Essential Dimensions of Systemic Digital Equity
The National Collaborative is committed to developing, researching and scaling a systemic approach to digital equity. It makes no sense in the digital age to invest in economic development initiatives in high poverty communities without full integration of digital equity measures. Equally, what value are “cheap boxes and wires” for low-income learners, families, communities and wage earners if these resources aren’t tied deliberately and thoughtfully to concurrent efforts to open up pathways to STEM and other living wage careers?
Digital equity in itself will result in insignificant improvements in quality of life unless tightly linked by diverse local leaders to corresponding efforts to dramatically improve educational and economic opportunity, health outcomes and other key social impacts.
Therefore, systemic digital equity investments include sustained attention to at least the following essential dimensions:
Broadband: This is arguably the single most essential “food group” in digital equity, along with access to devices. There are a small but growing number of cable and wireless Internet providers who offer increasingly discounted broadband for low-income learners and families.
Computing Devices: Along with broadband, access to devices that include a keyboard are another essential resource. Keyboards are crucial for such vital purposes as writing essays, writing code, completing loan and job applications, seeking access to capital and credit, and civic engagement in an increasingly digital world.
Multilingual Tech Support: 25 years of experience in infusing technology into PK-12 education and educator preparation has taught the world’s education technology integration leaders that even full 24/7 access to the Internet and devices will not ensure robust, personally meaningful and educationally and economically productive use without sustained, personalized tech support and training. Such support needs to be multilingual to ensure that linguistic and cultural barriers do not render Web and device access worthless. There are proven, scaled nonprofit programs ready to assist additional communities to develop self-sustaining programs that equip linguistically diverse youths with the skills to provide tech support (and prepare them with very promising living wage careers in the process).
Educational and Productivity Apps: Educational and productivity software (“apps”) are proliferating. There are stellar nonprofit initiatives that are engaging tens of thousands of educators and end users in “curating” databases of highly rated free and low-cost apps, searchable by learner’s age/grade level (from cradle to senior citizen), subject area, platform (Android, Windows, Apple, etc.) and cost. Knowledge of these resources is invaluable to assist learners to make full use of their technology resources and connectivity.
Open and Deep Web Educational Content: The best content is not always easy to find with a Google, Bing, Siri or Yahoo search. Several stellar nonprofit initiatives curate “open” (free) educational resources, making them searchable by topic, learner’s age/grade level, and subject. Equally, there is a small but growing number of public-private partnerships to pool the buying power of growing numbers of learners in order to drive down the cost of unlimited access to exemplary fee-based, “Deep Web” educational content (e.g., vast databases of full text academic journals, e-books and periodicals). Both the open and Deep Web co-op strategies offer great promise for ensuring that all learners enjoy equitable access to stellar learning materials.
Libraries and Librarians: Librarians are perhaps the single most important profession of the digital age. Their training, expertise and desire to serve as guides to all aspects of digital content and tools make them incomparable partners and leaders in a community’s efforts to make sure that all user’ most pressing needs for relevant, trustworthy information are met.
Low-Interest Financing: Many low-income families do not yet possess devices and even very inexpensive devices are out of reach for the poorest families that must struggle toward the end of each month to buy groceries and other necessities. Strategies have long been deployed enabling families with even weak or no credit to enjoy access to credit – e.g., the use of Community Reinvestment Act, municipal bond funding, and philanthropic funds, to create self-sustaining revolving loan funds for affordable housing and micro-business development. These funding sources and strategies need to be adapted to make vitally needed contributions to efforts enabling low-income families to finance devices and broadband for their children, at interest rates and prices low enough that they can still feed and clothe their families.
Financial Literacy Education: As those familiar with successful micro-lending programs can tell us, financial literacy education is essential for low-income families and wage earners that access low-interest financing, so that they can successfully repay their loans, build credit, and sustain the loan funds assets for future lending.
Living Wage Career Pipeline Development: We regard services that assist low-income learners of all ages to effectively prepare for and enter into living wage careers as, in fact, not an adjunct to digital equity but a primary purpose of digital equity. Unless and until we assist low-income wage earners in large numbers to enter living wage careers, we will continue to doom impoverished families and neighborhoods to intergenerational poverty, social injustice and despair.
