Thesis on "Digital Divide Access to Technology Resources"

Quoted Instructions for "Digital Divide Access to Technology Resources" Assignment:

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Context of the problem

The first thing that one notices is that most of the finance and funds donated by the state governments, parent and/or other agencies, have been invested in the purchase of computers and other technologies within the field of education and hence has increased the use and dependence on Internet over the past ten years as well in the United States alone. A rough estimate of student accessibility to computers is that nearly 95% of the public schools utilize computers, although this figure also includes public school where computers are used solely for administrative purposes as well. However, another report showed that 75% of the total public schools in the U.S. have a computer setup for utilization as a medium of instruction. An alternative way that student accessibility to computers can be calculated is by calculating the total amount of students that are using the instructional computers setup in a classroom. Many researchers have conducted numerous studies on this and concluded that the number of student accessibility calculated like this has progressively and considerably increased over the past decade (Coffman, 2007).

According to Castells (2001) a realistically efficient and practical way for the efficient utilization of technology within schools has to allow a maximum of 4 to 5 student per computer and this target has yet to be achieved. Other researchers also concluded that the level of poverty in schools had no effect on the percentage of access that the students had to the computers.

Another important statistic developed over the last decade is that the accessibility to and the use of Internet has seen a steady and steep rise amongst the school-going students. In fact, research showed that at least in 95% of the schools a minimum of one computer had Internet access. To verify this figure, it is important that the examiners also study the number of schools that allow an instructional computer with Internet access within a classroom. Of course, there has been a high rise in this particular number as well and by the end of last millennium almost two-thirds of all classrooms in public schools had an instructional computer with Internet access. The percentage of all classrooms has also increased from 63% to 90% when one includes the additional accessibility of 28% to 30% that the students have outside of the instructional classrooms i.e. in computer labs (Appelman, 2005).

Jonassen (2004) asserts that the problem with the rise in accessibility of the Internet has practically been ineffective to decrease the unequal distribution percentage of students within classrooms. The level of accessibility to classrooms and school criteria in the extremely poor school districts and well-off school districts has improved significantly with time but the difference in the general percentage of allocation is still very obvious. The fact of the matter is that the difference in the level of accessibility to the Internet access is steadily and steeply increasing between the extremely poor school districts and those that are well-off. The difference was shown in one of the reports where the well-off districts had a total of 7 students for every instructional computer while the extremely poor school districts had a whopping of 16 students for every instructional computer (Jonassen, 2004).

All of these findings and conclusions have shown that while the use of technology and student access has steadily increased over the last ten years, the digital divide still exists. The credit for most of the advancements made in the instalments of technology in the educational sphere goes to the attention that the federal government has given to the topic through the expansion and employment of numerous financial aid agendas and technology literacy challenge funding. The efforts of the federal government have been thoroughly and extensively backed up by fiscal funds given by the numerous states, districts, businesses, and parents. However, the social and financial status of the districts determines the level of accessibility that the students are allowed to both computers and the Internet (Jonassen, 2004).

The focus of most studies has been on how and where the students are given access to the Internet, yet there are very few studies that have actually focused on what the Internet is used for by the students once they gain access to it. A survey concluded that more than 50% of the students in the U.S. were using both the computers as well as the Internet facilities more than a few times on a weekly basis. The amazing statistic in this report was that there was minimal difference between the students going to poor school districts and those going to well-off school districts. Again, this report only shows that a large amount of the students in the U.S. use the Internet yet this report too does not focus on what they use it for (Castells, 2001).

One of the main concerns in this technology-driven world is that most of the teachers do not use technology available to enhance the educational domain of the students; in fact, they do not know how to use technology for that purpose. In one study researchers explained that mainly the use of computers within the classroom setting still reflected the conventional mediums and standards of education which basically means that the students use the computer to enhance their skills of office tools, use the dictionaries available on the computer or mainly familiarize themselves with the general functions of the technology (Castells, 2001).

Jonassen (2004) asserts that this particular way of utilizing the computer, even though, does allow students to expand their computational abilities but are more or less useless when considering how much they actually help in the development of their learning curves. Another important fact is that the social and financial standing of the school also determines the way in which Internet is mostly used by the students. For example, the students studying in a poor school district are more likely to use the Internet for more constructive and sophisticated educational purposes like constructing slides for presentations, etc. Whereas, in contrast, the students that are studying in well-off school districts are more likely to use technology for the mastering skills they have just been taught and discovering to study without-help (Jonassen, 2004).

Effectiveness of digital technology

The most common instructional setting that is used in schools and that is technologically-***** is the computer-based instruction (CBI). The CBI has now been effectively used for almost 35 years in school districts. The computer-aided instruction (CAI) is perhaps the most popular CBI used in schools. The CAI usually presents the student with short reading materials and then asks them relevant questions that will help it understand how much the student has been able to comprehend the piece of writing. Most of the time the answers are in the multiple-choice or true or false format so that it is easy for the computer to assess the answers and present an accurate evaluation of the student*****s understanding as well as give suggestions on how to design a more challenging and suitable test in the future (Jonassen, 2004).

Over the past 15-20 years one can see numerous statistical studies that have focused on the use and effects of the CBI in a school setting. Kulik (1994), in his work took on the task of condensing the results of 97 separate quantitative surveys that were conducted in different lower, secondary and higher schools. All of these studies concentrated on the effect on the academics and achievements of the students who studied under the CBI mode and compared them to the effect on the academics and achievements of the students who did not study under the CBI mode. His conclusion was that those who studied under the CBI mode developed more quickly and were more efficient as well as attained higher academic scores then those who studied in the conventional format of education.

