Social Justice

During this entire class I have wondered about what I would do if I was teaching in a low income area where not every student had internet at home. Although I get very excited about using everything I am learning in this class, that has always been in the back of my mind. I think that the article had a very good idea about discreetly finding out what kind of access your students have to technology. I like the idea of doing a survey at the beginning of class. However, I don’t feel like giving them information for a community center or library is sufficient. It definitely makes a difference if that student lives within walking distance to one of these locations, but if not, they are most likely not going to utilize these resources. This may be because of lack of transportation or it is just one more step to finish their homework that the other students don’t have and they may just not do it.

My opinion is that if only a few students, or maybe even one, do not have easy access to internet or the technology required to complete an assignment, I should not require the assignment in the first place or I should give them an option to complete the assignment in an alternative form. They do still need to learn important technological skills, so if I was in a school that had the resources, I would make all technological assignments to do in-class. If I am not in a school with the technological resources I would then follow the advice of the article and search for resources using the Digital Equity Portal and Toolkit. I may also speak to my principle and superintendent or try to get the community involved in raising money for the school. If I am in a low income community and a school that does not have the resources, my guess is that I will be advocating for my students in many other ways as well. Technology definitely deserves a spot on my “to fight for” list because, like the article stated, having technological skills is vital for the future success of our students.

I would do my best to not allow the lack of access of a few students ruin the chance for the rest of my students to gain technological skills. I would simply do most or all of the technology based assignments in-class or I would give the students without access an alternative if possible, so the rest of the students could do the assignment with technology. For example, I created a webquest that required my students to make a travel blog. For a student who had no access to a computer or internet at home or near home, I would print out the webquest pages for them, allow them time in class to research and print out information or go to the library and allow them to turn in written blog posts.

I think there are ways around a lot of the issues, but I think the hardest to overcome would not be your students not having access at home, but the school not even having access to technology either. Now I realize the importance of technology in the classroom and I hope to advocate for it in my future teaching job.