Formative experience with technology:

Technology has become a crucial factor in education and something that is almost required for students to be able to access in order to succeed in school. In 2016, after learning about disparities in health care through a health program I participated in, I developed a better understanding of the health care issues facing communities around me. I then did a Community Scan, which is research done in public health offices to discover the disparities in different communities. As a resident of Rohnert Park, I researched Sonoma County health reports, employment, and graduation rates and did an in-depth look at how residents are faring in three fundamental areas of life: health, access to knowledge, and living standards. I had conversations with public health workers to try to understand why most of the population in my city did not attend college. As one would expect, I discovered a strong correlation between education, income, and lifestyles. With a better understanding, I set out to empower students at my school to pursue higher education. When I spoke to many students struggling with their education I found that the main issue was access to laptops, wifi, and online technology resources were not available to low-income students and students in areas with no internet, this was a huge problem. The inability to reach technology at home is an issue when teachers assign almost everything online; these students are being left behind. Not only does this make it difficult to reach teachers and other classmates but they cannot participate in independent research, write papers, or use the websites teachers use. I helped students find resources to wifi and computers but at most schools the library closes about an hour after school ends and the local library closes pretty early as well, I obviously could not provide internet to all the students who need. It was not a solution and many of them were very confused on why they had to travel to the library or stay after school to do something that was so attainable to others. Schools also expect parents to have access to their emails or websites to check their students attendance or grades, and many of the students I talked to said their parents had no idea how to do this. Many students take the privilege of having internet access and laptops at their fingertips for granted while I heard from students who struggled daily to print out their assignments, email teachers, and turn in their online work. Low-income students are already at a disadvantage with all the other issues they have to face and technology has now created a further issue for them. None of this is to say technology is not an incredible resource. The internet plays a crucial role in making education easier as students can research anything through online data and can get up to date information on any topic. The problem isn’t the technology, it is that it is not being mentioned anywhere that several students do that have access to the same resources as more privileged kids. Internet access is essential for learning but it should be a provided resource to homes in order to allow for learning. Why do people think students from high-income homes succeed a lot easier than those from low-income households? It’s due to having resources that are not available to others, and technology is one of them.