COM 340 Post 2

Comcast and Pittsburgh Public Schools are teaming together to help under privileged schools get Internet access not only at home, but school as well. The mission goal of this project is to familiarize children with the Internet earlier so it will assist them in their educational careers later on. Some additional perks to this program is the $9.95 a month Internet fee and computer rentals for low income families.

Relevance and affordability are what should be targeted when working towards breaking down the digital divide. Non users are not getting connected because they feel no need to or it shows no relevance toward their lives. In fact, they are actually missing out on opportunities in education, health care, and employment. This can be from booking a simple plane ticket to filling out a job application online. The divide is not just about jobs, but that is mainly what drives our economy and people need jobs to survive.

This movement has to start in the US and work out the glitches before we can move to great barriers in third world countries. As of right now there is a 30 to 32 percent difference in the learning points between privileged and under privileged children in math and reading skills.

Learning these computer habits at younger ages can help kids when they get older since most of the work done in school is done during their time at home. Not knowing how to properly look for resources will hinder their learning and possibly lead to dropouts. Also, some may not enroll at all because they may feel discouraged to learn about the Internet or leap that barrier. The enrollment may be online as well and that can be another factor too.

Preaching to parents the importance of the Internet can be a start to help the children so long. They are still at a young age and more computers are at schools than home for the under privileged. Making a requirement to learn these tools is better than moving up letter grades with no understanding at all. That will just place another burden on them than as they grow older and out of touch with technology they failed to learn. So, parents are the key holders to their child’s success at the young ages and should take initiative with these types of programs. This will slowly start to break down some of the resistance people have towards learning about the Internet.