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OPINION: How targeted federal action could finally chip away at the broadband racism faced by Black students

The Hechinger Report

Even after service providers launched discounts for broadband services during the pandemic — often targeting online learning — Black Americans across the South saw little change in their access to broadband services. But nowhere is the digital divide larger than in the Black rural South. Add the bill’s $14.25

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A school district is building a DIY broadband network

The Hechinger Report

But Bredder can’t give students the tool he considers most indispensable to 21st-century learningbroadband internet beyond school walls. If some kids can go home and learn, discover and backfill information, while other kids’ learning stops at school, that’s a huge problem.”. This is an equity issue,” said Bredder. “If

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Digital divide: Gap is narrowing, but how will schools maintain progress?

The Hechinger Report

School officials in the seaside town scrambled to purchase enough devices for all their students to learn online last year after the pandemic hurtled kids out of buildings. There’s a simmering sense of anticipation about how far educators have come with technology, and its potential to enhance student learning.

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Millions of Students Are Still Without WiFi and Tech—Why Haven’t Policymakers Stepped Up?

Edsurge

And while systems might not continue to operate as 100 percent virtual schools in a post-COVID world, better access to learning technology is no longer negotiable in this increasingly-digital world. of California’s Public Contract Code only addressed online learning in the context of surplus technology and nonprofit computer labs.

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The 5 Strategies States Should Pursue Now to Make the Most of Future EdTech Investments in ESSA

Doug Levin

As such, states can expect to support a great variety of approaches to educational technology in their districts under the program, from those that spend some smaller portion of funds on activities to fill in the gaps in local efforts to those that devote the maximum allowable funds to ambitious personalized learning implementations.

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FCC changes its rules, puts educational spectrum up for open auction

The Hechinger Report

In Albemarle County, Virginia, where school officials estimate up to 20 percent of students lack home broadband, radio towers rise above an apple orchard on Carters Mountain, outside Charlottesville. We’ve kind of realized that schools aren’t necessarily the best at operating broadband networks, so we should let people specialize.”.

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How one city closed the digital divide for nearly all its students

The Hechinger Report

While most schools across the country are fully back in person, students continue to struggle to complete homework assignments or participate in remote learning because they lack adequate internet service and access to a computer at home — a phenomenon commonly referred to as the “homework gap.” The homework gap isn’t new.