Education, Technology & Social Capital

• Explores the digital divide and its impact on academic performance
• Proper technology use by students can increase academic performance outcomes
• Students' academic performance is influenced by complex and interrelating factors
• Educators should determine if technology use causes low or high academic achievement
• Socio-economic status affects future career opportunities

Introduction

• Addresses issues of the digital divide in technology use and its impact on academic performance
• Successful use of technology by students has been linked to academic performance outcomes
• Socio-economic disparity affects students' technology access at home and in the classroom
• The relationships between socio-economic status, technology usage, and school performances are examined
• Societal equity focuses on equitable access in social organizations
• Students' access to technology/academic performance depend on their families’ socio-economic status
• Findings on educational opportunities and the effects of poverty on children support the conclusions

Research questions

• Examines relationships between technology, student performance, and socio-economic status
• The ability to use technology partially relies on socio-economic status
• Addresses socio-economic disparity and its relationship to technology use
• Considers how socio-economic status impacts technology availability for students
• Explores how technology use affects academic performance
• Asks if lack of technology use impairs academic performance
• Asks if academic performance impacts technology usage and socio-economic status
• Investigates other factors moderating the associations between social/technology disparity and academic outcomes

Definition of Key Terms

• The digital divide refers to the gap between students who have access to digital technology at home and those who do not
• Socio-economic status, ethnicity, and geographic location are the factors causing the gap
• This focuses specifically on socio-economic status
• "Information technology" includes computers to access and share information
• Includes the implementation, management, design, and research of the system including computer hardware and software
• Refers to “relationships with institutional agents, and the networks that weave these relationships into units"
• Social capital is the advantages one gains from relationships with other people or institutions.

Theoretical Framework

• Uses societal equity, the fourth cluster of Bennett's genres in multicultural education
• Societal equity framework is divided into demographics, culture/race in popular culture, and social action
• Demographics cover population mixed with diverse groups, including different socio-economic status and ethnic backgrounds, immigration
• Encompasses course content, including media and material use, bias/prejudice
• Social action is the action taken by individuals/groups to improve or reform a school system

Literature Review

• Focuses on aspects of equitable access, participation, and achievement in social institutions
• Provides a history of technology use in education linking these two issues.
• Structured around technology use in schools, socio-economic status and technology use, socio-economic status and academic performance, and technology use and academic performance

Technology Use in the School System

• Use in teaching and learning has a long history long before personal computers in the 1970s

• PLATO project at the University of Illinois helped professors design and deliver self-paced course materials

• IBM developed programs to use computer technology for scientific and linguistic courses

• Stanford researchers found ways to enhance mathematics through computer logic programs

• Research, invention, and the use of new technologies have been part of the American school system for decades

• Appropriate use can increase teaching/learning efficiency and curriculum quality

• The Internet and computers were not in widespread use for academic purposes

• Technologies were utilized less often in rural schools than major cities

• Urban schools with Internet access tend to use it for non-academic purposes like surfing and social networking

• Rarely integrated into the curriculum

• The accuracy of assessing students' performances was controversial

• interactive instruction, teaches class bi-directionally

• Requires group participation to deliver course materials, use multimedia, smart tutoring systems and communicate with each other

• Educational technology enables teachers/students to participate regardless of location

• Provides easy access to course content, resources

• If instructional technologies are fully used, everyone could become lifelong learners

• Learners utilizing technologies effectively will compete in technology-driven economy

• "Technological fluency" is how well people apply and use technology to improve lives

• Knowledge and skills to use computer hardware, software, and networks enhance lives

• Technology predicted to determine a student's success

• The focus of educational technology has is interactive instruction- bidirectional teaching/learning

• Educational technology is pathway to the future of the American education system

• Proper tech use will increase teaching /learning efficiency and improve the quality of the curriculum

Socio-economic Status and Technology Use

• The relationship between socio-economic status and technology use in schools were discussed

• The "digital divide" is the gap between students with/without access to digital technology at home

• Social capital framework is a factor, with lower classes have less capital and less access to educational resource

• Inequitable tech resource distribution is digital divide issue

• The most serious issue is lack of technology resources for underrepresented groups

• Low-income parents may not afford technology or network access fees

• Policies should be improved to provide schools/low-income families support from government and private donors

