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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. Only 13 percent of New Mexico’s population has access to a low-price internet service plan, according to Broadband Now, a research group.

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Connecticut Gives Every Student a Computer and Home Internet to Close the Digital Divide

Edsurge

Even before the pandemic, more than 25 million Americans lacked access to broadband internet. But even that wasn’t enough to completely close the divide, says Doug Casey, the executive director at the Connecticut Commission for Educational Technology, who heads the home broadband part of the program. In Norwalk, Conn.,

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

Edsurge

And among those who do have access, not all have a broadband connection. A separate Pew Research Center survey found that 17 percent of adults access the internet exclusively through smartphones. Most of those are in households that make less than $50,000 a year, and many live in rural areas. the organization’s executive director.

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Q&A: Tracy Smith on the Value of a Team Approach to Digital Equity

EdTech Magazine

Tracy Smith, Parkland’s assistant to the superintendent for operations, spoke with EdTech about the district’s strategies and best practices for improving digital equity and shared her hopes for bringing broadband to every home in the Lehigh Valley region. . MORE FROM EDTECH: Learn how mobile apps might help close the “homework gap.”.

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A school district is building a DIY broadband network

The Hechinger Report

But Bredder can’t give students the tool he considers most indispensable to 21st-century learning — broadband internet beyond school walls. They’re building their own countywide broadband network. This is an equity issue,” said Bredder. “If The hardware on the towers then blasts that connection about 10 miles into the valley below.

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COVID-19 Has Widened the ‘Homework Gap’ Into a Full-Fledged Learning Gap

Edsurge

Educators and digital equity advocates have tried a number of solutions to close the so-called “homework gap,” from deploying mobile hotspots to getting help from local businesses , but the problem has persisted. billion for schools and libraries to buy computers, tablets and hotspots for their students during the pandemic.

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OPINION: The biggest danger to U.S. higher education? Losing 20 years’ worth of gains in access for first-generation and minority students

The Hechinger Report

A Strada Public Viewpoint survey released in June found that Black and Latino students are more likely than white students to have changed or canceled their education plans because of the pandemic. Related: OPINION: College in a pandemic is tough enough — without reliable broadband access, it’s nearly impossible.