Digital divide narrows, but gap remains for many - washingtonpost.com: The digital divide has narrowed dramatically in the last ten years. Roughly two-thirds of American households now report using the Internet at home, according to the U.S. Census. In the affluent Washington suburbs, the numbers are even higher; more than 90 percent of Fairfax households with children have home computers, according to a recent survey by the school system.
But even in Fairfax, the digital divide lives on in the study carrels of Woodrow Wilson library. Most afternoons, the Falls Church library is crowded with students from low-income or immigrant families using computers. While they live in one of the richest counties in the nation, these students recount skipping lunch to work at school labs or trudging up to 45 minutes to the library after the school day is over.
Such effort is necessary because students are doing more and more of their work online -- reading textbooks, watching podcasts, posting on discussion boards and creating PowerPoint presentations. The most searched-for term in the D.C. area this year was 'fcps blackboard' according to Google. That's the county's 24-hour online system where teachers post homework assignments and study guides, children ask questions or participate in discussion groups, and parents monitor classwork and grades.
