Equal Internet Access is a K-12 Must-Have

COMMENTARY by Helen Brunner

The days when spiral notebooks, No. 2 pencils, and a backpack full of textbooks served as the mainstays of the American classroom are rapidly giving way to a new school environment. Interactive whiteboards, online classes, streaming lectures, and digital textbooks are revolutionizing the way students learn and communicate with their teachers. Technology is blurring the brick-and-mortar boundaries of learning in 21st-century schools.

As a result, access to the Internet has become a need-to-have-not just a nice-to-have-when it comes to student success. After all, according to documents the Federal Communications Commission's broadband task force released in 2009, about 70 percent of teens said the Internet had been their primary source for a recent school project, and at least 65 percent went online at home to complete their homework. Teachers routinely assign homework that requires Internet use to complete, and more than half of American schools expect to adopt e-textbooks in the next two to three years.

But with this increased reliance on the Internet as a basic resource in our education system, we can't forget about the infrastructure that makes it all possible. We must ensure that all students-no matter their location or socioeconomic status-have access to affordable, reliable high-speed Internet both in and outside the classroom.

Even if students have reliable Internet access at school, many become digitally disconnected once they leave. This is especially true for minorities and those who live in rural or low-income communities, and it makes their homework harder to complete.

Read the rest of this Black Star Journal commentary here.

Black Web 2.0 Interview with FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn

Black Web 2.0 is a powerful voice for African Americans interested in technology. Co-founder Angela Benton recently conducted an interview with FCC commisioner Mignon Clyburn. I encourage BDPAers to listen closely to what Commissioner Clyburn as she talks about net neutrality, entrepreneurship and national broadband plans.

Black Web 2.0 Interview: Mignon Clyburn from blackweb20 on Vimeo.

It seems that she is not in favor of net neutrality ... at least if you read between the lines of her comments about companies being able to charge us for use of their bandwidth.

What did you take from this interview? How do you envision that BDPA should engage in these types of policy discussions?

Take Action for Net Neutrality

I was pleased to receive invitation to join a conference call today with Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) regarding his Internet Freedom Preservation Act (H.R. 3458) bill. The Internet Freedom Preservation Act would protect Network Neutrality under the Communications Act, safeguard the future of the open Internet, and protect Internet users from discrimination online.

Rep. Markey is best known for his work in Congress on the global warming issue. However, he made it evident during the conference call that he feels the time for net neutrality legislation is now.

Rep. Markey is one of seven congressional leaders to co-sponsor HR 3458. He asked that bloggers and other online activists encourage other members of congress to co-sign this legislation. You can find online petition that allows you to write your congressional representative in the 'Take Action for Net Neutrality' section of this website.

Rep. Markey also suggested that BDPA members participate in the debate currently taking place within the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The conference call helped me to better understand the importance of supporting Net Neutrality. I appreciate Rep. Markey, Garlin Gilchrist II (The SuperSpade) and Timothy Karr (Free Press) for providing this open forum of discussion by Black bloggers!

What are your thoughts on the Net Neutrality movement?

Can Obama Eradicate the Digital Divide?

Building a truly connected America is possible. Already, President-elect Barack Obama has some good ideas. He’s made widespread broadband deployment a major component of his technology agenda; his platform pledges to achieve this goal through reforms such as better use of the nation’s wireless spectrum.

At the same time, a growing alliance of public interest organizations and industry groups are banding together through a national initiative called InternetforEveryone.org to push the new administration to act on Obama’s promises.

Yet, we still have too many in our community without access to the Internet. Megan Tady is working on a project called America Offline. Their goal is to humanize the need for widespread broadband deployment in the US. As we work to build a national movement for Internet access and push the next administration to act, it's important that we bring people's stories and the impacts of the digital divide to light -- to put a human face on these issues.

Take a moment to read Megan's first in a series of profiles showing 'America Offline' in her article entitled, 'Offline Youth Struggle in Online World'