Can high-poverty urban districts like Philadelphia close the digital divide?
When information technology comes to speedy Internet access in schools, which applied science advocates say will exist disquisitional to ensuring that American students stay competitive globally, Philadelphia is way ahead of many districts across the country.
In the Obama administration's new Connected initiative, an attempt to redirect $2 billion in federal funding to put high-speed broadband in all American schools, the goal is for schools to have Cyberspace speeds of at least 1 gigabit per second by 2017. Philadelphia schools already accept 2 gigabits, and volition have 20 in 18 months, says Melanie Harris, the commune's chief information officer. "We call information technology laying the highway," she said. "We've put our schools in a great position."
It's a major accomplishment, but i that also highlights the difficulties of bringing technology to the nation's neediest kids. When President Obama announced the ConnectED plan concluding year, he said "in that location'south no reason we can't do all this."
Yet in Philadelphia, where 87 pct of students are economically disadvantaged and school resource are scarce, the urban center'southward schools still have far to travel before they accomplish the president'due south goal "that virtually every kid in America's classrooms has access to the fastest Internet and the near cutting-edge learning tools."
The speedy Internet does students and teachers fiddling good in many Philadelphia schools. The district paid for its Internet upgrades using the federal e-rate program, a subsidy that is cardinal to achieving the president'due south goal and that can but be used for networking and telecommunications – non to purchase the actual devices teachers and students use to get online. (The ConnectED initiative will not classify new government funds, but companies recently donated $750 million in goods and services to the cause.) Overall, the district has one estimator for every two students, but 60 pct of those computers are more than five years erstwhile – many are as old every bit nine – and will need replacing soon. Only two schools in the district accept enough computers for each educatee.
At the aforementioned fourth dimension, staff cuts have reduced the number of people bachelor to railroad train educators in how to employ the applied science they do have – to just six in a district with more than 8,000 teachers.
And Philadelphia, with nigh 130,000 Thousand-12 students, doesn't have a defended technology budget to assist it make up the shortfall. Technology is mostly purchased through private school-based budgets, officials said, which means principals have to make tough choices most how to allocate funding in a peculiarly difficult financial time for the city. (The commune has a severe budget deficit and needs at least $100 meg to cover basic services in the coming school year. Its budget request to the city and country calls for $320 million, partly to allow investment in new technology.)
Many American schoolhouse systems are in a similar situation. Fewer than xx pct of teachers say their schoolhouse'south Internet connection meets their educational activity needs, according to the White House. And according to a survey of schools by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), half of schools and libraries that apply for federal subsidies have "lower speed Internet connectivity than the average American home — despite having, on average, 200 times as many users."
And just as the Obama administration is urging school districts to ramp up technology, more two thirds of districts are cutting back on regular maintenance and replacement of equipment considering of budget troubles, according to a survey published this bound by the Consortium for School Networking, a professional organization of school applied science leaders.
Withal, some pockets of innovation point a way forward for Philadelphia, officials say. "In actually dire times there are a lot of great things going on, and people trying to brand the little bit of resources they have impactful," said Fran Newberg, Philadelphia'south deputy chief of educational technology.
Ii Northward Philadelphia Chiliad-eight schools, John F. Hartranft and James G. Blaine, have cobbled together grants, including donations from local philanthropists, and federal funds for low-income schools and their principals accept moved money around in their budgets to buy some extra computers and educational software. They've too discovered gratis programs from sites such as CK12, run by a nonprofit that curates scientific discipline and math content.
"Our students deserve it, so it's making the best of our resources," said Jamal Dennis, Blaine'due south teacher leader. "We're working to see how far we tin stretch information technology." Mostly, though, "we're at the mercy of what the district can offer."
In one fifth-grade classroom on a recent Thursday, the teacher, Sandra Ford, dispensed district-purchased white MacBooks – all more than 5 years old – from a cart she shares with a teacher downwards the hall. The day before, she had noticed during a lesson on measuring book that students had trouble using their rulers. So she found some materials online to help them review.
Students logged in to an online math lesson from CK12 to watch a video about fractions and measurement, and so completed a multiple-choice quiz using an on-screen ruler to measure out rectangles. Halfway through the class menstruum, clusters of students were at different stages of the lesson.
Two boys in the back of the class had zoomed alee to a new task after finishing the first assignment with perfect marks. Another sabbatum side-by-side with Jamal Dennis, who was showing him how to practice the piece of work the old-fashioned way – with paper and pencil.
A grouping of iii girls was stalled at the video. "Nosotros were watching the video, only information technology wasn't making sense. So we're reading," said Deshawna Hyman, 11, pointing to an article on her screen.
"People think watching video is a shortcut, but it really isn't," her classmate, Ivory Jackson, 11, added.
It was an example of what educators call "differentiation" – allowing students to written report at their own pace and find unlike means to learn the same content. "Some of the children, I tin can extend their learning," explained Ford. "And for other children, I can have them review and practice."
Not every child has to accept a computer to make it happen. At Hartranft, kindergartners rotate through activities that include reading out loud from a real book, playing educational games on the iv desktop computers in the dorsum of the classroom and working one-on-one with the teacher.
"It helps me read," said Sid Arter, who can at present handle books at a beginning-grade level, co-ordinate to the reading software he was using.
But more computers would assist, Philadelphia educators say. "Ideally, if every classroom had 15 to twenty computers, y'all could do so much more," Ford said. Lauren Morrison, a fourth-course teacher at Hartranft, puts it more frankly: "I wish we had a laptop for every kid," she said. "There'southward merely sixteen in the cart, and I accept thirty kids. Some classes don't fifty-fifty have a laptop cart. There's never plenty."
Student enthusiasm – educators call it "date" – is another reason advocates and Philadelphia officials are eager for more computers. "We get excited getting on our laptops," Ivory Jackson said. "Educational activity tin exist fun, because everybody likes engineering science."
"I love it," said Trinity Coker, 11, a fifth grader at Blaine School. She was finishing a quiz on an article about oil spills she had read online. "It's just better," she murmured equally her eyes drifted back to the screen.
In Philadelphia, other elementary schoolhouse students likewise spoke enthusiastically almost school-wide competitions in online math games, and the points and badges they could earn by reading a certain number of articles in their English software program.
But even if Philadelphia were to buy more than computers (or iPads, as Hartranft is doing for its kindergartners) and railroad train up its staff, it doesn't guarantee education will change in a meaningful way, or that students volition exist more successful.
The research on technology in the classroom is mixed, although some studies suggest it tin make a difference. One 2011 written report that looked at the by 40 years of enquiry establish that technology (in some cases, just having computers in the classroom versus having none) can help student learning. Simply information technology's oftentimes more effective if devices are supporting pupil learning, "rather than interim every bit a tool for delivering content."
Blaine and Hartranft, where less than half of students were proficient in reading on 2012 land tests, have yet to see significant gains. Early signs seem skilful, though, school leaders say. In the Hartranft kindergarten grade, for example, all only two students are at or above grade level in reading, said Kelli Rosado, Hartranft's principal. "I'grand excited because in an expanse like this kids have a lot of deficits," she said.
"And that's what this is virtually: student achievement."
This story is part of a series examining the digital divide in American schools. Read more than about how technology is changing education.
Source: https://hechingerreport.org/can-high-poverty-urban-districts-like-philadelphia-close-digital-divide-2/
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