Schools are Dealing with a Widening Homework Gap

MORE FROM EDTECH: Find out how one-to-one computing programs are boosting digital equity for K–12 students. Sprint’s 1Million Project Foundation provided both access and devices - free smartphones, tablets and hotspots, in addition to three gigabytes of high-speed LTE data per month - to students with an economic need in Cleveland, Ohio, as well as Texas, California, and other areas as part of its initiative to provide the digital tools and connectivity nearly 1 million economically disadvantaged high school students across the country need to succeed in school. Working with cable and wireless ISPs, the nonprofit organization EveryoneOn is sponsoring Connect2Compete, a program to furnish affordable internet service - typically priced between $10 to $20 per month - to qualifying low-income households containing K–12 students. Kajeet’s ConnectEdNow campaign, announced in June, aims to make broadband access more affordable by providing students with portable Wi-Fi hotspot devices, a $200 mobile device subsidy and discounted data plans from Verizon, T-Mobile and other LTE providers. Imcon International and Cradlepoint have created a line of self-contained, Wi-Fi-enabled backpacks, powered by a solar charger and redundant batteries, that provide portable internet access by allowing students to connect to wireless, 3G, 4G, LTE and other networks using an open-source distributed edgeware system. Innovations in next-generation Internet of Things applications are helping to reduce those disparities, which characterize what’s known as the homework gap.

Millions of students lack the ability to access the internet from home - a problem compounded by increasing expectations from educators that students do so to complete homework and research.

The homework gap