Kulik, in his study, also included another angle when assessing the effect of the CBI mode. He identified the varying sample sizes that were used in the studies that assessed the effects of the CBI mode. The effect of the CAI applications like that of *****tutoring***** tactics and *****drill-and-practice***** tactics amongst others showed extremely high percentage rates. Kulik and Kulik (1991) in one of their prior studies also concluded the CAI programs were more useful to the students who went to the poorer school districts as opposed to the ones who went the school districts that were well-off.

Kulik (1994) analyzed numerous other statistical surveys that were carried out on other technologies that were used in a school setting to have a comparison scale on the efficiencies of the use of computers. He concluded that the tutoring done through the use of computers was far more effective when it was teamed up with *****mastery learning*****, *****classes for gifted***** and *****peer and cross-age tutoring*****. The combination of computer tutoring and *****accelerated learning***** had by far the most significant effect of all. Jonassen (2004) asserts that all the technological advancements that are still being made in this domain however can render some of the conclusion of Kulik insufficient. Hence it is safe to conclude that the comparative and associative benefits of the CAI are only bound to increase in the future.

Jonassen (2004) confirmed the conclusions made by Kulik and asserted that there has been evidence presented in other studies that suggest that technology has it benefits outside the realm of education as well. Studies have concluded that the effective and successful use of technology helps in developing the student*****s incentive to work, enthusiasm, class ethics as well as self-confidence and personal worth in both a social and business environment (e.g., attendance and time-on-task). Other researches have also highlighted the positive changes that can occur within a classroom ambience with the employment and use of technologies (Jonassen, 2004).

To sum it up, there is theoretical and practical evidence available in numerous researches that suggest that the use of technology as a medium of instruction in educational settings has, more or less, progressed constructively and is going to continue to do so provided it is given the right attention. The CBI and CAI programs when employed appropriately have shown reliable signs for constructive growth of fundamental abilities especially for students who are studying in poorer school districts. The CBI has also shown vastly obvious and lucrative outcomes in numerous other education-related fields like associative or collaborative activities, tutoring, designing and constructing projects. In some cases, the use of CBI has also resulted in expanding the students***** superior or intricate thought processes, increase incentives, make them more enthusiastic, help in the development of social ethics, and make them more innovative and adaptive to the situations amongst many other things (Jonassen, 2004).

In spite of the criticisms and conclusions made in different research studies, the use of technology, computers and Internet as a medium of instruction will grow to become extensive within the U.S. schools. To achieve this however, the use of technology and the attentions given to this sector will need to be consistent and experimental from both the federal and state organizations as well as other service providers and efforts will have to be made so that the students going to different socioeconomic schools will not face drastically different access or facilities. Nonetheless, the most discouraging factor is how the technology is currently being used in schools, particularly in the poorer African American districts. It is a known fact that there are a handful of teachers who can actually employ technology in a way that will be educationally beneficial. This basically means that these teachers will be highly in demand in numerous schools districts and will get employment in well-off school districts as their personal financial and peripheral demands will most likely be met there; leaving the AA districts at the hands of lowly skilled teachers.

Statement of the Problem

In the 1990s the term digital divide had been conceived primarily to describe the gap between people who had access to digital and information technology and for those who did not have access or had limited access to digital resources (Wikipedia, 2007). This study will attempt to identify if the digital divide can be attributed to race or socioeconomic issues. All students should have adequate access to the Internet as well as any other information technology tools that 67% of their White counterparts have access to. One major disadvantage of students not having access to these resources is for educational purposes as well as employment opportunities.

Research Questions

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects that the digital divide has on student*****s access to digital resources and educational opportunities in today*****s society. The general purpose of this study is captured in the overarching research questions:

1. What effects does the digital divide have on access to technology resources and educational opportunities over the last decade?

2. What effects do lack of access to digital resources?

3. What programs are available to help improve access to digital resources?

Significance of the study

The significance of this study is that there is a digital divide for many African American students. Access to digital resources is paramount to the growth of the African American community. This community itself is key to helping their students graduate from high school prepared for college. The educational community can benefit from this study as well, form a better understanding of the needs of AA students to assist in providing access to these digital resources. Students are one of the largest users of the Internet today. Since students are as ethnically diverse as the information on the Internet, access to its digital resources for all students should be examined to try to remove all racial and socioeconomic barriers. The educational community can guide the AA community regarding the importance of technology and access to digital resources for their students.

It is important to note that several research studies related to access to digital resources have been carried out. Similarly, research studies on the effectiveness of current programs aimed at closing these gaps have also been published. However, no research has focused on evaluating the effects that the digital divide has on AA student*****s access to digital resources and educational opportunities. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring the effects that the digital divide has on student*****s access to digital resources and educational opportunities in today*****s society.

Moreover, this study offers several theoretical contributions as well. Common systematic and functional issues have become increasingly vital as schools move from comparatively simple teaching methods, to complicated multi-channel communication and teaching models. In addition, the collective forces of demography, technology, control, as well as, globalization have been pushing educational organizations, all over the world, to change their systems so as to keep pace with the ever changing world (Bartley and Golek, 2004). In this context, exploring the effects that the digital divide has on student*****s access to digital resources has been a neglected topic. This study will shed light on this vital subject.

Lastly, an examination of the use of technology in education is quite significant. More specifically, many problems appear in the application of technology in educational activities especially within classrooms while the response of governments worldwide is too slow and limited. On the other hand, it seems that the participants in the educational arena especially teachers do not have the required competency and willingness to use technology for the improvement of students***** performance. Perhaps teachers are under the assumption that the intervention of technology within the classroom will do little to improve student participation in educational activities, which as some studies point out, is a wrong assumption to make. For these reasons, this study is important to teachers and students.

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