Lack of home Internet access hinders students with school-provided iPads
December 23rd, 2014
by Joan Garrett McClane and Tim Omarzu
Chattanooga Times Free Press
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2014/dec/23/if-you-give-kid-ipadeven-when-schools-hand-ou/279439/
Mishayla Greene, a Woodmore Elementary student in Ashley Frogg's
fourth-grade class, works on a new iPad that her class received from the
Rotary Club. Photo by Dan Henry
<http://www.timesfreepress.com/staff/dan-henry/>/Times Free Press.
Interactive map
View a map showing where EPB gigabit and 100 mbps customers live, by zip
code. <http://projects.timesfreepress.com/2014/05/epb/gig/gig.html>
Replacing some Hamilton County students' textbooks with iPads was a move
intended to boost faltering public education performance.
Tablets were more engaging that their printed predecessors, and they
opened up a world wide web of opportunity. Have a question? Just Google
it. Plus, they prepared students for the ever-changing work world, in
which even jobs flipping hamburgers require an application online.
But school officials say there is one big problem. Many of the students,
once home with their brand-new devices, don't have Internet access and
likely won't get it.
"For some time now, we've identified ourselves as a technological
community," Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Rick Smith said.
Still, he said, "there's going to be lots of kids that don't have access
at home."
Roughly 3,380 tablets and laptop computers have been assigned to county
school students, covering about 8 percent of the total student
population. The devices, funded through grants and foundations, are
being tested to assess the value of their broader use.
But school officials are finding that low-income students in particular
can't connect at home. Motivated kids find Wi-Fi access by visiting a
neighbor's house, business or recreation center, Smith said, but many do
not.
In the downtown area, for example, only 7 percent of potential customers
subscribe to high-speed broadband Internet. In economically depressed
areas such as Alton Park and East Lake, only 15 percent of residents
have high-speed Internet, according to EPB.
The Public Education Foundation and the Benwood Foundation funded a
pilot program last year to test tablet use in schools. Around 2,000
iPads and Chromebooks were given to students in six schools -- Calvin
Donaldson Elementary, East Lake Academy, the Howard School of Academics
and Technology, Red Bank Elementary, Red Bank Middle and Red Bank High
School.
Keri Randolph, vice president of learning at PEF, said the program is
working to engage students in their work, but they have found that
between 30 to 40 percent of participants don't have home access to the
Internet.
Digital equality
In 2007, only 12 percent of school site administrators nationally noted
digital equity as a primary technology challenge; in 2012, 41 percent
identified that issue as critical.
In just one year, from 2011 to 2012, districts piloting a Bring Your Own
Device (BYOD) approach increased by 47 percent.
When asked in 2010 if they would allow their students to use their own
devices at school for academic purposes, only 22 percent of principals
said that was likely. In 2012, more than a third of principals (36
percent) said that a new BYOD policy for students was likely.
Source: "From Chalkboards to Tablets: The Digital Conversion of the K-12
Classroom," a 2013 report by Project Tomorrow
"A lot of these kids are transient," she said. "Even if they have a home
connection this month, they might not have it the next month."
Still, Randolph said, several local task forces are working to bridge
the community's digital divide.
Comcast offers Internet for $10 a month to low-income families, but
there are a lot of hurdles to entering the program, Randolph said. The
paperwork is extensive and the family must have a clean record with
Comcast -- no late payments or unpaid fees -- a standard that many
low-income families can't meet, she said.
"We have not found that to be a viable option for a lot of families,"
she said.
Another option being discussed by officials at PEF is called Tech Goes
Home, which is modeled on a similar program in Boston. With Tech Goes
Home, a responsible adult and a child go through a class and at the end
get a deeply discounted computer and subsidized or free Internet
service, she said.
Some techies at the Chattanooga Public Library are tooling around with
another idea to create Wi-Fi access in certain low-income neighborhoods
through a mesh network that uses low-cost devices that repeat the
signals between computers and one high-speed Internet connection,
reducing the need for multiple connections to the Internet. City leaders
also plan to expand public Wi-Fi options.
The Associated Press reported that the Federal Communications Commission
agreed Thursday to dramatically boost spending to bring high-speed
Internet access to schools and libraries in poor or rural areas.
The plan is to boost spending by 60 percent, to $3.9 billion, FCC
Chairman Tom Wheeler said. Americans' phone bills would likely rise by
about $2 a year to cover the cost, the AP reported.
Randolph said a solution is definitely needed to address vast inequities
in technology access.
"The world of work has changed, and access to technology is part of all
workplaces," she said. "The digital divide does affect kids and their
education."
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