Sponsored by the Center for Human Potential and Public Policy in Collaboration with the Chicago Council on Science and Technology (C2ST)
Thursday, November 20, 2008
5:15 P.M. - 7:30 P.M.*
The Standard Club
320 S. Plymouth Court | Chicago, IL 60604
The Educational Consequences of the Digital Divide
Robert W. Fairlie
University of California, Santa Cruz
Nearly 30 percent of children in the United States do not have access to the Internet in their homes. In contrast, computer and Internet use in the nation's schools is ubiquitous. Nearly all instructional classrooms in U.S. public schools have computers with Internet access, with an average of roughly 4 computers per classroom. The federal government has also made the provision of computer and Internet access to school children a top priority. For example, roughly $2 billion is spent per year on the E-rate program, which provides discounts to schools and libraries for the costs of telecommunications services and equipment.
The increasing reliance on computers and the Internet for classroom instruction, delivering educational content, and completing homework assignments suggests that disparities in home access to technology or the so-called Digital Divide may have implications for educational inequality. Surprisingly, however, the role of home computers in the educational process has drawn little attention among policymakers and academics. The answer to whether home computers improve educational outcomes is especially important in light of the large and persistent disparities in access to technology across racial, income and other demographic groups. For example, less than half of all African-Americans, Latinos and individuals with family incomes less than $50,000 use the Internet at home. In comparison, two-thirds of non-Latino whites and nearly 90 percent of individuals with family incomes greater than $50,000 use the Internet at home. Financial, informational and technical constraints may limit the optimal level of investment in personal computers and the Internet among some families.
In this talk, I will present findings from an extensive, multi-year research project examining the causes and consequences of the Digital Divide globally and in the United States funded by the William T. Grant Foundation, Community Technology Foundation of California, Computers for Classrooms, University of California Latino Policy Institute, and NET Institute. After discussing the causes of disparities in access to technology across countries and within the United States, I will explore some of the consequences on these disparities. Although access to technology may have important implications for labor market, health, political, consumer and other outcomes, I will focus on the consequences for educational outcomes. In particular, findings from several studies of the effects of home computers on high school graduation, school attendance and criminal activities among teenagers, educational outcomes of community college students, and one-to-one laptop programs will be presented.
