{"id":698,"date":"2016-01-22T23:27:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-22T23:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/?p=698"},"modified":"2023-10-30T14:25:41","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T14:25:41","slug":"is-the-digital-divide-leaving-kids-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/2016\/01\/22\/is-the-digital-divide-leaving-kids-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the \u2018digital divide\u2019 leaving kids behind?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Access to technology, and in particular the internet, has without question become an essential service for everyone living in Australia. Technology enables people to find employment, access government services and participate in education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, many people living on low incomes are experiencing affordability barriers when it comes to accessing technology. Unfortunately, these barriers are impacting on our children in Australia with a recent&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.acoss.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Digital-Divide-Policy-Snapshot-2016-Final.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">ACOSS report<\/a>&nbsp;saying that children from disadvantaged communities are 20 percent less likely to access the internet than kids in more advantaged areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a mother, this is highly disturbing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Even in my son\u2019s first year of school, owning a laptop or tablet and having internet access was really important.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s right technology education starts in prep and kids are given a login and password to do online maths programs at home. While the program\u2019s not compulsory, the kids love it because they can see their friends online and complete the activities at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/goodshepherdmicrofinance.org.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Good Shepherd Microfinance<\/a>, we\u2019re hearing the stories of families who are already stretching to pay for books, uniforms, stationary and excursions. Today, there is even more pressure to provide them with a laptop or tablet. Let\u2019s face it, technology is an essential part of a 21st century education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last year, almost 10 per cent of loans through our&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/nils.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">No Interest Loan Scheme<\/a>&nbsp;(NILS) where used to buy computers, laptops and tablets. We need schools, retailers and telcos to be champions of initiatives like NILS so that more families on low incomes are aware of safe, fair and affordable finance options to cover educational expenses. With the Schoolkid\u2019s Bonus ending in July 2016, this is only going to become a bigger issue for many families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I can\u2019t imagine what it would have been like, if my son wasn\u2019t able to access technology to learn about maths online with his classmates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Affordability shouldn\u2019t be a deciding factor in whether a child can achieve their potential at school. Let\u2019s make sure the \u2018digital divide\u2019 isn\u2019t leaving our kids behind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Access to technology, and in particular the internet, has without question become an essential service for everyone living in Australia. Technology enables people to find employment, access government services and participate in education. However, many people living on low incomes are experiencing affordability barriers when it comes to accessing technology. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":721,"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions\/721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}