For years, I have been writing about concerns that not enough is being done to get devices and connectivity into low income households with school aged kids. An article in the Toronto Star provides a troubling description of the growing digital divide.
Almost 60 per cent of Ontario schools allow students to BYOD — bring your own device — to class, a practice trending across the province despite concerns over a growing “digital divide,” says a new report on technology in education.
The report, “Digital Learning in Ontario Schools: The New Normal” [pdf], was produced by People for Education. The report concludes with 5 recommendations:
- Develop a working definition of digital literacy
- Establish a framework for evaluation of quality and value of ICT investments
- Support teachers’ digital professional development
- Bridge the digital divide
- Develop policy to ensure quality learning resources.
I’ll focus on the question of the digital divide.
The government should change the focus of its broadband programmes. We need to ensure that “affordability” becomes the primary criterion for government subsidies in a national digital strategy. Rural broadband initiatives that give grants based on geography rather than financial need may be politically attractive – the ceremonial cheque being handed to a local MP is certain to get coverage in the local papers and in election campaign materials – but such initiatives fail to address the most substantial digital divide, the divide based on income.
As my regular readers are aware, almost half of all households in Canada’s lowest income quintile lack a home computer. Affordability is keeping a million households from digital connectivity. That is a challenge for both urban and rural Canadians.
Kids who don’t have access to a connected computing device simply can’t succeed in today’s classrooms with digital curricula.
As Industry Minister James Moore prepares to launch Canada’s national digital strategy, we should be looking for the federal government to be supporting programmes that help ensure that every household with school aged children has access to computers and devices with internet connectivity.
Good piece Mark. However, I would have gone beyond pointing the finger solely at Harper and the feds for having the responsibility of dealing with the socio-economic digital divide. The move to BYOD in Ontario/provincial schools places some emphasis on the provinces (education is provincial) to ensure that all their policies, programs and strategies, including their broadband access strategies, are in line with the move. Ontario’s broadband strategy is still focused on the geographic digital divide while the move to BYOD dictates addressing what you’ve been calling for for years – address the socioeconomic digital divide or else you’re going to create a two-tier educational system. Ontario and other provinces moving towards allowing BYOD in the classroom must ensure that all students have a device to bring to school and affordable broadband where they live to give disadvantaged students a fair chance at a better future.