Chapter 2: One problem in education technology that needs debugging

Access to broadband internet needs to be improved across America before any true technological revolution in education is possible. Broadband internet is expensive in America costing an average of $61 per month (BroadbandSearch). Why is internet expensive? According to Segan (2017), seventy percent of American zip codes “have either zero or one option for 25Mbps internet service.” An education system leaning heavily into technology is imposing a financial burden on families. Most families already have internet access, but if schools go all in with online lessons and resources, those families will be trapped with their internet provider. They will be unable to cut their internet service to save money if times are tough.

The cruelest irony of broadband’s financial burden is that this burden falls more heavily on poorer populations. Rural students will be hit the hardest. Torng (2019) wrote, “Roughly 146 million people in the U.S. (about 45 percent of the population) do not have access to a low-priced plan for residential wired broadband.” It gets worse, poor zip codes pay more than wealthy areas. “Zip codes in the bottom 10 percent of population density pay up to 37 percent more on average for residential wired broadband than those in the top 10 percent” (Torng, 2019). When it comes to broadband or any technological access, there is a difference between using the internet for social media or Netflix and needing the internet for school or work. Because broadband access often correlates with income, the risk of increasing income inequality is something all edtech proponents must see clearly.

BroadbandSearch. How do the U.S. internet costs compare to the rest of the world? https://www.broadbandsearch.net/blog/internet-costs-compared-worldwide

Couch J. & Towne, J. (2018). Rewiring education. BenBella Books. https://benbellabooks.com/shop/rewiring-education/

Segan, Sascha. (2017, December 15). Exclusive: Check out the terrible state of US ISP competition. PCMag. https://www.pcmag.com/news/exclusive-check-out-the-terrible-state-of-us-isp- competition

Torng, Katrina (2022, May 6). Digital divide: broadband pricing by state, zip code, and income level. BroadbandNow Research. https://broadbandnow.com/research/digital-divide-broadband- pricing-state-zip-income-2019