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Dakar Interac+ve has been given a pla4orm inside Social Media Week February 21h-‐22nd to expose par+cipants in the US, and worldwide to career opportuni+es in S.T.E.M related fields that are not readily understood by underserved community. Our cause is “Changing Their World”, connec+ng with classrooms, stakeholders in educa+on and influencers. We’ll discuss whether there s/ll is a digital divide, and conduct a twitpoll for results. “We live in a 21st-‐ century world where everything is digitally connected,”. Some families can’t afford a lap top or an Internets service provider, so how can their children compete? We hope to aDack the struggle and illuminate the success stories in the making of the next genera/on of Digital Warriors.
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WE’LL DISCUSS THE NEED TO EXAMINE THE DIGITAL DIVIDE THEN AND NOW?
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At a recent NBC educa+on town hall mee+ng and in an ar+cle in The Daily Beast, the former first daughter argues that the “digital divide” that caused so much concern in the mid-‐1990s is s/ll a serious issue for schools and homes.
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Ci/ng Department of Commerce data from 2010, she points out that: Less than half of minority households have access to computers with the Internet, versus more than two-‐thirds of white households.
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Even though more than 90 percent of schools today have computers with Internet access, the computers are oQen too old to be compa/ble with current educa/onal soQware and the Internet access oQen is slow and unreliable.
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Students in poorer and largely minority schools generally have less access to the computers, soQware, and online learning tools that could possibly make a real difference in their educa/on. A new digital divide has emerged: between those educators, parents and students re-‐imagining teaching and learning for the 21st century using technology, and those who are not.
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“We need more laptops, universal high speed Internet access in schools, longer school-‐open hours to shrink the digital divide kids face during the hours and days they’re not in school and training for teachers so that they understand how best to use technology,” says Clinton.
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“We have to tackle all aspects of our digital divide or we risk failing more students and falling further behind in the global race to the top.
• ”DO YOU AGREE? WHAT DO YOU THINK HAS HAPPENED TO THE DIGITAL DIVIDE IN RECENT YEARS?