Have you ever considered how a computer could affect a student’s education?  Across the United States of America, a large group of Americans are struggling to escape the poverty line.   Because of a lack of money, several city schools are at a disadvantage because they can not afford a suitable amount of resources for their students.  As technology expands each day, the need for access increases because everything is now online.  Overtime the shortage of computers in the classroom will create a barrier between the students and a successful future.  The desire for an affluent career will encourage competition between students.  Technology allows users to expand their knowledge and form a path for what lies ahead.  Owning a computer has been shown to present more benefits than negatives.  An increase in computers at an underprivileged urban school will have several positive effects on its students.

       Technology is everywhere, but it is not available to everyone.  Unfortunately, without a computer, a student will have less opportunity to grow intellectually.  In city schools, on average, sixty-four percent of students will receive a free or reduced priced lunch, which indicates that their families are near the poverty line.  The guidelines for the 2013-2014 academic year located the poverty line at $23,550 for a family of four (Hudley).  Some schools in the city have trouble finding funds to support their students, which gives little money to invest in a computer.  This situation is most common in urban areas because of the large populations and limited funds that schools have.  Several times in city schools, computers and learning software are either are at a shortage or simply do not exist (Chen).  One teacher even states, “The ratio of computers to students is absurd” (Pandolfo).  As these circumstances continue, the gap between the poor and the rich widens because the education the poor urban students receive is insufficient in order make them competitive with more privileged, upper class peers (Hudley).  These schools need long term funding in order to get their program off the ground.  Some schools do receive the money they need.  Some schools across the country are lucky enough to have the benefits of grants and parental donations to spend on technology, but others still have to rely on the federal government for funding (Pandolfo).  Normally, the parents of a child at a privileged school give parental donations, but a parent at an underprivileged school can not afford to give donations and as a result they have to rely on the school to supply resources for their children.  As it has been noted, several schools can not afford to provide computers for their students.

An experiment was conducted with three disadvantaged urban schools.   The first institution was a neighborhood school with about 700 students, eighty-five percent of who are African American and eighty-three percent of whom qualify for a free or reduced priced lunch (Schrum).  The second academy was made up of a student body of 650 students who are seventy-two percent African American and two-thirds of the population qualify for a free or reduced priced lunch (Schrum).  The third school was made up of 350 students, twenty percent of whom had disabilities, that were committed to discovery project-based learning that was taught from an early age (Schrum).  Each school was given the chance to purchase new computers for their students.  The final results were predictable, but nonetheless it was positive feedback.  The faculty used the money to integrate technology into the school and provided a more productive environment where their students showed improvement.  This school was fortunate to have had the opportunity to obtain such resources, but others do not because “Building state-of-the-art public schools with cutting edge technology to serve the poorest children is a challenging prescription in an era of declining public resources and contested political priorities” (Hudley).  The reality is that without a strong technology program, it is difficult for students to excel because most valuable resources are found online.

Think about the last time you wrote a paper, did you write it with a pencil or did you type it on a computer?  Technology used to be a prestigious way of life, but it now is developing into the norm.  Today, people live in a digital world where little is done with a piece of a paper, but instead a computer.  Each day, “Technology changes by the minute, and as educators we need to keep up with the times in order to best prepare our students for this ever-changing world that we live in” (Cox).  New developments in computers are important because change may be the only thing that precedes technology (Benefits).  New inventions continue to take the nation in new directions (Benefits).  The students, who are not fully immersed in the technology, will not be equipped for the real world (Benefits).  Computers are beginning to have an effect on schools because it is greatly expanding the access to learning (How).  Now there are online books and textbooks that are available to students.  With the development of online textbooks, it will cut back on the amount of books a student will have to carry.  As these improvements progress, lives will change.  One of the areas where technology has been changed the most is communication (Benefits).  With the use of technology people can send emails, text messages, Facetime, etc.  With these factors, students can “…connect with experts in any field through computers and have a fuller, more rounded understanding of their lessons. Students can chat with an astronaut, author or physicist or view an event they otherwise would miss, simply by having access to computers in the classroom” (Benefits).  Technology supplies classrooms with different resources.  It has allowed for students to communicate with one another on group projects using technology tools such as Google docs (How).  With the means, the walls of the classroom are no longer a barrier for students as computers are allowing for new ways of learning, communicating, and collaborating (How).  The new developments in computers have created benefits for its users.

Technology has various advantages that range from purchasing an airplane ticket to writing a blog, but one of its key benefits is the use it has in a classroom.   Computers in classrooms are more predominant (Cox).  It has become a powerful tool that can transform education in many ways (How).  This is a time when one can access information anytime and anywhere.  Schools and universities use technology as an enabler (How).  Classrooms use it to make it all possible.  Teachers are finding that there is a connection with computers and a student’s productivity because it enhances students’ learning and expands their knowledge (Benefits).  Teachers use computers to create instructional materials to allow for new ways for students to excel (How).  These materials may include PowerPoints, online textbooks, and Prezi.  For several years, a teacher has been the primary source of information and students have been learning from them (How).  As a result of technology, the roles are slowly transitioning.  

