The Digital Divide in Education

In many ways, the purpose of K-12 schools in the United States is to bridge the gap between a wide range of people from all types of socioeconomic backgrounds and to provide the education and skills needed to flourish as a productive member of society. In this manner, K-12 public schools are unique when we compare them to universities and private schools. Technology continues to develop at a more rapid pace than ever and technological literacy has become an important life skill just like reading and writing. Considering the importance of public schools and technological literacy in our society and country today, this reality implies that the issue of the digital divide is now more relevant than ever, especially during the current COVID-19 epidemic when nearly all K-12 public school students are required to obtain their education in a digital learning environment. 

According to a comprehensive study done on the digital divide in Florida K-12 public schools, the digital divide can be described by breaking the concept up into three parts (Hohlfeld, Ritzhaupt, Barron, & Kemker, 2008). At its foundation, and perhaps the most important level in terms of end-results, the digital divide is about access to technology, internet, and support at a school’s infrastructural level. This level can be defined by student-to-computer ratios, teacher-to-computer ratios, the level of internet access provided to students, and the number of technical personnel available at a school. The secondary level of this framework is about the actual use of technology by teachers and students in the classroom. This involves how often students are using technology within the classroom, the ways that they are using it, and how comfortable teachers are with using the technology. The third and final level is about the student in an individual context and how the first two levels function to empower the student to achieve an equitable level of technological literacy. 

As technology has become an increasingly important aspect of people’s lives, progressively more and more attention has been devoted to providing public schools with the necessary resources for helping students to achieve success in terms of technological literacy. While overall, access to technology in public schools has increased over time, there are still widespread concerns specifically related to equity for schools and students with lower socioeconomic status for providing their students with the tools they need to be technologically literate. Research shows that schools in economically advantaged areas often spend around 150% to 400% more, on technology than those in economically disadvantaged areas (Hohlfeld, Ritzhaupt, Barron, & Kemker, 2008). The digital divide is not an issue that is exclusive to a student’s experience at school. Even when efforts are successfully made to bridge the gap between schools and students with lower socioeconomic status, there remains inequity between students at home. Students in the United States with higher socioeconomic status are 2.78 times more likely to have a computer at home than those from less economically advantaged backgrounds (Hohlfeld, Ritzhaupt, Barron, & Kemker, 2008). 

There are several steps that school administrations, legislators, and instructors can take to try to aid in bridging the digital divide. One method to assist schools with a lack of funding and technological infrastructure is to engage them in assistance programs that can help administer the resources needed to provide students with an equitable technological education. Another measure that could prove highly beneficial to these efforts is to provide teachers with higher levels of technological hardware and software training to ensure that they are able to provide their students with adequate technological literacy skills. Finally, it is hugely vital that schools, parents, teachers, and governments work together to provide students with capable resources to obtain a suitable and equitable education in terms of technological literacy.