After a survey conducted by a district in South Carolina revealed less than half of its students have internet access at home, it launched a pilot project to give students living in public housing internet connectivity and give all students an equal opportunity to excel.

The Spatranburg School District Seven, Spartanburg Housing Authority, Novatel Wireless, and Kajeet have all partnered up to "extend the learning day" and benefit students and families by providing internet access in public housing, according to TheJournal.com.

Though public housing authorities in the district provide affordable housing, they don't provide internet.

Miguel A. Pastrana, the IT systems analyst for Spartanburg Housing Authority, said in a news release that he and his company are more than happy to be contributing to the education of children that live in the housing complexes.

"'I am a big proponent of education, and this is a great opportunity to level the playing field for these students. At the Spartanburg Housing Authority, we are always looking for ways to assist or make an impact on our resident's lives,'" he said, according to the article.

The district's pilot represents a growing trend of schools stepping in to provide children with internet access as K-12 classrooms increasingly reply on internet to supplement learning.

Earlier this month, Education Week featured the Kent School District's move to place kiosks across its community to "establish a network of school-sponsored Wi-Fi hotspots," the article said.

The Seattle district use the kiosks as way to remedy the issue of many students in the area being placed at a disadvantage in the classroom by not having internet access at home.

And across several districts in the country, schools are even going so far as to utilize school buses as Wi-Fi zones. By next year, a California school district aims to have 97 buses equipped with internet access throughout its community. 

Although it seems as if many districts are stepping up to provide internet at home to its students, the Education Week article said that a survey from the Consortium for School Networking "found that 82 percent of school systems do not provide any off-campus broadband services to students."

Read the full article here and comment below.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

05/04/2015