This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
In July, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the use of E-rate funds to loan Wi-Fi hotspots that support students, school staff, and library patrons without internet access. For an update on the 2025 E-rate, register for an eSchool News webinar featuring expert insight. It is 2024 in the United States.
The 14th annual E-rate Trends Report reveals the current successes and challenges of the E-rate program and evaluates how the program can most effectively support schools and libraries. “The E-rate program is crucial for modern education. “The E-rate program is crucial for modern education.
In a way, it’s a shift to recognize another aspect of the digitaldivide in America: the quality divide when it comes to implementation of edtech, which arises because all this new technology isn’t necessarily being put to the best use in classrooms. It’s a mindset shift we need in education right now,” Jones says.
The broadband gap isn’t only a problem for remote learning. That Broadband Gap Bar? schools had high-speed broadband connections. A different nonprofit, Connected Nation, has picked up EducationSuperHighway’s broadband baton. Early childhood” videos on YouTube nearly all have advertising. All in this Edtech Reports Recap.
Key points: Without continued funding, schools and libraries may struggle to maintain or upgrade technological infrastructure See article: 3 ways the E-rate program helps level up learning See article: Will cybersecurity receive E-rate funding?
But the tea leaves for E-Rate are pretty positive actually. Rather, it's centered in the popular E-Rate program, which has provided billions of dollars in broadband discounts and infrastructure upgrades to schools and libraries. But the tea leaves for E-Rate are pretty positive actually.”
Sadly, though, the reality is that millions of Americans — in rural and urban areas alike, and including many underrepresented minorities — lack the reliable broadband connections needed to access postsecondary and K-12 education in a nation that remains in partial lockdown. Related: How to reach students without internet access at home?
In 2014, the Federal Communications Commission modernized the E-rate program with the objective of closing the K-12 digitaldivide within five years. This catalyzed a sea change in the broadband available in America’s schools. Why has E-rate modernization worked so well?
Pandemic-era lockdowns put an unmistakable spotlight on digital equity — particularly for K-12 students. But nowhere is the digitaldivide larger than in the Black rural South. billion for a $30-per-month broadband subsidy for low-income Americans, and we stand to make gains in both access and affordability.
Over the past eight years, WANRack has worked with schools and communities to close the digitaldivide and ensure students have access to digital learning in every classroom, every day. ” WANRack recently delivered on a complex project that utilized federal E-rate and state matching funds in rural Elko County, Nevada.
But Bredder can’t give students the tool he considers most indispensable to 21st-century learning — broadband internet beyond school walls. They’re building their own countywide broadband network. Related: Not all towns are created equal, digitally. This is an equity issue,” said Bredder. “If
Key points: Schools must ensure greater access to the tech tools students and teachers need The digitaldivide still holds students back DEI in action: eSN Innovation Roundtable For more news on classroom equity, visit eSN’s Educational Leadership hub Believing that all students have the same access to technology is a mistake.
“If you didn’t have Internet access outside of school, you could learn in my class, but boy would it be at a different pace and rate and difficulty,” he says. The funds will go toward purchasing MiFi devices, which provide mobile broadband access, so that 15 percent can connect at home for free.
And with online assessments now being required in many states, reliable broadband access is also essential so that students’ knowledge and skills are accurately represented, and technology is not a barrier to achievement and its documentation. Accessing the E-Rate and Matching State Funds. Sheryl Abshire, Ph.D.,
In a July 2017 statement , FCC Chairman Ajit Pai designated August as Rural Broadband Month at the agency. Throughout this month, the FCC will encourage particular focus on issues surrounding digital access in America’s rural communities. FOUR WAYS TO IMPROVE RURAL BROADBAND ACCESS. at home either. at home either.
While 96 percent of Americans in urban areas have access to fixed broadband, only 70 percent of New Mexicans have broadband access at home. Unfortunately, the digitaldivide is a very real barrier to success in our community,” said Audra Bluehouse, an English teacher at Hatch Valley High. “We
As high-speed internet service becomes more ubiquitous in American households, some readers might be surprised to find out that a “digitaldivide” exists in many of our schools. So the digitaldivide in fact is a misnomer; it’s really a terrestrial digitaldivide as the FCC itself has now concluded.
If the workday of an adult typically requires seamless broadband access, then it’s reasonable that today’s students need the same access during their school day. The key is the state leadership to make broadband accessible to all. There are no cap limits, no throttle rates, and no chastising schools when they need extra bandwidth.
graduation rates — up to a record 83 percent — and whether it is real or an elaborate scam. Tagged on: July 23, 2017 ED warns schools of another widespread ransomware attack | Future of Ed Tech e-Newsletter → In light of a recent widespread ransomware attack, the U.S. So why do I still want schools to use them? Unified gets a $3.26-million
In a July 2017 statement , FCC Chairman Ajit Pai designated August as Rural Broadband Month at the agency. Throughout this month, the FCC will encourage particular focus on issues surrounding digital access in America’s rural communities. FOUR WAYS TO IMPROVE RURAL BROADBAND ACCESS. at home either. at home either.
billion increase in E-rate funding over the last 18 months. In Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District in North Carolina, students are playing a major role in igniting a community-wide effort to provide student access to both computers and broadband outside of the school day.
