Download Now A Case Study Of The Digital Divide: A Study Of Teacher Awareness And Efforts To Bridge The Gap In Underserved Communities. Imagined By Virgie Rentie Published As Publication

purpose of this research was to examine the digital divide as it relates to teacher perceptions regarding the importance of narrowing the technology gap for lowincome and minority students.
This research was a replication of a study conducted by Wilson in, The original study questioned whether teachers were aware of the term digital divide and how closely their definitions coincided with the review of literature, This present study sought to underscore the awareness levels of teachers regarding the problems associated with the digital divide and to bring their perceptions to light on a communitylevel basis.
Descriptive statistics were used to illustrate teachers' responses to survey questions, Out of thesurveys that were distributed,teachers responded, many of whom were female, Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to support the following conclusions: a most educators were unaware of the term digital divide, b all respondents agreed or strongly agreed that technology use in the classroom increased student motivation, c all respondents agreed or strongly agreed that technology enhanced learning, d few teachers at the school site reported using technology on a daily basis for instructional purposes, e most respondents agreed that guidance in how to

integrate technology into daily lesson planning was needed, f most educators cited time constraints as being a large barrier to true technology integration in the curricula, and g many of those studied would have liked to have seen more technical support from the school district.
The review of literature supported the idea that staff development plays an essential role in determining teacher performance within individual classrooms, Evidence points to the fact that without proper training and adequate support, teaching practices would fail to meet the technology needs of atrisk students, most of whom are minorities from economically impoverished neighborhoods.
In order to support computer literacy in lowincome, high minority schools, technology integration must become a normal facet of pedagogy and viewed by administrators, teachers, and parents as a tool that can assist underserved students with becoming more successful in the classroom and beyond.
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