1. BELOW PAR WITH
HEAD START
NARROWING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
Head Start Teachers Develop
Proficiency in Computer Technology
Price, Valerie & Chen, Jie-Qi , (2006).
NARROWING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE: Head
Start Teachers Develop Proficiency in
Computer Technology.. Education and Urban
Society. 38, 398-405.

2. The Digital Divide
 Inequalitiesin children’s access to computers
because of factors such as income, race, and
parent education.
 Access to the technology
 Teacher’s ability to use it themselves

3. How to solve this problem
 HeadStart program in the Department of Early
Childhood Education of the Chicago Public
Schools (CPS) and Erikson Institute
 Goal:help teachers develop attitudes, skills, and
practices to help children gain educational
benefits from classroom computer use

4. The Principles of the Program
 Teaching for understanding
 Co-construction of knowledge
 Integration rather than isolation
 Responding to teachers’ instructional needs
 Cooperative learning
 Peers as role models

5. The Program’s Effects
 Atotal of 66 teachers and 33 assistant teachers
completed the one year program.
 Theyshowed significantly higher measures in
regards to attitude, skill, and practice when
compared to the 109 nonparticipant.
 Key lessons: eager teachers, attitudes as
indicators, community of learners, and the issue
of scaling up.

6. What does it all mean
 Whatbenefits will the children gain, other then
technological proficiency, from their teachers who
attended this program?
 How
does this program’s implementation into
Head Start begin to level the playing field in
comparison to children above the poverty line?
 Whatare some other ways to begin to introduce
children who are below the poverty level to
technology?