COVID-19 has introduced a host of new challenges to everyday life. But it’s also turned longstanding weaknesses in American society into acute crises. One of the biggest problems: Millions of students can’t keep up with online schoolwork because they lack internet access at home.
The “digital divide” between connected and unconnected Americans has long been a challenge for students who are increasingly required to go online to complete their homework. Up till this year, they cobbled together fixes, like using Wi-Fi networks at the school library or McDonald’s. But the challenge for internet-poor students intensified with the coronavirus and the transition to remote learning that began in the spring and is continuing this fall.
Schools have been scrambling to bridge the digital divide by subsidizing internet access for unconnected students, often tapping funds from the federal government’s $2.2 trillion CARES Act coronavirus relief package. Many school districts have…
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Source : fastcompany.com
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