Should schools provide a laptop and internet access for all students?

Increasingly, lessons, lectures, homework, resources, and even tests are going digital. However, not every student has access to a computer and high-speed internet to fully participate in the world of online learning. When students need to access educational opportunities on the web, what is the school district's responsibility?

investigate

Additional resources to think about

As outbreak spreads, schools face dilemma going online
What's a school to do when some of their students can participate in online learning, but many of their students cannot?

National Digital Inclusion Alliance
National organization dedicated to supporting digital inclusion programs and serving as a bridge to policymakers and the general public.

Opportunity for all?
A 2016 report from The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop about technology and learning in lower-income families.

Two districts, two very different plans for students while school is out indefinitely
Demonstration of the digital divide comparing two towns' responses to mandated school-at-home.

Smartphones help Blacks, Hispanics bridge some - but not all - digital gaps with Whites
A quantitative Pew Research Center study demonstrating the digital divide along racial lines.

Digital gap between rural and nonrural America persists
A quantitative Pew Research Center study demonstrating the digital divide along geographic lines.

Digital divide persists even as lower-income Americans make gains in tech adoption
A quantitative Pew Research Center study demonstrating the digital divide based on wealth.

Bridging the Digital Divide for All Americans
The official Federal Communications Commission (FCC) details national efforts to address the digital divide.

contemplate

Who created this message?

What kind of “text” is it?
How similar or different is it to others of the same genre?
What are the various elements (building blocks) that make up the whole?

What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?

What do you notice (about the way the message is constructed)?
What’s the emotional appeal?
What makes it seem “real?”
What's the emotional appeal? Persuasive devices used?

How might different people understand this message differently from me?

How many other interpretations could there be?
How could we hear about them?
How can you explain the different responses?

What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message?

What type of person is the reader/watcher/listener invited to identify with?
What ideas or perspectives are left out?
How would you find what’s missing?
What judgments or statements are made about how we treat other people?

Why is this message being sent?

What's being sold in this message? What's being told?
Who is served by or benefits from the message
– the public?
– private interests?
– individuals?
– institutions?

5 Key Questions of Media Literacy used with permission from the Center for Media Literacy.
Copyright 2002-2021, Center for Media Literacy, www.medialit.com

debate