Digital Divide or Digital Drift?

 In an age where connectivity is often praised as the cornerstone of progress, there exists a breach that threatens to deepen societal inequalities, known as the digital divide. Welcome back to the 24/7 trap spot blog post and today we are exploring the multifaceted issue that surpasses geographical boundaries, socioeconomic status, and generations. As we discuss this topic today we will dive into the factors that contribute to this divide that casts shadows on education, employment, healthcare, and even democratic participation. 

To begin with personal experiences of using social medias like X/Instagram to broaden my PLN (personal learning network) I have actively engaged with educators and professionals that specialized in whatever subject I was struggling with, which at the time was math. Khan Academy was one of my best ways of understanding many ways to complete complex math equations. Online they provided you with step by step assistance when practicing questions. I also would use my social medias to engage with the local schools around me to see if they were having volunteering events or any overall announcements from the school district in general just because times were constantly changing the older I got. Through interactions like X chats, following relevant hashtags, and other students it allowed me to blossom not only as an individual but also as an intellectual. 

Furthermore, the digital divide is a phenomena that describes the consecutive gap in access to utilization of digital technologies. As technology steadily becomes integrated into modern education, students lacking access to reliable internet, up-to-date hardware, and digital literacy in programs face significant barriers in accessing their educational material. The disparities display a widening gap between students from affluent homes with modern technology and those from marginalized communities. Embedded in combination of socioeconomic factors including income, geographical location, and structural barriers, the digital divide perpetuates systemic inequalities. Additionally, as someone who comes from a household that moved around a lot, I was in about fourth grade when I moved to another city within the same district. The city I moved to was a lot more urban compared to where I use to live and when I started my first day of school at this new school. I found that my class was learning a topic I learned maybe two months prior to moving, however they had the same amount of technology in the classroom and this was my first interaction with such a divide. 

Moreover, there are many academic software's out there that could influence students both creatively and academically, one I would consider is Canva. Canva is free to use online grapic designing tool that allows you to make all kinds of creative flyers, presentations, organizational charts, planners, whatever you need. Canva has many templates that would get the creative juices flowing from my students instead of having to use the same dusty Microsoft templates. Second Software would be anything Google Work Space related just because I feel google is better at keeping your items organized because it all links back to the same email account. Google is also a free resource that doesn't require you to pay for anything by the premium subscription. It's kind of like Microsoft without paying a lot to access programs that do the bare minimum sometimes. Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides are all great programs.