• The academic equity scorecard analyzes African Americans and Hispanics attending higher education institutions

• Academic equity measures educational outcomes with students' accessibility, retention rate, excellence, and institutional receptivity

• Concluded a gap exists between minorities and white students in accessing resources

• Predicted African Americans and Latinos would be underrepresented in managerial, technical and educational jobs by 2015

• Educational jobs due to lack of technical skills and higher education degrees

• Examined how affluent white parents chose neighborhoods where their children attend preferable schools

• Parents used information from their social network to decide which school district was more desirable

• High socio-economic status chooses schools with wealthy or prestigious families

• Upper-income have high-quality schools, lower-income have limited schools nearby their neighborhoods.

• The "very diverse and low-income feeder middle schools" have limited resources and low quality learning

• Schools should provide equal access to the same schools that affluent white parents opt for their children

• Socio-economic status constrains opportunity to use technology because of lack of institutional support

• Educators should ensure freedom and equality in the society

Socio-economic Status and Academic Performance

• Depicts the relationship between socio-economic status and technology use as well adn their impacts on academic performance
• Socio-economic status can affect student performances
• Social capital creates barriers and inequality between minority children and educational institutions
• Middle-class can take social freeways, move up the socio-economic ladder move faster
• Socio-economic status significantly influences one's social capital
• Social capital is linked to educational achievement, educational attainment, and psychosocial factors that affect educational development
• Insufficient theoretical and empirical evidence exists to validate the relationship
• Equitable economic policies integrate diverse minority groups
• High socio-economic families lived in better neighborhoods, schools are better. Quality of schools measure student educational outcomes - affect students' learning process
• Socio-economic status does not affect student performances in early stage, but does affect student' educational outcomes in the long-term- is not deterministic

Technology Use and Academic Performance

• Educators should adopt knowledge to create diverse classroom environment and equal access to resources

• Important for different groups to access and use technology

• Technology in training can motivate young people esp minorities to learn new knowledge

• Institutions debated if they should use tech enhanced because find direct correlation between tech and student performances

• Technology reduces the time for training

• Takes more time to train kindergarten in one-on-many classroom instruction than in one-on-one tutoring

• Technology simulate one-on-one training understandings in difficult subjects

• Enhances advantages of one-on-one training and adapt to student needs

• Educator expands and explores multiple areas of knowledge perspectives of research in multicultural education

• Using Tech eliminates conflicts class and enhances efficiency delivery

• Technology increase student performances in learning mathematics

• Integrated math and sciences into a Web technology program math improve

• Technologies such as internet personal computers cell phones iPods come from underlying disciplines of math and science are natural fit

• Technology is not magical tool to correct problems in educational settings

• To increase performance important to consider actual needs how technology address requirements introduced into class

• Avoid "fool's gold" refers to an apparent improvement in performance immediately after applying the technology that declines soon after

• Technology is one-on-one tutoring effect, increased learning efficiency

• Eliminate social conflict class

• Empirically technology increase student performance in learning mathematics

• Cannot be treated as the panacea- with plan and effective plan performance can be enhanced and produce positive outcomes

Findings

• Explores the relationships among technology use, students' and socio-economic status
• Reviews articles to reflect technology with societal equity
• Tech use is trend
• Use of technologies in learning must be leveraged effectively
• Socio economic status and social capital affect to student resources, use technology
• Superior capital results in better outcomes
• Inconclusive if technology increases education, some studies say maths is correlated, is not panacea, with target student plans outcomes can be produced

Discussion

• Students is a function of many complex and interrelating factors.
• It is a complex with interactions and should select with technology benefits
• Socio-economic status may affect career opportunities
• Long term effect is limited option to advance
• Disadvantage increases nation economy decreases

Implications for Future Research and Practice

• Scope is mostly related to shot-term effects however long term effects on one's career choice are important
• Long-term effects result widening gab knowledge socio economic status
• Many do not have a comp
• Children use technology, have access to technology dissenated
• Literacy and computer skills are now requirement
• Minorites in poverty may
• Ultimately lack of college result
• Bensimon predicted with the the number may continue decreasing

Explore the impact of social capital and technology on educational outcomes, referencing research by Dika and Singh, Bennett, and Stanton-Salazar. Understand the conditions necessary for technology to positively influence learning and the role of educators in addressing inequality and maintaining societal equity.