Education and the Digital Divide :: essays papers

Education and the Digital Divide closedown the digital divide involves many components, starting with the education program and teachers. epoch schools are integrating recent technologies into their programs, teachers are supposed to keep up with the latest technologies and use them in their curriculum to teach students. According to a U.S. Department of Education Report (1999), notwithstanding 24 percent of new teachers felt sufficiently wide-awake to integrate technology into the curriculum they were victimisation (Brogan, 2000). The problem is, many teachers did not grow up with computers and are not receiving the formulation they need to operate them (Brogan, 2000). Starting work as wee as 7 a.m. and leaving school as late as 5 p.m. to go home and do even more work, leaves teachers absentminded the while to encounter new technological skills. Many schools offer training programs for teachers. For example, the Palm Beach County, Florida school district teaches Web basics for teachers at middle schools and magnet schools (Brogan, 2000). This is a great idea because it is giving teachers the prospect to learn about technology and it is showing that the school district is fire in helping its employees become better at what they do.Andy Carvin states internet entree in schools isnt worth a hill of beans if teachers arent prepared to take full advantage of technology (2000). Schools spend a dress circle of money on computer hardware and software as hale as other technologies without realizing that many of their employees are unprepared to include them in their teaching and use them to their advantages. Educators often use technology as a classroom management tool rather than an educational one, allowing computer time as a reward for good behavior (Clark & Gorski, 2001). The problem with this is that students learn to use the computer for games and such because it is their reward instead of using it on their own time for educational purp oses. This is teaching them the wrong idea. Margaret Honey, director of the heart and soul for Children and Technology in NYC said it best, The bottom line is, you dont just put technology into schools or into homes and expect miracles to happen. The technology is only as good as the program that surrounds it (Meyer, 2002, p.2).Education is probably the intimately important issue that affects the ability to benefit from technology.