Bridging the Digital Gap

The Equity Digital Divide campaign is being spearheaded by the Chair of the e-Learning Foundation, Estelle Morris. A former Secretary of State for Education and Skills, she is now Baroness Morris of Yardley. Here we ask her about her support for the campaign.

GTC: What makes you personally interested in and committed to the Equity Digital Divide campaign?

EM: It's simply because I am convinced that technology can make a real difference to the standards agenda and we need to make sure that every child gets the chance to benefit from it. In the past, those from less affluent backgrounds have often missed out on new educational opportunities.We must not let that happen again. This could provide us with a unique opportunity to break the link between educational attainment and social class.

GTC: ICT has been around in schools for a while, so why launch the campaign now? Can it really make a difference to children's futures?

EM: The timing is important. Over the past five years there has been substantial investment in ICT in schools, and this has driven up the confidence and competence of our teachers to deploy technology in the classroom.Without that, schools would simply not be ready to take the next step, which is to deploy technology to support learners beyond the classroom, including those who lack vital home IT resources.

GTC: Why do you believe that good access to ICT at home is so important for children?

EM: At a practical level, children spend only 15 per cent of their lives at school and yet we know they learn throughout their waking day. As more and more learning resources go online - such as the recently launched BBC Jam service - children who have good home access will be able to enjoy and benefit from a rich learning environment at home, as well as at school. Research by the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta), Bristol University and others supports this view and demonstrates that children with good home access to ICT do better at school.

GTC: Is it not the case that children use home computers largely to play games, rather than as an educational resource?

EM: It sounds like a simple question but actually the answer is quite complex. Of course many children will use computers as a source of entertainment, as many adults do. And a lot of good educational software is now deliberately designing games into the programmes to make learning fun. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that either. But what is fascinating is the amount of activities that children get involved with that have significant learning content, but are not always school linked. Examples include www.fanfiction.net, where young people are publishing their creative writing and inviting peer review across the world, often anonymously and unrelated to anything their English teacher has set.

The last bit of the equation is that as long as schools regard school technology as classroom bound, then the home computer may not be regarded as a learning tool by the family. But when the right home-school links are developed, then the home PC - or school laptop on loan - takes on a different role.

GTC: It appears that schools with the least developed ICT are often in areas where parents have the lowest numbers of home computers.How can the campaign help to break this cycle?

EM: I actually don't think that is true. There have been a number of programmes over the past few years that have sought to ensure schools serving disadvantaged communities get extra access to additional ICT resources - for example, Wired up Communities, Test Beds, and soon the Home Access programme. And many heads have discovered for themselves the impact of access to ICT on the motivation and self-esteem of disaffected young people, and have chosen to invest in more ICT to drive school improvement. However, we need to continue to focus on those communities who have the lowest levels of access to a computer and the internet at home, as any social disadvantage their children already suffer will only be exacerbated by the digital divide.

GTC: Do parents have a role to play?

EM: Parents are at the heart of the e-Learning Foundation model, providing the sustainable element of the extra funds that are needed to achieve very high levels of personal access. They can also support their children's learning when they come home with their new computer and start to access digital learning resources.

The truth is that we have asked teachers for performance improvement year on year and whilst that is of course right, we must acknowledge that big gains in learning happen outside the classroom as well. Parents are crucial to seizing this opportunity.

GTC: How might teachers who are reading this article support the Digital Divide campaign?

EM: By taking a look at the way that their school supports learning beyond the classroom and seeking to influence school policy. Is the school buying portable computers as well as desktops? Is there a policy of allowing school laptops to be loaned for home use? Can students access school learning resources from home? Is the time right to consider technology based personalised learning resources?

GTC: And how can individual schools become involved?

EM: By working with the e-Learning Foundation so that they maximise the amount of help that they can get, both in terms of advice and perhaps financial support. This includes seeing what other schools have achieved that embarked on their e-learning journey some time ago.

GTC: Finally,what will be your measure of the campaign's success?

EM: Three measures immediately spring to mind. The first is the impact we can have on awareness of the issues and the help available. In a recent online poll, run by the National College for School Leadership, when asked whether the digital divide was having a major impact on their schools, 57 per cent of respondents answered: 'What's the digital divide?' - so we urgently need to raise awareness.

Another measure is the number of schools that develop specific strategies and policies to address home access. This might involve switching procurement policy to buying more portable computers; instigating a loan scheme; or launching a full-blown e-learning programme involving significant parental donations.

And finally there are the statistics collected on a regular basis through the Family Spending Survey, telling us how many school age children live in a house where there is no computer and no internet access. At the moment, 2.5 million school age children fall into that category - more than 20 per cent of our total five-19 school population. That can't be right - and we owe it to these children to give them every educational advantage that the digital world brings.