As schools begin reopening for the school year, a group of 70 developers and researchers collaborated to produce a new series of “Guides to Education Technologies.” These guides present information on government-supported education technology products that are ready now for in-class and remote learning. All the resources are web-based and can be used on computers, tablets, or personal devices. Many of the technologies personalize learning by adjusting the content to students as they go and provide information to educators to inform instruction. The guides focus on the following areas: early learning, math, science and engineering, social studies, and special education.

“Let’s show America how we can work together to close the digital divide, that should be our common goal.”

“Every school in my district is starting at 100 percent distance learning in addition to the stress of wildfires and the many challenges of shifting to distance learning. The burden of addressing connectivity gaps facing students has fallen entirely on our schools.”

“We all want connectivity, we all know that we’re not there yet; we’re expanding that direction, we need to achieve it … we’re going to need more of this in the rural areas and I’m hoping that common sense prevails.”

“The work of the Federal Communications Commission to ensure connectivity to all Americans has never been more critical. When I say all Americans, I mean every American...We need to look into the future, plan for the future and allow everybody – businesses, healthcare, education – to have the same abilities as any other area in America.”

“The internet is a lifeline for our rural communities. It contributes to our economies, enabling precision agriculture, education, health care and jobs and this crisis has highlighted the ability for folks to work from anywhere yet two in five Montanans in our rural areas lack access to broadband.”

“We know, in this digital divide, having broadband internet at home is critical to everything we do – from virtual learning to telehealth, to applying for a job or paying rent – all of these connections are only as strong as our weakest signal. We need to make sure we have a reliable connection at home.”

“As this pandemic has highlighted, far too many Americans still don’t have access to reliable high-speed internet.”

“In the midst of a pandemic, internet access is – in all senses – a lifeline… normal and incremental progress just won’t cut it, we need extraordinary and heroic efforts in other areas… Our teachers do not have proper technology and students don’t have the devices and sufficient access to high speed internet to learn properly, and they’re falling through the cracks.”

This back-to-school season certainly is off to a different beginning than in years past. As Tennessee teachers kick off the year with a mix of in-person and remote instruction, parents are facing a host of new challenges while shepherding their children through a combination of in-class and virtual lessons. They’re asking themselves: What can I do to help my child focus? Will my child’s teacher be able to provide one-on-one help? How will all this impact my own work schedule?

Rural Tennesseans, like many rural Americans, experience an added element of stress and additional complications when it comes to remote learning: lack of high-speed internet access. If you ask a parent from New York City or Los Angeles about the biggest obstacle they faced during the transition to eLearning, chances are slim to none they’ll complain about connection speeds. Tennessee students, on the other hand, are now learning the hard way that both the tablets and laptops meant to create a new type of classroom experience are practically useless without reliable Internet.

While it is my hope that all of our students will be able to return to the consistency of in-classroom learning as soon as possible, in the meantime we need to do everything in our power to invest in underserved communities and close this “digital divide.”

UNITED STATES – Former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign held a roundtable about rural and tribal broadband access Friday.

“The Covid-19 crisis has revealed that Americans everywhere need universal, reliable, affordable and high-speed internet to do their jobs and participate equally in remote school learning,” Former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said.

Biden’s Build Back Better economic plan features a $2 trillion investment in infrastructure including universal broadband.