Technology Integration Issues: Digital inequality

Integrating Technology and Creating Change as Teacher Leaders (TNLT Chapter 12)

I’ve grown up during the digital age and sometimes I question the integration of technology in the classroom. I guess I am reluctant to use technology in my lessons, but I also fear that I will become dependent on technology and so will my students. I also do not understand how we can integrate and infuse technology into education when not every school can afford it and not every student has access to technology at home. I feel that there are many challenges teachers face in their efforts to integrate technology into their teaching.

(https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603083/the-unacceptable-persistence-of-the-digital-divide/)

As TNLT Chapter 12 states, “differences in access to technology, commonly known as the digital divide, continues to be a persistent and pervasive educational issue.” If you look at the figure below, there’s a correlation between low socio-economic status and having access to technology.

 There is also a correlation between racial/ethnical background and student interactions with technology.  This translates into school because those students, the technology have-nots, are having a different experience with technology than everyone else. In fact, “those with reduced access to multiple technologies at home or in school are educationally disadvantaged because they are less able to use and learn from the latest tools” (Maloy, Verok, Ruth-Ellen, Sharon & Woolf, 2017, p. 301).  These students have different technology experiences inside and outside school. How can teachers address these students and their experiences? I guess this is why I am hesitant. Teaching without technology allows the students with technological deficits to be on the same playing field as other students. However, that’s also bad pedagogy because as a 21^st century educator, I should be helping students become technologically literate. I am confused!!