Like many questions – the answer may depend on who you ask. As a person who enjoys access to the most recent forms of technology and its benefits, I would be inclined to say yes. As an educator who has worked in community schools (and suburban schools) where students and their families have varied degrees of access to both devices and internet, as well as a wide spectrum of skills to put the technology to use, I might be inclined to say no. Anecdotally, it seems obvious that the “Tech Divide” follows the same fault line as other societal divides in our society. It seems to disproportionately affect those that are disadvantaged in other ways. Assuming these anecdotes can be supported by research, the answer would be very clearly a resounding no in terms of technology leading to a more equitable society. This is supported by the Amundson and Ko article (2021) where they stated, “The shift to remote learning was a blow to many students who were already vulnerable”. In other words, while some students were able to enjoy success while learning from home, many who were already vulnerable became even more so. What technology appears to have done is allow those of us who are privileged enough to maintain our “bubbles”, enabling us to forget and overlook those who were less privileged. For many technology simply further enabled a divide that was already in place. As I side in the opening – an answer typically depends on who you ask, and I think there are many that would say that technology has indeed granted them equity. Both the Benetech article as well as Amundson and Ko speak to this in detail. In Saskatchewan K-12 schools, there are many examples of technology being used to bring equity in the classroom. A simple but powerful example are the translation tools that assist our many English as an Additional Language learners. As well, speech to text, and dictation are tools that are used with great frequency. For these students, the answer to the question of technology leading to a more equitable society is a resounding yes. I believe that it is clearly established that technology can be a double-edged sord that can either exacerbate inequities, or work to quell them. In my mind, what is needed is appropriate public policy that ensures technology is used for the greater good. As long as the gap between public policy and technology exists, the technological divide and it’s negative implications will continue to persist as well. Bruce Schneier explains it eloquently here. As Bruce says ” For some reason, ignorance about technology isn’t seen as a deficiency among our elected officials, and this is a problem. It is no longer okay to not understand how the internet, machine learning - or any other core technologies - work.” I couldn’t agree more.
Kari Anderson
5/29/2022 12:32:37 pm
Hi Chris, A double edged sword is such an accurate statement. I like how you also talked about how public policy needs to play a bigger role in these descrepencies. Even though pandemic teaching is a whole other ball game, it really brought to light the differences in access and suitable technology. The digital divides are widening instead of coming together, for many reasons other than just financial ones. I wonder when policy makers and currciulum builders are going to focus more of the attention on these issues. Comments are closed.
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