Bridging the Digital Divide

This class has completely changed my view on the importance of technology in the classroom. Due to the fact that I have never been the most technology advanced person and have still made it through life just fine I just never say why so many people though it was so important. After taking this class as well as most every class I am currently in I see that it would be holding my students back to not implement technology into the classroom. This generation as well as future generations have access to these amazing tools and it is my job as an educator to help them become a part of this digital world. Even today we can see how having access to the internet is at times crucial in order to partake in certain class projects and even outside of the classroom the internet is not only used to communicate with people around the world for leisure purposes, but companies will hold interviews via the web. Technology is going to continue to develop and become a crucial part in all of our lives and therefore it is very important for students to begin feeling comfortable with these tools at a young age.
In order to help students gain this comfort level it is important that they have digital access in the classroom. It is one thing to learn how to do something, but I find that students will grasp the information better if they are able to interact with these tools in order to understand the wide variety of ways to use it. If the school that I work at is unable to provide the technology that I would like to have my students use during the year than I would like to work with the school to acquire such equipment. There does not need to be a computer or any other device I might be using for every single student because they can work in groups, or I will create stations so students can partake in different parts of the assignment using different equipment. In order to obtain more digital access for my students I would start by asking the school what the issues with acquiring it is. I will then write a grant asking for the equipment at my school. I also would try and work with parents and the PTA to see if there are any connections I can find there or maybe set up some sort of fundraiser to earn money for the school.
The teachers that I follow on twitter have shown me how they are trying to bridge the digital divide. It was difficult to find explicit information on how they attempt to get technology into their classrooms if they do not have it, but they do post information to help fellow teachers use technology in their classrooms and apply it to their content. So using this information and putting this information out there to help other teachers is a way that they are working to get more technology in their classrooms. One teacher has provided a link to his blog "free technology for the teacher" when I went to this site it provides a virtual tour of the Lincoln Memorial. Many schools are not able to travel to see these historical places, but having access to the internet can provide students to still get a feel for what it would be like to see it in person. http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/11/great-virtual-tour-of-lincoln-memorial.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
http://techlearning.com/blogs/22558 I thought that this was interesting to bring into the idea of bridging the digital divide because it is Ten Ideas for Getting Started with 21st Century Teaching and Learning. The first thing that is said on this is that having the proper equipment which involves the laptop and projector that we are concerned we will not have access to in our classroom. It is also showing how important it is to obtain these things and hopefully someday we will gain access to them.
This also was a really cool website that intrigued me and made me think about the digital divide that we not only see in our classroom, but between us and the rest of the world and this is a website that brings everyone together. This site helps students and teachers collaborate with others all around the world using this technology which we all hope to have. http://iearn.org/
It was difficult to find websites about how people are actually attempting to bridge the gap, but I found a lot of ideas to use in classrooms. All of these sites are further proving my point on the importance of technology in the classroom because there are so many cool things you are able to do like this story about how students used cell phones to map the slums of Brazil. Things like cell phones might be easier to gain access to because you do not need a lot of them to do projects like this. http://www.pbs.org/idealab/2009/11/using-mobile-phones-to-map-the-slums-of-brazil311.html
http://www.oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/408
This website was also very interesting in how important it is to bridge the digital divide across the world. But it also acknowledges that having access to this technology is not enough, one must also know how to properly use the tools. This is important and this is why it is important for teachers to educate students how to use technology.
I hope that someday we all have access to these tools and in the mean time there are many sites available providing great ways to bring technology into the classroom even if you are not equipped with a variety of tools there are still ways to help teach your students. It is important that we continue to work toward bridging the gap and knowing that teachers are out there working together to do that is very helpful to us pre-service teachers. There are so many ways to bring these ideas into a social studies classroom such as the virtual tour of the Lincoln memorial. Things like this are important to a history classroom because it can help to bring the content alive. This makes it more interesting for students.