In an age of seemingly daily technological advances, computers and the Internet are often utilized in classrooms. Physical texts are being replaced with digital copies.
Not just your finite homework, or those scholarly articles for your business law class are online now.
Children as young as elementary-school-aged are sent home to download their homework or complete it online, according to the New York Times.
However, the Pew Research Center estimates that, across the country, more than five million families are without access to high-speed Internet.
With more and more classes going digital, the students in these families fall farther behind. Many of them have resorted to standing outside of their schools or libraries to attain enough of a Wi-Fi signal to do research or homework, said housing secretary Julián Castro in a NYT article.
Many students are punished with lower grades because they can’t adequately research and cite sources for projects or turn in papers online on time.
This creates a wider gap in academic achievement.
The schools employing technology in the classroom mean well. They want to prepare students for the digital age that will greet them in the future.
But a reform of the tech practices is necessary to keep from targeting the lower-income students who cannot afford broadband.
Less technology in the classroom may be just what we need.
According to a study lead by Anne Mangen of Norway’s Stavanger University, reading physical books, as opposed to electronic ones, has been shown to help reading comprehension more effectively.
Assignments in books also mean a child will be spending less time in front of a screen and less time learning to rely on blurbs of information and links to instant answers. Reading books teaches students to become critical thinkers.
These low-income students are often already staged to fail: with lower income comes less access to tutoring, adequate meals and other resources available to middle- and upper-class families.
If we continue to phase out physical textbooks and give digitized homework, we will make a larger resource gap between these economic classes of students.
According to an article in the NYT, some towns have attempted to allocate some public tax money to fund Wi-Fi hotspots and Internet cost subsidies for these families.
In addition, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to vote next year on a program called Lifeline, which would subsidize broadband for low-income families.
Both of these solutions have not been met with bipartisan support, though. And beyond that, neither of them touches on a proven method: using actual textbooks and workbooks.
Everyone has access to books. Everyone can take home a physical homework assignment. No one is alienated when everyone has the same access to these resources.
meickhof@indiana.edu
@maggie_eickhoff
