A convergence of two events yesterday brought me to this post today. First, I read Paul Blogush’s post about an apparent lack of racial diversity within the conversations/networks related to School/Classroom 2.0. Second, of course, was Barack Obama’s historic evening.

I’ve written quite a bit about digital equity in education, including a blog post a while back (on MLK Day 2008). Today, I look at some recent statistics on computer uses in schools disaggregated by race. [NOTE: these data are generated with the NAEP Data Explorer. Thus, these are nationally representative data].

Looking first at computer use for math, by race, in 2007, at 4th grade:

and then at 8th grade:

What do we see? Well, two things: First, computer use for math is more frequent in 4th grade than 8th grade (BTW, that’s a consistent finding across lots of ed. tech. research; what’s up with the secondary school teachers?). Second, at both grade levels, white students are more likely than African-American students to “never or hardly ever” use computers for math (and, yes, statheads, those differences are “statistically significant”). So, I can’t say that African-American students use computers for math more than white students, but I can say they are less likely to “never or hardly ever” use computers for math in school.

It is fair, then, to ask what the students are doing on the computers for math. Is it just “drill and kill” kinds of stuff? Well, take a look at the following figure which shows the data on student use of computers to play math games (4th grade):

African-American students are more likely than any other group of students to be using computers for math games. That finding, IMHO, is good and important. Why important? Because if we want kids to be using computers to facilitate/advance learning, for African-American children, that needs to happen in the schools because there continues to be a significant digital divide in the homes. Consider the following:

Approximately 97% of white 8th grade students reported having access to a computer at home, compared to 84% of African-American students (and 83% of Latina/o students). Also, as per the table in the earlier blog post, African-Americans and people in rural areas are significantly less likely to have broadband Internet access.

So, the story (as I wrote in my earlier post) is that “the institution of public schooling is doing its part to level the digital playing field. The problem is that the significant inequities that exist within homes present a huge barrier to using technology to extend the learning day and to bridge a home-school connection.”

Thus, if we’re going to have serious conversations about School/Classroom 2.0, we need to be cognizant of issues of digital equity. Furthermore, we need a national policy agenda (Senators Obama and McCain, are you reading/listening?) that emphasizes eliminating the digital divide. Personally, I am going to be paying close attention at NECC to see if others are, in fact, mindful of these issues.

Tags: computer use, digital equity