The digital divide increases the education gap

Greetings dear members of the Project Hope community. May this post serve to introduce myself to the community, and share one of the topics that are of interest to me and that I hope you like.

Digital divide in education. Source: Image by @emimoron, contains public domain images: computers, wifi, children.

There is no doubt that access to quality education, as a fundamental right, is facing a hard reality and a paradigm change today, in the face of the crisis generated by the pandemic. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) require the educational system to update the contents so that they are in line with the reality of this information society, but in many schools the conditions were not viable to generate educational proposals making use of ICT, and basically it was a matter that teachers, students and parents had to solve.

This analysis arises from a conversation I had recently with a friend, we met on the street and when I greeted him he told me that he was going to look for the week's activities at his son's school, I was a little surprised since I work in the education system, so I asked him why the teacher did not send them by some digital means, to which he replied that neither he had internet nor the teacher had a smartphone or computer at school.

As we can see, the educational system in many countries still presents structural problems that hinder the achievement of quality education through the so-called distance mode, especially in Latin American countries. And although several strategies have been implemented, the reality is that in many sectors of the population there is a digital divide that can have different dimensions, from limited access to resources, and even the use and adoption of ICT, because as I have often said, the technological problem is not only solved by providing schools with computers, to develop a digital environment, comprehensive processes are needed for an educational practice according to the digital conditions of the student's context.

When we talk about access, to give an example, in Venezuela only 40% of households have internet connection, and the situation is worse in rural areas, and on the other hand, not many people can afford a smartphone. So in the current context, limited access to technologies also implies a disconnection with education. But there are also other factors that influence the reception of knowledge by the student even if he has the means, which can range from defective platforms, just mention that in my state power outages and signal drop in phones is common daily; and even the way the class is developed, my brother has told me on several occasions of several errors in the material sent to his son, something that is not necessarily the fault of the teacher, since for this modality requires prior training in the use of digital resources.

Virtual education is only possible with access to resources. Source: pixabay.com.

Virtual education can represent a real challenge for parents and teachers, since the teacher must leave his role as a source of knowledge to become a guide, and the student must take greater control of the teaching and learning process, an important challenge since at home they must struggle with the difficulty of paying attention to their homework. That is why teachers are put to the test, they must develop plans and programs adapted to this context, and the lack of training in virtual environments and management of technologies only make their task more arduous.

Since this is the future, and moving towards the use of technology is inevitable, we must consider that the use of ICT will not diminish after this pandemic, so we must ensure that the lessons we have learned and the limitations that have arisen from this context evolve so that they do not continue to be a reason for the widening of the educational gap.

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Well friends, that's all I'm going to say for now, but I would like to know what you think about it, thank you very much for reading me, until next time.

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