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Christine, I think your question needs a bit of clarification. Do you mean equity among students, classes, or schools? These are different challenges. I'm not sure that ensuring student-to-student equity is something a school can achieve, particularly when you consider that students spend 30 hours or so a week in school, versus 138 hours a week out of school. We have no control over the quantity or quality of student access to computers and the internet outside of school. As for class-to-class or school-to-school equity, that is dependent on the school or district commitment to providing equitable access. Keep in mind that equitable is not the same as equal. Thus, I might have one school with two computers in every classroom, and another school with no classroom computers, but several labs, yet each is providing about the same amount of available time per student. There are an awful lot of factors which go into providing equitable access, including classroom size, available connection speed, filtering policies etc. Some of these are enabling factors, and some are inhibiting factors. If one school has two labs with 20 computers each, and another school has one lab with 40 computers, are they the same? What if each school has an average class size of 25, does that make a difference in your thinking? What if one school has a lab of 40 computers and the other has two mobile carts, each with 20 laptops? Another question is vertical equity. Should there be similar access from grade to grade within a school or district? Do 1st grade students need technology access equal to that needed by middle school or high school students? Many districts move computers downward--new computers are placed in secondary schools, and moved to elementary schools after three years or so. Do elementary schools need the same number of computers per student as secondary schools? None of the above addresses differences in teacher ability and motivation. One teacher may have a dozen computers in her classroom, and yet do nothing fruitful with them. Another may have only a single computer, but make great use of it. Equity and access should be a driving consideration in school and district technology planning. M G Durrant Daggett School District Manila, UT > From: Christine Pon <christine.pon@gmail.com> > > Good evening, > > I just subscribed to EDTECH and am currently a student working on my > California teaching credential in English. I am taking a computers for > educators class and we have been discussing equity of access. I was > wondering, how are any of your schools ensuring that students have equal > access to computers and the Internet? It seems like it could be > challenging, so I would love to see some examples. Thanks! > > Christy Pon > christine.pon@gmail.com --- Edtech Archives, posting guidelines and other information are at: http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~edweb Please include your name, email address, and school or professional affiliation in each posting. To unsubscribe send the following command to: LISTSERV@H-NET.MSU.EDU SIGNOFF EDTECH
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