The Digital Divide
As a leader in educational technology, what can I do to help make emerging technologies valuable to others, while maintaining gender, cultural, and socioeconomic sensitivity?
In order to do so, we must first understand the group of people as a whole. We must identify their needs and how the emerging technologies can best be utilized to meet those needs. Once those needs are identified, we can then devise a plan to meet those needs. In my classroom, I have students with IEP’s. The accommodations that I make allow them to learn and participate in grade level material by level the proverbial playing field so my students can have their needs met. Once we identify gender, cultural, and socioeconomic needs, then we can create an individualize plan to meet their needs with the emerging technologies.
Secondly, to make emerging technologies valuable to others, our primary focus cannot be on the device. Getting the device or innovation into everyone’s hand is good, but it is not the entire solution because the devices are useless without a person using it. As Dr. Thornburg suggested, we cannot “…do it by giving them a bunch of technology and software and then leaving them alone” (Thornburg, 2009). They will need support and guidance while trying to meet their needs. We must find a way to create an infrastructure that supports them after the device is in their hands. By doing so, we can ensure the emerging technologies continue to meet the learner’s needs while maintaining gender, cultural, and socioeconomic sensitivity.
Laureate Education, Inc. (2009). Emerging and future technology. Baltimore: Author.
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