web 2.0 tools that they were utilizing at school were just as widespread from simple to complex - all of them used with ease! I realized that there is, indeed, a digital disconnect between my children and myself, and can only imagine the divide between my students and myself in a few years! Therefore, I understand the necessity to become not only more aware of the technologies available to me, but more capable of using them. I find it very interesting that today's teachers do not see the internet as students report because I, as a future teacher, see the internet in the same manner described by students, and own multiple devices, as indicated above! In fact, I use my iPhone as a virtual textbook and reference tool, tutor, study guide/shortcut, backpack, and guidance counselor. It seems to me that the B.Y.O.T. (Bring Your Own Technology) or B.Y.O.D. (Bring Your Own Device) programs that have been instituted in Texas, and Florida, including our own Collier County seem to be quite successful not only in fulfilling the desires of so many students, as detailed here, but in assisting teachers in providing the technologies students have wished for, and, therefore, have already taken an interest in! IPhones, for instance, are "a small, wireless, voice-activated computer" (Maloy, et al, 2013, p. 40), and fulfill their request to utilize smartphones. I am so thankful that, since the 2008 and 2011 research studies cited, we have nearly met all of the hopes and requests for students! I do, however, believe that the adolescent children I am teaching will teach me how to better utilize the technology, and assist them in maximizing the positive effects and minimizing the negative effects (sidetracking from curriculum to the detriment of their learning and grades) of their own technology in education, which seems to have become the wave of the future.

Resources


Carey, B. (2011, April 27). Three in 10 in South Florida don't have Internet access. Retrieved February 1, 2015, from http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-04-27/business/mh-digital-divide-20110427_1_internet-access-computer-access-computer-stations

Kamenetz, A. (2013, March 28). "Bring Your Own Device" and the digital divide - Digital. Retrieved February 1, 2015, from http://digital.hechingerreport.org/content/bring-your-own-device-and-the-digital-divide_465/

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pears
 
Morin, R. (2013, July 12). The politics and demographics of food stamp recipients. Retrieved February 1, 2015, from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/07/12/the-politics-and-demographics-of-food-stamp-recipients/
 
Richtel, M. (2013, March 22). Digitally Aided Education, Using the Students’ Own Electronic Gear. Retrieved February 1, 2015, from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/technology/in-some-schools-students-bring-their-own-technology.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0