Writer Charlie Guy takes a look at the challenges facing the “have nots” in his ePluribus Media Journal article Digital Educational Apartheid.
According to recent report for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, there exists …
“… a high school dropout epidemic in America. Each year, almost one third of all public high school students’ and nearly one half of all blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans fail to graduate from public high school with their class. Many of these students abandon school with less than two years to complete their high school education. Given the clear detrimental economic and personal costs to them, why do young people drop out of high school in such large numbers?"[1]
At the same time, many well-meaning educators, politicians, and citizens are basking in self-congratulations for having successfully eliminated the at-school digital divide (the gap between individuals able to benefit from technology and those who aren’t) as a contributing factor to this Silent Epidemic. But, millions of our country’s economically and socially disadvantaged learners are still suffering a Digital Learning Apartheid. For them, digital isolation at home only further expands the gaps in digital learning participation and academic achievement between them and the have learners.
Although the more generally accepted term in education for this class of learners is at-risk students, I have chosen instead to use the term have-not learners first, to better clarify the cause and amplify the severity of their situation. Traditionally, when the term at-risk is applied to education, it refers to the risk of learners dropping out of school due to their family’s low social economic status (SES). Secondly, substituting the term learners for students broadens the definitional scope to include these former high school dropouts who wish to use re-education or workforce development to now gain more meaningful employment.
Another pitfall is the use of the term at-risk without specifying in what respect the student is at risk. The danger is that school personnel and others will focus primarily or solely on the personal variables and characteristics, viewing the at-risk student as deficient because he/she does not fit the system rather than viewing the situation from a broader, more systemic perspective (i.e., the system as deficient because it does not meet the educational needs of all of its students).[2]
While I do not wish to become entangled in attempts to lay blame on the potential responsible parties for the blight of these learners, I do feel, however, the term have-not learners more clearly dramatizes the truth of what these learners face not only in their school settings, as so dramatically pointed out by Jonathan Kozol in his The Shame of the Nation, The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America, but also at home.
Historically, the early concerns and discussions of the digital divide assumed that the most important issue was to provide technical access for all learners via infrastructural improvements to our country’s public schools. This concern led to the creation of the federal e-rate program that invested public funds into the initial wiring of our country’s schools to provide Internet access. This approach assumed that increased learner academic achievement would occur merely as the result of providing all learners, regardless of their families’ financial situations, with equal at-school access to digital learning resources. The approach assumed the World Wide Web is simply an inert data bank, devoid of dynamic interchange.
What was neither anticipated nor addressed then, nor is being focused upon now, is disparate at-home access to the Internet. While have-not learners from our country’s poorest families may in fact now have access to the Internet at school as well as to school digital learning resources, when they leave school at the end of the day, they suffer from a disproportionate degree of at-home Internet isolation.
According to a September 2006 report released by the U.S. Department of Education, there does in fact exist an at-home digital learning participation gap between have and have-not learners:
I. Families Annual Incomes Gaps
| Type of Learner | Families Annual Incomes | At-home Computer Use | At-home Digital Learning Participation Gap |
| have-not learners | Under $20,000 | 37% | 51% |
| $20,000-$34,999 | 55% | 33% | |
| have learners | $75,000 or more | 88% | NA |
II. Racial/Ethnic Gaps
| Type of Learner | At-home Computer Use | At-home Digital Learning Participation Gap | |
| American Indian | 43% | 35% | |
| Blacks | 46% | 32% | |
| Hispanics | 48% | 30% | |
| Asian | 74% | NA | |
| Whites | 78% | NA |
III. Parent Educational Attainment Gaps
| Type of Learner | At-home Computer Use | At-home Digital Learning Participation Gap | |
| Less than High School Credential | 35% | 47%* | |
| High School Credential | 55% | 27% | |
| Some College | 72% | 10% | |
| Bachelor’s Degree | 82% | NA | |
| Graduate Education | 88% | NA |
*As compared against a graduate education.
IV. Household Language Gaps
| Type of Learner | At-home Computer Use | At-home Digital Learning Participation Gap | |
| Spanish Only | 32% | 37% | |
| Not Spanish Only | 69% | NA |
V. Poverty Status
| Type of Learner | At-home Computer Use | At-home Digital Learning Participation Gap | |
| In Poverty | 39% | 37% | |
| Not In Poverty | 76% | NA |
Source: Page 15, Table 3 of the Computer and Internet Use by Students in 2003, Statistical Analysis Report, Released in 2006 by the National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S.Department of Education. 1990 K Street NW, Washington, DC. 20006
The Expanding Digital Learning Participation Gap
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About the Author: Charlie Guy’s unique educational technology vision is based not only upon his past traditional and e-commerce private sector business experiences, but also upon his initial professional educational training and teaching experiences coupled with his volunteer economic development experiences in Tampa’s inner city. This compilation of personal experiences fuels his passion for educational change and the patience to conduct it properly.
Other ePluribus Contributors and Fact Checkers: JeninRI, cho, GreyHawk, kfred, roxy, standingup
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