The overall results from the recently released K-12 Connected Heat Map from CDW-G may generate proud reactions from some state education officials and may surprise others when they learn how many states haven’t joined the push for more connected classrooms.

“CDW-G launched the K-12 Connected Heat Map to understand how connected U.S. classrooms are to the Internet – both wired and wirelessly,” according to the K-12 Connected Heat Map.

“To date, more than 500 schools and districts have contributed to the heat map.”

Out of the 50 states 17 still haven’t gotten connected according to the results from the map. A lot of these states are in the Midwest, including New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, North and South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and more.

In the Northeast, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Delaware and D.C. are among the areas that are also showing little to no connectivity in the classroom which is quite startling considering the Eastern half of the U.S. seems to be ahead of the curve.

States with the most connectivity include, Oregon, Nebraska, Minnesota, Maine, South Carolina and Washington with many other states close behind.

“Of the schools surveyed, 63 percent don't have enough bandwidth to meet the current needs for digital learning, as outlined by the White House's ConnectED initiative,” according to Ed Tech Magazine.

“Last November, President Barack Obama touched on this statistic during the ConnectED to the Future summit.”

“I’ve said before, in a country where we expect free Wi-Fi with our coffee, the least we can do is expect that our schools are properly wired,” said President Obama.

The shocking truth is that many states aren’t meeting proper bandwidth requirements generated for classroom connectivity. Streaming videos and the use of essential educational software are a constant presence in classrooms, however, schools still seem to be struggling when it comes to the proper amount of Internet connectivity necessary to run these programs.

Read the full story and comment below.

Article by Navindra Persaud, Education World Contributor