Christa McAuliffe Conference, 2013Manchester NH

Nonprofit initiative to close the digital divide at home in five dimensions:

BroadbandHardware

Educational contentTech support

Financing for low-income families with poor credit

Our Goals Today

1. Raise awareness that the digital divide at home

• Has at least 5 key dimensions• Must be closed• Can be closed in collaboration with

committed partners

2. Learn about resources available today to assist

you to close the divide for your lowest income students

5 Key Dimensions of Digital Equity(PT3 Program, ISTE special interest group)

Equitable student access to:

1. The stuff – hardware, Internet, and software

2. High quality digital educational content3. Culturally responsive educational

content4. Opportunities to create their own

content5. Educators (and school leaders) who

embrace the importance of digital equity

The Dark Ages of the Digital Divide: just a decade ago

No digital equity solutions at scale

Big deal to get a dozen refurbished PCs

No affordable connectivity

“Open” educational resources – what?

Not an easy time to be an equity advocate

Digital Divide was an overwhelming foe

Comcast’s Internet Essentials

Affordable broadband for free/reduced lunch eligible families in Comcast communities

nationwide

2 million eligible families

The Internet Essentials initiative provided leverage to seek out partners to scale up affordable:

The wonderful power of erosion…

GovConnection – NH-based national leader reselling hundreds of thousands of technology products

Pool low-income families’ buying power to…go to scale…thus lowering price per computing device…making essential home technology resources more affordable

Started with Dell – laptops, tablets…

Now expanding to wireless routers for the home

Seeking printer manufacturer with low ink refill pricing

Are also creating affordable “technology toolbox” for all future educators that IHEs can “require”, so candidates can finance via financial aid

Wanted to start with foundational skill development in early literacy

Capstone Digital’s myON Reader: comprehensive reading environment for year-round literacy skill development

Will be building pointers to open educational content – www.oercommons.org

GovConnection & hardware co.’s willing to create customized drive images

Follett strongly interested

EBSCO on board with educator development resources

Susan Ballard, AASL’s immediate past-president

Leadership of ALA and AASL agreed to

(1)inform low-income children & families re existence and value of D.O. resources(2)Help them use these resources safely & effectively

GenYes training at-risk teens to provide tech support for teachers agreed to

(3)Adapt training for teens to provide tech support at home for families(4)Customize training to discounted devices –e.g., home wireless routers

Free pilot in NH until we co-generate grant support for local GenYes chapters

NHSLMA, NHSTE & NHDRC incredibly supportive of this whole effort

Tap financial support under Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)

Expect to launch pilot in 2014 in San Antonio with

• SAISD• Accion Texas• Federal Reserve Bank of Texas

To offer low-interest financing to families with bad or no credit

Hope successful pilot will convince banking industry toVoluntarily commit 1/10 of 1% of CRA funds for digital divide

This would free up…

…$200 annually for digital divide funding

More than “cheap boxes and wires”

For this effort to mean anything

we need educators, librarians, IT experts, school leaders and communitieshelping impoverished children learn to use these resources effectively

for educational & economic opportunity

“For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length—and there I travel looking, looking breathlessly.”

– Carlos Casteneda

Presented by

Robert T. McLaughlin, Ph.D.Founder & Co-Chair, Digital Opportunity ConsortiumChair, Association of Teacher Educator’s technology commissionAdministrator, Professional Educator Preparation Program ApprovalNew Hampshire Department of Education101 Pleasant StreetConcord NH 03301Office: 603.271.2634Cell: 802.249.1159