Digital Divide?

I started reading this article and found it very interesting. What I had always thought of as just a case of luxury has become an argument of inequality. Computers and other technology is expensive and so I found having it in your home was just a luxury and of higher priority to the family. I went to a rather poor high school and we had a very good computer lab. Our school bought the computers with grant money. But according to the powers that be not having a computer in your home becomes a case of inequity. When the article continued with its ways to eliminate the intangible inequities, I was really disappointed. Having the teacher go over software before student use to be sure all students were represented seemed a little over kill. It is important to try and make all lessons culturally open but if a software program is really effective at teaching it should be used. And having women and people with disabilities come into the classroom to show how they use technology well would not encourage but discourage many adolescents from learning to use technology. To those students, these outside adults just aren’t cool, and they don’t want their peers thinking that they want to be like the presenters. As teachers, to avoid the digital divide, we need to have technology use during school hours to be expected. Part of participating in our classroom is using information gathering software and digital photography/videography. As long as the computer lab time is given in class and students aren’t expected to work on it out of class, just expecting technology use could help close the gap.