Teach Secondary 13.5

teachwire.net/secondary The digital divide Jason Tomlinson offers some suggestions for tackling those persistent inequalities that separate the edtech ‘haves’ from the ‘have-nots’... D espite technology having long become an integral part of our modern lives, a joint recent research project between several British universities recently found that nearly half of all British households don’t meet a ‘minimum digital living standard’ – included in which is ready access to technology, an internet connection and possession of digital skills. “People may be surprised, because in every show – from crime, to romance – people are living a digital life, ” the project’s lead researcher said, “ But we know that a very large number of people don’t live in that world.” Avicious cycle This divide – between those who live successfully in the digital realm and those who do not – is nowhere clearer than in schools. A number of schools adopt ‘Bring Your Own Device’ policies, meaning that students whose families lack the financial resources to own appropriate technological devices can experience education – albeit in a rather different way compared to those among their peers with the means. Schools will typically endeavour to make some kind of device available, though the quality of that device is never assured. It may well be that something’s better than nothing – but that doesn’t mean we should accept it as a feasible solution in the long term. Without access to appropriate learning devices, children from poorer families will be at higher risk of falling behind their peers for whom access isn’t a problem, simply due to their personal circumstances. This can in turn create a vicious cycle, whereby those pupils with the least access to technology go on to have fewer opportunities later in life. Preparing students for later life is arguably schools’ core mission. Living as we do in one of the world’s largest economies, surely we can all agree that enabling pupils access to suitable devices when in school should be a non-negotiable? And yet, we still find ourselves far from achieving that aim today. So how can we get closer to it? Free laptops What we need to do is approach digital inclusion initiatives in smarter ways. The government has tried to address education’s digital divide in the past, albeit with limited success. Perhaps the best example to date was its response to the pandemic. This was a time when the digital divide between school students had never been so stark, with all classes moving online at once, and for extended periods of time. Those lacking access to appropriate devices or reliable internet connections lost out in a big way. One government “Parts of the education sector canbecome‘stuck’ inolder modes ofpractice” 76