How Does the Digiverse Still Divide Our Classrooms?

Five years after the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the world is still taking meetings and hosting lectures from behind a screen. There is plenty of evidence as to how technological advances became not only useful but essential in classrooms during the pandemic. While some students flourished and others struggled taking classes online during the pandemic years, some students are still grappling with the digital divide. 

Educational disparities related to technology, internet access, and digital skills are still prevalent in socioeconomically disadvantaged and differently-abled students in post-COVID communities. 

Some Children Left Behind

According to a study from the Stanford Center for Racial Justice about the impact that AI may have on racial disparities in education from 2024, underserved populations are more at risk of falling behind on new technologies like AI. 

Dr. Paul Cleary from the University of Massachusetts-Boston and Dr. Glenn Pierce from Northeastern University concur that digital integration could improve digital and economic opportunities. Their study from 2024 found that the remote revolution of the COVID pandemic only highlighted the digital divide, thus bringing light to existing disparities rather than bridging any gaps in access. 

Moreover, mounting educational disparities can make the digital divide even more prevalent. It’s noteworthy that differently-abled students with ADHD, anxiety, autism, language barriers, depression, or an antipathy for high-school settings may still fall short in education regardless of their level of access to technology.  

In Dallas, disparities are increasingly deep. A 2024 study from Saawan S. Duvvuri of the University School of Nashville found that in the 239 DFW public high schools surveyed are students who are “highly segregated by racial and socioeconomic factors.” Also, socioeconomically disadvantaged students tend to correlate with lower levels of economic success. 

The High School Longitudinal Survey notes that lower-income families have a lower chance of sending their children to college, 51%, in fact, compared to 89% from families who are more well off. 

What does socioeconomic success have to do with internet access? Quite a bit, actually. 

What’s Keeping Students In the Dark?

A study on Americans’ Use of Mobile Technology and Home Broadband from the Pew Research Center in 2024 found that only 57% of households with an income less than $30,000 subscribed to broadband internet compared to a staggering 76% in the next highest income bracket of $30,000 to $69,999 annually. 

That same study noted a similar pattern among levels of formal education. Though correlation never equals causation, it would be inaccurate to say that in this day and age, one’s education level is completely unhindered by having internet access. Information and technology are almost becoming synonymous in today’s post-COVID learning environment. 

To support this point, over one-fourth (28%) of children reported not using the internet either at school or at home, in the study by Cleary and Pierce. 

Moreover, young women are more at risk of falling behind in their studies, regardless of technology access. California State University researchers Xuefei “Nancy” Deng and Sherine El Hag published their study in the Journal of Information Systems Education, 35(3) Summer 2024. The pair found that women face more of a burden emotionally and physically due to online learning. Women are more likely to be working full or part-time jobs or be a caregiver while pursuing their studies.  

Though technology is constantly developing and improving upon itself, our students cannot do this without help. Harvard Online argues that it is important to continue “maximizing student engagement, and refining the quality of online courses” amid the advent of new teaching technologies.

Playing Catch-up

While the digital divide remains after the world’s COVID-19 technology boom, it can no longer be classified into “Haves” and “Have-nots.” Instead, policymakers and administrative leaders must work to understand the specific and varying levels of technology access and digital skills in underserved students. Especially if they want to show their commitment to closing the nationwide education gap.

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) defines digital equity as “necessary for civic and cultural participation, employment, lifelong learning, and access to essential services.” Not only will the digital divide uplift our children to be the best versions of themselves, it will also benefit them in other areas and stages of life. 

Catherine Breen, Managing Director of Harvard Online, says online learning today is constantly being caused by an increasing investment in technology across all sectors of industry. One factor she thinks is considerably changing online learning is the use of new pedagogy or methods of teaching. 

AI, for example, can also help multilingual students learn, making it an asset to the large number of schools in Texas that are bilingual or multilingual. 

One teacher from Rancho Milpitas Middle School in Milpitas, Calif, can attest to this. 

English Language Arts teacher Victoria Salas Salcedo uses AI to help give her students more feedback on their writing assignments.

Salcedo refers to it as similar to having a second teacher in the classroom to individually coach and encourage students who may be falling short of the mark. 

“For students on the other end [of my high-achieving students], they were encouraged because they had immediate, direct feedback that would show them the exact space in their writing where they could improve. As their teacher, it was amazing to see students go back to the revision process multiple times,” Salcedo said. 

This solution demands a multifaceted approach from community to community, to ensure that everyone has the same opportunities and benefits.

However, some educational researchers argue for a few main points to close the gap.

Step 1: Ask administrations and other donors to get more technology in our underserved schools. 

“Committing to increasing educational technology resources in schools will have multiple future societal benefits,” Cleary and Pierce explain, calling for a coordinated approach involving government, educational institutions, and the private sector. 

Step 2: Address existing internal issues and fix them using this technology.

Closing educational gaps can be resolved with technology, more specifically, with AI in cases similar to Salcedo’s English class. 

Having better access to a quality education is directly affecting the new wave of online learning, Harvard Online relays. 

Step 3: Keep teaching digital literacy to students as they receive newer forms of technologies and strategies for learning.

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance report also found that institutions that cater to students needing a leg-up in digital literacy and technology access make for a more equitable environment. Thus, the key to alleviating socioeconomic disparities that affect the digital divide is supported access. If students feel encouraged and are given the proper tools to learn, the barriers keeping them from success will lessen. Equity and access are the solutions to the current digital divide, but it’s dependent on the community to pressure policymakers and administrative heads to get students the resources they need.