Reporting

America took an involuntary crash course in remote learning. With the school year now winding down, the grade from students, teachers, parents and administrators is already in: It was a failure. School districts closed campuses in March in response to the coronavirus pandemic and, with practically no time at all for planning or training, launched a grand experiment to educate more than 50 million students from kindergarten through 12th grade using technology. The problems began piling up almost immediately. There were students with no computers or internet access.

Charter Communications said that it has begun to accept applications for its 2020 Spectrum Digital Education grant program, part of a $6 million, four-year cash and in-kind commitment to educate consumers on the benefits of broadband and how to use it in their everyday lives. Applications will be accepted until June 26. Grants will be announced in Aug and awarded in Sept. Charter said it opened the application portal two months earlier than planned to meet the needs of nonprofit organizations focused on providing broadband training and education in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, more of the nation’s medical care is being delivered by telephone or videoconference, as in-person care becomes a last resort for both doctors and patients. That’s a problem for tens of millions of Americans without smartphones or speedy home internet connections. For them, the digital divide is exacerbating preexisting disparities in access to health care.

While a nation of burned-out, involuntary home schoolers slogs to the finish line of a disrupted academic year, a picture is emerging of the extent of the learning loss among children in America, and the size of the gaps schools will be asked to fill when they reopen.

Primal instincts often drive our obsession with stressful news, and social-media platforms are designed to keep us hooked. “These algorithms are designed to take and amplify whatever emotions will keep us watching, especially negative emotions. And that can have a real negative impact on people’s mental health,” says David Jay of the Center for Humane Technology, a nonprofit addressing how social-media platforms hijack our attention.

Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook will review its content policies after facing widespread backlash, including from its own employees, over the decision to leave up controversial posts from President Donald Trump. Facebook will look at improving content policies while also building products to advance racial justice, the CEO said in response to the protests in the United States. 

Protests around the country in the wake of the killing of George Floyd while in police custody are reigniting discussion of black representation in the technology sector. Despite yearslong efforts by companies to diversify their tech workforces, black people accounted for 7.8% of people in core information-technology occupations in the U.S., according to CompTIA, an IT trade group. Several black tech executives said they hope the current attention on racial disparities will bring change, and in turn, expand the participation of blacks in technology in ways they haven’t seen before.

Homeschooling students amid the coronavirus pandemic significantly amplifies economic inequities between households. Income also significantly affects access to broadband and data plans, the foundations of keeping up with schoolwork when classes are cancelled. With web-based learning as the new norm, students are dependent on access to the internet and computers to obtain their education. Internet hotspots are in-demand, but supply is lagging.

Pew’s “After the Fact” podcast host, Dan LeDuc, spoke with Kathryn de Wit, manager of Pew’s broadband research initiative, to hear about the challenges that communities face in bridging the digital divide.