Led interactive webinars to improve broadband price transparency and discuss opportunities for school districts to increase bandwidth for little to no additional cost. As a result, during the E-rate bid process, he was able to leverage the information to request double the bandwidth to match surrounding school districts.
Here are five key trends that CTOs will be watching and reacting to in 2016: The modernized E-rate program. Since it was established 18 years ago, the E-rate program has focused on connecting schools and libraries to the internet. Broadband equity. Broadband isn’t a luxury anymore,” she says.
EducationSuperHighway today released its annual State of the States report highlighting the major progress that has been achieved to connect nearly every public school classroom to high-speed broadband. At the same time, the report cites the urgent need to close the digitaldivide for 2.3 million students and 2.6
When we started all of this, it wasn’t because we wanted to get broadband in every classroom,” Marwell said. “We We believed if we had connectivity in every classroom, that would give every teacher the opportunity to take advantage of digital learning.”. Marwell acknowledges internet connectivity is only a starting point.
Along with the increase in speed, there’s been an exponential increase in the use of digital tools in the classroom. Students now interview authors across the country via Skype and access books that match their interests and reading levels on e-readers. In rural areas where there is no broadband access, that isn’t the case.”.
A new report details the importance of state advocacy in connecting schools, students to broadband internet. A new report from SETDA and Common Sense Kids Action focuses on K-12 broadband and wi-fi connectivity, state leadership for infrastructure, state broadband implementation highlights, and state advocacy for federal broadband support.
Lack of high-speed Internet prevents teachers and students from taking full advantage of the transformational power of digital learning and leaves millions of kids on the wrong side of the digitaldivide. High-speed broadband equalizes educational opportunity and accelerates learning. As a result, $2.5
Supported by the 2014 modernization of the federal government’s E-Rate program and state funding efforts, a majority of schools now meet the FCC’s short term connectivity goal of 100 Mbps/1000 students. Promote Low Cost Broadband Offerings 3. Partner with Community Organizations to Create “Homework Hotspots” 2.
Along with the increase in speed, there’s been an exponential increase in the use of digital tools in the classroom. Students now interview authors across the country via Skype and access books that match their interests and reading levels on e-readers. In rural areas where there is no broadband access, that isn’t the case.”
Connecting our nation’s schools, libraries, health clinics and other community anchor institutions (CAIs) to next generation high-speed broadband is an important national priority. The SHLB Action Plan gives policy makers a road map for designing a broadband strategy that promotes education, health care and community enrichment.”.
million teachers have reached or exceeded the minimum recommended connectivity level for digital learning. 5 million students remain on the wrong side of the digitaldivide, still lacking access to high-speed Internet. 2,049 mostly rural K-12 schools are cut off from digital learning without critical fiber infrastructure.
would call for a national study on what is known as the “Homework Gap” and would support pilot programs to extend digital learning opportunities for students when they are not in the classroom. The Homework Gap is the cruelest part of the new digitaldivide. David McKinley (R-W.Va.),
history to bridge the digitaldivide.”. families with children in school do not have home broadband access. Students who get a smartphone can also use it as a hotspot, and for unlimited calls and texts in the United States, while on a Sprint network. Sprint is billing the efforts as the “largest corporate initiative in U.S.
This includes navigating the often politicized issues related to immunizations, the high student absence rate due to quarantines or parents wanting to keep their children home, and the negative impact the pandemic had on student and staff mental health. 5G promises reliability, lightning-fast speeds, and much higher data capacities.
1560 , and proposed adding sections designed “to close the digitaldivide in California.” These new amendments require the State Superintendent to survey education institutions to understand students' access to computing devices and broadband connections. Jennifer E. Federally, mandates do exist for schools and districts.
The interactive view, including the last six months, encourages deeper dives into what might be driving these digital K-12 trends and to spur meaningful discussions and action about how to address persistent gaps, as they occur.
As the CEO of Funds For Learning, I work alongside school leaders every daypeople who are fighting to close learning gaps, expand broadband access, and prepare the next generation for a world of rapid change. Since its inception: E-rate has delivered over $65 billion in discounts to schools and libraries.
The digitaldivide is showing real signs of narrowing—but there are still 6.5 million students in under-connected schools, according to a new report by the nonprofit EducationSuperHighway , which analyzes data from E-rate applications. We have seen a real change in the FCC approval rates for these projects.
Wheeler had been a “champion” of net neutrality and E-rate reform, according to Education Week at least, but his replacement, Trump appointee Ajit Pai, seems poised to lead the agency with a very different set of priorities – and those priorities will likely shape in turn what happens to ed-tech under Trump.
E-Rate has been, since the origin of the fund in 1996, the main way in which schools and libraries were supposedly guaranteed “reasonable rates” on telecommunications services. million in E-Rate rebates.). Bandwidth is necessary, and schools still struggle to provide it, particularly in rural areas.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 34,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content