I have been watching kids who have a difficult time with technology. I teach in an impoverished school and watching those kids who are clueless when coming to a computer. I see many skills are lacking as compared to other students at school and with my own kids. As poorer children on average fail behind because there is no home-based preparations that are acquired through dialogue with parent, being read to frequently, and being exposed to a wide variety of experiences in the world. The digital gap becomes wider as these students struggle. I am a first hand witness to this and I am amazed. How far does the digital divide effect literacy in the age we live in?

Our students are at a loss with the complex language as learning becomes more and more abstract and specialized. Often times the student sees no relevance in figuring out language structure or study ancient civilization because they don’t see how it fits into their life as a teenager with their environment dictates other messages to them. The cause is a lack of comprehension of increasingly complex language. This become overwhelming evident when observing students researching using Internet resources or completing an activity where students have to use a digital tool like voice thread, blog, PowerPoint, or Word. I guess I am seeing a correlation between reading ability and tech skills. I can see how these students are lost in the classroom when teachers teaching in traditional ways about nouns, verbs, wars, geometry, invertebrates, etc. The language the teacher may use or the language they find in their text and handouts may seem foreign from their experiences in life. Students will limited vocabulary and language experience have trouble in classrooms where students have so little connection with the objective of the day.b

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