Equitable Access in the community
Las Americas ASPIRA Academy is a dual-language K-8 charter school in Newark, DE. Students receive instruction in core subjects in English on one day and in Spanish the next day, following an immersion model. There are approximately 700 students at LAAA, of which about 30% qualify for free and reduced lunches.
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Digital Access Survey
3rd grade students were asked to answer the following questions:
The Survey Says...
Not all students seem to have access to a computer or tablet, but they may have other devices such as cell phones and video game systems, which they can also use to access the internet. The majority (91.30%) do have access to a computer or tablet.
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All of the students surveyed have internet or WiFi at home. This shows that regarding this group of students, having access to the internet is not a problem.
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The majority of students do not seem to think they spend too much time on the computer.
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Although most students do not think their eyes hurt when spending too much time on the computer, a significant number of students (47.83%) did acknowledge that their eyes may hurt from exposure to too much screen time.
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Based on the survey results, over half of all students surveyed spend less than an hour on the computer at home each night. This question only includes screen time at home, and does not factor in time spent using the computer in school.
Conclusions
Digital access does not seem to be a problem for this group of students at Las Americas ASPIRA Academy. All students surveyed have access to the internet at home. What is concerning is that roughly 48% of students experience pain in their eyes from spending too much time on the computer, and that approximately 25% of students spend more than 2 hours on the computer at home every night. This shows that not only do students have access, but they spend a significant amount of time using computers and the internet.
Action Steps
Assistive Technology
Since all students have access to computers and the internet, these students should learn important accessibility features on their computers such as text to speech, zoom, and more. These features are often available on state testing as well, so it is important for students to be aware of these features and use them when available. Find more information on Narration available on Windows 10 computers, for example, by clicking Assistive Technology above.
Keyboarding
There are many skills students need to know while using a computer. Students are using the computers from a young age and will likely continue to use them growing up and in the workplace. This means that keyboarding is a very important skill for students to develop. There are many great websites and programs, both free and paid, that can help students learn to type properly. Suggested programs and websites include:
- Keyboarding Without Tears (Paid)
- Typing Club (Free)
- Abcya (Free)
Based on the conclusions above, these students should be sure to take breaks from the computer often, as they seem to be using it frequently both in school and at home. Students should take frequent breaks from the screen, either looking away from the screen for a screen seconds, getting up to stretch, or finding alternative activities that do not involve using a screen all of the time.
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Digital Citizenship Kids by Diana Magana is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.