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Satellite Broadband Is Expanding. Can That Reduce the Digital Divide?

Edsurge

The satellites will be part of the future of internet access, but using them in education will require some creativity, Johannes Bauer, chair of the Quello Center at Michigan State University, says. And that sudden shift exposed inequities in who has access to broadband.

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How to ensure home broadband access for every student

eSchool News

When the coronavirus pandemic forced students into remote learning this past spring, many telecommunications companies stepped up to offer free or deeply discounted home broadband access to families who couldn’t afford it. Related content: What the pandemic has revealed about digital equity.

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The Pandemic Released a Stream of Money for Broadband. Will That Advance Digital Equity?

Edsurge

For a number of years, she’s relied on discount options for broadband so that her own family can connect to the internet. The broadband speed is supposed to be up to 300 gigabytes — considered moderate usage for an American household — but it can run slow because everyone is using it, Tang says. Those resources seem to work.

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OPINION: College in a pandemic is tough enough — without reliable broadband access, it’s nearly impossible

The Hechinger Report

Sadly, though, the reality is that millions of Americans — in rural and urban areas alike, and including many underrepresented minorities — lack the reliable broadband connections needed to access postsecondary and K-12 education in a nation that remains in partial lockdown. Schools get creative.

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The Pandemic Fueled Gains in Digital Equity. But for Native Tribes, It’s Complicated.

Edsurge

Broadband — high-speed internet — is critical for learning. Without it, students can struggle to turn in or even access school assignments. And the pandemic focused attention on inequitable access to broadband services in education. In rural tribal areas, about 30 percent of people were unable to access broadband.

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Here’s What Schools Can Do For the Millions of Students Without Internet Access

Edsurge

There's a big giant access issue, both in terms of what happens when there’s no internet and then also what happens when you don’t have a device that can go on the internet,” says Beth Holland, the digital equity and rural project director at the Consortium for School Networking, an industry group for school tech directors.

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Rural areas have been slow to connect to broadband. More public funding could speed things up

The Hechinger Report

But there is one essential that has always been scarce in this part of the country and that she couldn’t stock up on: Broadband access. Perry’s home isn’t wired for broadband access. Cellphone access is also spotty on the Perry property. Credit: Kelli Johansen for The Hechinger Report.

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