Evaluation: To ensure that local systemic digital equity efforts are effective, local decision makers need to fully incorporate investments in robust, ongoing formative evaluation, to garner promising and proven practices, inform our decisions, celebrate our successes, and keep our “eyes on the prize” of moving the dials that matter, in terms of educational and economic opportunity, civic engagement and community vitality and self-determination.
Digital equity in itself will result in insignificant improvements in quality of life unless tightly linked by diverse local leaders to corresponding efforts to dramatically improve educational and economic opportunity, health outcomes and other key social impacts.
Therefore, systemic digital equity investments include sustained attention to at least the following essential dimensions:
Broadband: This is arguably the single most essential “food group” in digital equity, along with access to devices. There are a small but growing number of cable and wireless Internet providers who offer increasingly discounted broadband for low-income learners and families.
Computing Devices: Along with broadband, access to devices that include a keyboard are another essential resource. Keyboards are crucial for such vital purposes as writing essays, writing code, completing loan and job applications, seeking access to capital and credit, and civic engagement in an increasingly digital world.
Multilingual Tech Support: 25 years of experience in infusing technology into PK-12 education and educator preparation has taught the world’s education technology integration leaders that even full 24/7 access to the Internet and devices will not ensure robust, personally meaningful and educationally and economically productive use without sustained, personalized tech support and training. Such support needs to be multilingual to ensure that linguistic and cultural barriers do not render Web and device access worthless. There are proven, scaled nonprofit programs ready to assist additional communities to develop self-sustaining programs that equip linguistically diverse youths with the skills to provide tech support (and prepare them with very promising living wage careers in the process).
Educational and Productivity Apps: Educational and productivity software (“apps”) are proliferating. There are stellar nonprofit initiatives that are engaging tens of thousands of educators and end users in “curating” databases of highly rated free and low-cost apps, searchable by learner’s age/grade level (from cradle to senior citizen), subject area, platform (Android, Windows, Apple, etc.) and cost. Knowledge of these resources is invaluable to assist learners to make full use of their technology resources and connectivity.
Open and Deep Web Educational Content: The best content is not always easy to find with a Google, Bing, Siri or Yahoo search. Several stellar nonprofit initiatives curate “open” (free) educational resources, making them searchable by topic, learner’s age/grade level, and subject. Equally, there is a small but growing number of public-private partnerships to pool the buying power of growing numbers of learners in order to drive down the cost of unlimited access to exemplary fee-based, “Deep Web” educational content (e.g., vast databases of full text academic journals, e-books and periodicals). Both the open and Deep Web co-op strategies offer great promise for ensuring that all learners enjoy equitable access to stellar learning materials.
Libraries and Librarians: Librarians are perhaps the single most important profession of the digital age. Their training, expertise and desire to serve as guides to all aspects of digital content and tools make them incomparable partners and leaders in a community’s efforts to make sure that all user’ most pressing needs for relevant, trustworthy information are met.
Low-Interest Financing: Many low-income families do not yet possess devices and even very inexpensive devices are out of reach for the poorest families that must struggle toward the end of each month to buy groceries and other necessities. Strategies have long been deployed enabling families with even weak or no credit to enjoy access to credit – e.g., the use of Community Reinvestment Act, municipal bond funding, and philanthropic funds, to create self-sustaining revolving loan funds for affordable housing and micro-business development. These funding sources and strategies need to be adapted to make vitally needed contributions to efforts enabling low-income families to finance devices and broadband for their children, at interest rates and prices low enough that they can still feed and clothe their families.
Financial Literacy Education: As those familiar with successful micro-lending programs can tell us, financial literacy education is essential for low-income families and wage earners that access low-interest financing, so that they can successfully repay their loans, build credit, and sustain the loan funds assets for future lending.
Living Wage Career Pipeline Development: We regard services that assist low-income learners of all ages to effectively prepare for and enter into living wage careers as, in fact, not an adjunct to digital equity but a primary purpose of digital equity. Unless and until we assist low-income wage earners in large numbers to enter living wage careers, we will continue to doom impoverished families and neighborhoods to intergenerational poverty, social injustice and despair.
Evaluation: To ensure that local systemic digital equity efforts are effective, local decision makers need to fully incorporate investments in robust, ongoing formative evaluation, to garner promising and proven practices, inform our decisions, celebrate our successes, and keep our “eyes on the prize” of moving the dials that matter, in terms of educational and economic opportunity, civic engagement and community vitality and self-determination.