ISTE Digital Equity SIG Explores International and National Digital Divide

From the members of the Digital Equity SIG, guided by Mila Fuller of ISTE, and the Chairperson, Bonnie Bracey Sutton , CoChair Joyce Pittman, and Bob McLaughlin outgoing chair, created a summit that laid the vision for the digital equity work that will be a part of the ISTE outreach to the educational community in a coming initiative.

Facing National and International Challenges: Bridging the Gap

To narrow the digital divide, we need to identify resources and strategies that break down barriers. By using new digital strategies and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) systems such as ubiquitous tools, we can work toward developing an operational definition of digital equity.

We believe that sharing stories and engaging in a global dialogue can improve the economic, political and social quality of life for individuals, communities and countries around the world. Because of digital opportunities, we believe people everywhere can benefit from what we call digital equity.

The Summit

Attendees participated in a national and international conversation addressing critical digital equity issues facing schools and the community. At the summit, attendees had an opportunity to gain information on current progress and proven solutions being implemented nationally and internationally. Strategies centered on broadening participation in STEM, maximizing the use of Web 2.0. tools, and best practices on how E-Learning can impact digital equity.We also addressed strategies for involving diverse learners.

Participants of the Panel that followed were

Expert Panel Discussion moderated by Dr. Joyce Pittman, or Ph.D.
SIGDE Co-Chair
Introduction by Pia Wilson-Body, Intel Education

Panelists
Laura Sujo de Montes, New Mexico State University

David Thornburg, Thornburg Center

Ashanti Jefferson, Chicago Public Schools

Albert Byers, National Science Teachers Association



The Summit featured a keynote address from Paul Resta, founding ISTE president and director of the Learning Technology Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Resta named essential conditions for digital inclusion at the global level.


He shared examples of how communities can move away from the digital divide and toward "digital opportunity." He pointed to the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) new Digital Opportunity Index as a tool for gauging movement toward digital opportunity.
Resta also cited the recent release of UNESCO's competency standards for teachers. "ISTE played a key role in helping to formulate these competency standards, and it's very fortuitous that ISTE updated their standards for teachers around the same time," he said.

Adobe Camp

Last week was amazing at Adobe Camp with about 100 Adobe Education Leaders from around the world. Hearing about all of the great things that are being done for digital equity was a wonderful experience. Here is a link to the members of the Adobe Educational Leaders group.

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Digital Divide? What Digital Divide?

by Dave Nagel

Students in low-income families may have more access to technology than previously thought. What's more, according to preliminary research coming out of the University of Minnesota, these students are using technology consistently to boost their 21st century skills--even if many of them aren't aware that they're of the educational value of their activities online.

Internet Access and Usage
The new study, led by U Minnesota's Christine Greenhow, learning technologies researcher in the College of Education and Human Development, focused on 600 lower-income students, their access to the Internet, the frequency of their Internet usage, and their online social networking activities. What it found was that a full 94 percent of them used the Internet, with 82 percent of them using the Internet from home. Seventy-six percent reported having a desktop computer, and 30 percent reported having a laptop computer at home.

Half of these students reported using the Internet daily, with 25 percent reporting using it multiple times per day. Twenty-seven percent used it three to five times per week, and 14 percent used it one to two days per week.

Social Networking and 21st Century Learning
What's more, these students are in large part using the Internet for social networking. Seventy-seven percent had a profile on a social networking site, with MySpace (65 percent) being the most popular. Facebook came in second.

While most cited social activities as the reasons for using social networking sites (i.e., keeping in touch with friends and meeting new friends), when asked what they've learned from their use of social networking sites, they pointed largely to 21st century skills: technology skills, creativity, being open to diverse views, and communication skills. (See fig. 2, below.)

All of the students in the study belonged to families with income of $25,000 or less and were part of an after school program for improving access to college for low-income youth (Admission Possible). Participants fell into the age range of 16 to 18, and all attended urban high schools in the Midwest. The research was conducted over a roughly six-month period this year.

According to the researchers, while some students did not associate their social networking activities with education, those who used social networking sites at least three to five times per day were more likely to connect their activities with learning.

It should be noted, however, that U Minnesota's Greenhow told us she does not believe the students' school districts grade them on their technology skills. (Minnesota received an overall grade of C in Education Week's State Technology Report Card 2007, including a D in the category of "capacity to use technology.") And the actual impact of social networking and Internet usage on measured learning outcomes was not included in the study.

In future studies, outcomes, in addition to perceptions, will be included in Greenhow's research. "We do plan to examine the impact of social networking on learning outcomes but have not defined yet exactly what the targeted areas will be," Greenhow explained. "Grades may be one aspect. Also correlations between [social networking] use and other retention indicators."

For some interesting (and somewhat disturbing) results measuring outcomes among underprivileged students with access to technology, see our report on a separate study from University of Chicago and Columbia University: Are Underprivileged Students Better Off Without Computers?

We also asked her whether the fact that the students are in a program aimed at improving access to college might have a bearing on the data from the study. She said the data were applicable to the broader low-income community. The students' ACT scores at the beginning of the program were not extraordinary in any way (averaging in the bottom 10th percentile of all ACT test takers). Furthermore, their families' median income was lower by $5,000 than the subjects of a 2005 study by Pew, whose results had shown much lower adoption, access, and usage of technology by students of low-income ($30,000 or less) families. "So I do not believe the technology conditions surrounding our students in Minnesota are particularly privileged ones," she told us.

Implications for Education
According to Greenhow, the information collected shows that teachers have an opportunity to step in and support the 21st century skills that the students are developing on their own--especially since few involved in the study indicated that they were aware of the "academic and professional networking opportunities" social networking sites afford.

"Now that we know what skills students are learning and what experiences they're being exposed to, we can help foster and extend those skills," Greenhow said in a statement released with the preliminary data. "As educators, we always want to know where our students are coming from and what they're interested in so we can build on that in our teaching. By understanding how students may be positively using these networking technologies in their daily lives and where the as yet unrecognized educational opportunities are, we can help make schools even more relevant, connected and meaningful to kids."

She said educators can also take the opportunity to help develop "digital citizenship" in the students. The students in the survey, left largely on their own, demonstrated only a "novice understanding" of the concepts of digital citizenship, according to Greenhow.

A full, formal report based on this study will be released in the fall, according to Greenhow. We will follow up on the research then. Video and transcripts of interviews with the students, along with further explanatory material, can be found here.

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About the author: David Nagel is the executive editor for 1105 Media's online education technology publications, including THE Journal and Campus Technology. He can be reached at dnagel@1105media.com.

Building a Computer Lab in Cambodia: From Concept to Reality in One Week, a Video Story

Free, Adaptable Learning Materials Online

From the Center for Digital Education

March 7, 2008

A coalition of educators, foundations and Internet pioneers are urging governments and publishers to make publicly funded educational materials available freely over the Internet.

The Cape Town Open Education Declaration is part of a dynamic effort to make learning and teaching materials available to everyone online, regardless of income or geographic location. It encourages teachers and students around the world to join a growing movement and use the Web to share, remix and translate classroom materials to make education more accessible, effective and flexible.