The City of Phoenix released an update on Thursday about the city’s plan to bridge the digital divide among central Phoenix students, calling on mobile tech companies to create a private intranet connecting students lacking technological access directly to their classrooms.
Since the onset of COVID-19, the City of Phoenix has made efforts to increase Wi-Fi and tech access for downtown students, including providing tablets and Wi-Fi hotspots to students who live in public housing, and making plans to expand a public Wi-Fi network that will cover the whole of the Phoenix Union High School District.
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On Nov. 5, the City of Phoenix released another statement about their plan, “Network of the Future for a Workforce of the Future – Bridging the Digital Divide,” this time calling on innovative mobile tech companies to pitch proposals for design ideas that could bring internet access to students who need it.
The digital divide is typically described as the uneven access to resources between the students who have steady, constant internet connection and access to technology at home, and the students who do not.
Over the past few years, many technological developers have relocated to Phoenix, making Phoenix a “hotbed” for digital developers and innovative tech companies.
The City of Phoenix is hoping that these innovative, mobile tech companies will submit their own ideas to scale-up an existing micro proof concept, and ultimately create a private intranet system that would allow students to connect to their classrooms using high-speed, broadband connections, narrowing the digital divide among Phoenix students.
The report by the City of Phoenix explains that many students in the central Phoenix area have a difficult time finding internet access at all, let alone finding internet access strong enough to attend online classes, complete their homework assignments, or access study materials.
The statement mentions that students have even been seen sitting outside of fast-food restaurants with Wi-Fi access for extended periods of time in order to complete their assignments.
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“The digital divide holds back students who need that access the most. The program is a step to close the gap between those vulnerable students without access to computers or broadband internet and those that do,” the statement says.
Evelyn Cruz, an ASU law professor who operates a legal clinic to represent foster care children, explained that after COVID-19, her clients, who are typically teens, could no longer come to campus to meet for legal consultation. Switching to online consultations often posed problems due to varying technology access among the clients.
“We switched to communicating by phone, which was not ideal but often necessary because their foster placements either did not have video conferencing technology, computers, or the technology was in a public area,” Cruz said.
Though the City of Phoenix only has plans to address the digital divide for K-12 students, the effects of the digital divide reach much farther.
Kara Childress, an ASU professor on the downtown campus, said that even her students suffer the repercussions of the digital divide.
“Many of our students rely on the ASU campus resources for computer and Wi-Fi access. The digital divide, which was already felt in face-to-face classes, was simply exacerbated tenfold with needing not only computer and Wi-Fi access, but reliable enough bandwidth for Zoom classes to occur,” Childress said.
However, by attempting to close the digital divide among K-12 students now, it is anticipated that in years to come, the digital gap may be smaller among college-aged students and adults as well.
Tech companies that are interested are expected to submit their proposals to the Phoenix Union High School District by 2:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time on Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020.
For more information, contact Lila McCleery from the Phoenix Union High School District at McCleery@PhoenixUnion.org.
Contact the reporter at clparri2@asu.edu.
Cami is Downtown Devil's co-executive editor. Cami is a third-year student studying print journalism and political science. When she's not writing or editing, she enjoys hosting radio shows, playing piano and bass, and teaching art classes at a local art studio.
