Giving Compass' Take:

· Jeff Murray explains that unequal access to technology for schools and students is limiting progress, opportunity and potential.  

· What are some factors limiting equal access to technology for schools and students? How can these barriers be overcome? 

· Read more about unequal access to technology and education equity.

K–12 education in America is making greater and greater use of digital resources. Schools are using them for ease (group collaboration via Google Docs), expense (electronic textbooks and curricular materials are cheap and easily distributed), and convenience (group chats and electronic grade reporting make necessary communication quick and uniform). Additionally, the workplaces into which graduates will emerge run on digital devices—even in more traditional fields such as medicine and manufacturing.

It is easy for those of us old enough to have memories of yesterday’s analogue world to minimize this evolution. We adapted to email easily enough and were quick to trade our pagers for flip phones, after all. But the more that non-electronic alternatives bow out and the more our world is run by digital natives, we ignore inequitable access to technology at the peril of our young people. A new brief from ACT, Inc. shines some interesting light on the status of technology access among today’s students.

Read the full article about student access to technology by Jeff Murray at The Thomas B. Fordham Institute.