The Digital Divide.

At San Leandro High School there used to be a divide based on an inequality of technology in classes as well as at home.

Note: All images in this presentation were either created by me or were used with Creative Commons noncommercial reuse permission.
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But with most students now having smart phones the divide is now based on usage.

I surveyed my students and 100% of them have either a smartphone or a computer at home with the internet.

Students have the technology, they just use it for social interaction and consumption.

Most tech usage is Facebook, twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and the big one for some, Gaming.

Rather than creating, research, or learning.

You can see in this image that worldwide, the digital divide is very real. 16% in Africa use the internet. 38% in the Middle East, and 32% in Asia.

Image from: Digital divide widens in 2013. (2013). Information statistics of world population users in 2013. Image retrieved from http://www.destinyman.com/2013/10/11/digital-divide-widens-in-2013/

At my school and many others in America, the problem is digital inequality. The actual tech skills the students have are terrible. You hear over and over from adults that children know so much and are natural with technology. THIS IS NOT TRUE! Kids can use technology to consume, but very few have the skills to create.

Students can text, watch a movie, play a game, like a post, post an image, etc.

But many students cannot, for the most part, use the quick-keys to copy/paste in a text document, can't bookmark a website they use every day, can't remember a login/password combination, and don't know how to save a document into a specific folder on a hard drive.

They have trouble finding a research resource.

The new divide is between the can and can not. It is between those that can harness technology for personal growth and those who use it for consumption and time wasting.

The internet is now surpassing television as the world's time waster.

Others are coding, creating, networking, improving their skills, and growing in leaps and bounds as technology jumps forward. Many kids are falling behind as the text their way to unemployment.

Another huge problem with public schools is the speed at which change can happen. We are continually ten years behind the times in technology at San Leandro High School.

At least one class per day in High School should be exploring and learning at the cutting edge of technology. Students should be learning in virtual worlds, programming applications, 3D modeling and printing, and pushing the boundaries of technology.

Our students should not be held back by the slow pace of school change.

We need an infusion of creativity and technological resources.

The technological future of our country depends on it.

If we don't teach programming, technology skills, digital Entrepreneurship, and multimedia skills many of our students will be left behind with no way of catching up.

The pace is quickening and the divide is widening quicker than anyone can imagine.