Digital Divide/Digital Inequality

While I was familiar with the concept of the "Digital Divide" before this assignment, I knew nothing of the more nuanced (and increasingly more relevant) notion of Digital Inequality.  It certainly made me think more deeply about the challenges my students face, particularly those that likely lack a strong social support network.  Putting technology into someone's hands doesn't allow them to span the Digital Divide immediately!  I'll certainly try to always remember this in the future, and to provide ample opportunities for my students to seek assistance.

In addition to raising my awareness of student challenges around technology, thinking holistically about my school led me to the conclusion that other members of our community are also experiencing Digital Inequality: our teachers.  In order for our school to meet its goal of producing 21st century graduates capable of using technology effectively, our community will have to move forward together as a more cohesive group.  I will most definitely encourage our administration to provide more teacher training on technology.

In preparing the presentation, I was surprised at some of the advice in "Five Ways to Reduce PowerPoint Overload."  Before reading this, I was definitely of the ilk that "more is better" in terms of the amount of information one should present to the audience.  I tried to avoid "information overload" by putting as many details in my "notes" as I could.  However, I'm not sure I was as successful as I could have been in this regard.  Another difficulty I encountered was centered around the platform I chose: Google Presentation.  I was planning on narrating the slides (reading the notes I added), but discovered that Google Presentation doesn't allow for this yet.  Thus, if given more time to revisit this project, I would focus on two areas to improve it: editing my slides to ensure only the most important information was included and exploring alternative platforms that allow for voice narration to make it more dynamic and engaging.


Digital Divide/Digital Inequality Presentation