Students are beginning to take more responsibility for their work, which will eventually strengthen a person’s confidence.  A student can also use programs such as PowerPoint to create presentations, which will encourage a student to learn how to become a better public speaker.  A computer has several other uses than the Internet, which may include, Microsoft Excel, Word, etc.  These different softwares are critical for certain careers and some students who entering universities without technological knowledge, are at a clear disadvantage and need to catch up to their peers (Benefits).  The computer will help ensure scholars that they are ready to take on the world (Benefits).  It will help produce adults who will find their place in the technological society (Benefits).  A handful of students have learning disabilities, which forces them to learn at a different pace than others.  With the use of certain programs found on the Internet, a student can learn at their own speed.  Specific subjects such as math can be difficult to grasp, but with certain websites the subject can become clearer.  Some students have trouble speaking on their own and with the use of a computer, they can communicate.  Technology is an important part in a student’s life (Cox).  When they are not at school, they are usually using some form of technology (Cox).  Children are growing familiar to computers and as a result, it has become a motivating factor because it is appealing to this generation. The students can connect with the form of learning and it can be more enjoyable.  Websites such as, GoogleDocs, allows students to access past documents and share and edit them among one another.  This is more efficient because it allows users to complete an assignment outside of the classroom.  The use of programs such as, Word, allows users to improve their writing skills because of autocorrect.  It can allow students to save time.  With the use of a computer, a student can turn an assignment in online instead of printing it, which overtime saves money.  Distance is not an issue anymore because of the Internet.  It can provide a form of communication experiences with users regardless of the distance (Benefits).

A study was conducted to see whether a digital classroom had more academic success than a classroom without technology.  The results were anticipated and the academic success of the students in the digital classroom was much higher than the students in the classroom without technology (Ozerbas).  Some of the reasoning for these results of this study, were that subjects, such as math, can be more abstract, but with the help of an online program, it can be easier to understand.  It was stated that digital activities have been proven to be more attractive to students and will eventually increase motivation.  This has been proven true in other studies as well.  The students used a specific program in this study and they were able to look back at past assignments and review it with a partner online.  This is something that you can only do digitally.  This study supports the idea that technology is bringing about positive factors.

Competition fuels the world.  It keeps workers driven because one wants to be successful.  Without competition, nothing would change.  The nation needs change in order to keep up with other countries around the world for progress to occur.  Each day, families, who are under the poverty line, have trouble finding jobs.  Without a strong education, which includes technological knowledge, it is difficult to find a successful career that will provide a stable lifestyle because technology is used everyday in the workplace.  Most jobs that did not use computers in the past will most likely use it now.  Learning technology in the classroom prepares students for their future and will set them up for the digital economy (Cox).  As technology becomes more dominant, the gap between the rich and the poor slowly widens.   A school in Chicago lags behind its peers and displays the horrid disparity that exists in the United States (Pandolfo).  These underprivileged students run into obstacles when attempting to get a job because others are more qualified.  This is because of one’s economic status.  As a student realizes their chance to get a job is out of their grasps, they begin to lose motivation.  Overtime, they might even give up.  This scenario is not productive for society.  In order to encourage competition, one needs to level the playing field.  Students need more resources because teachers in low-income schools more often report that they have to work with outdated textbooks, old computers, run down labs, and inadequate materials (Hudley).  All and all, students and their families are living with a difficult economic disadvantage (Hudley).  How is a student supposed to receive a standard education without the correct materials?  The answer is they can not because students need computers.  With computers, students will be more prepared for the world because their education will be heightened by technology.

Computers in the classroom are sometimes unfavorable.  Some teachers enjoy sticking to the traditional teaching method, which does not include technology.  It can become a distraction for students because of online gaming or emailing.  Computers are costly and a handful of districts can not afford to provide them for their students.  This causes problems because the majority of programs are online.  It can take away social interaction because it is more efficient to email than ask someone in person about a simple question.  Technology can be unreliable.  For example a computer could shut down unexpectedly and the user could lose their work.  Computers make it easier to cheat and plagiarize which will lead to bad habits and choices.  The students need discipline from their instructors who will teach them how to use each product correctly.  In the end, the use of technology is benefitting students more than it is hurting them.  

As technology expands, the need for computers increases.  A student with a disability might need a program to learn at their own pace in order to increase their retention rate.  Others might need the Internet for a research project similar to this one.  A student may have forgotten their textbook at home and needs to access it online at school.  Another example is that as students look for jobs, they need a template for a resume and the Internet to find available jobs.  Without the use of a computer, none of this is readily available.  These are all examples as to why poor urban schools need more access to computers.  An increase in computers at an urban school will bring upon several positive aspects.  A study showed that nine out of ten students said that using technology in school prepared them for the digital future (Cox).  As listed throughout this essay, users will excel with the use of technology.  It will allow them to compete with more privileged schools.  Computers will allow students to escape the digital divide because they will have a technological education that no one in their family has ever had.  Some of these schools are given money, which allows them to purchase resources, but the funds will only go so far.  The money will only cover the cost of the technology, but computers do have problems and without the means, it is not possible to keep them available to students.  Some of these urban schools do not have a designated tech person who knows how each of the computers work and how to teach students how to use the technology.    

A rise in computers at a disadvantaged city school will have many beneficial results on its students.  Several people live under the poverty line and find it hard to escape because of their limited resources.  One of these resources is a computer.  Technology is becoming more important to understand each day because it seems that one’s whole life is on a computer.  A computer has several benefits that will eventually outweigh the negatives in the long run because technology is the future.  It can give a student an extra push that they need in order to compete with other students for that certain job they want down the road.  Technology is the commonplace in the global economy and it is important that the school systems are educating the next generation with the appropriate resources.
