Family Tech: Internet for disadvantaged kids

An increasingly important back-to-school supply is not in students’ backpacks.

There is a growing concern in the U.S. of the formation of a digital divide. That is, families able to afford fast Internet and families who cannot. The Internet is increasingly useful for students. Kids can go online to research topics, find drill programs, find explanation for concepts and access their school’s websites so they can review assignments. Parents can stay on top of their child’s progress through online grade books and read school news that may not always make it home successfully in back­packs.

The cost of broadband Internet is about $45 per month after promo­tion periods end. That puts it outside the reach of financially challenged families.

Comcast now offers $10 per month broadband Internet for some of those families. To gain government ap­proval for their acquisition of NBC, Comcast agreed to make inexpensive Internet available for families with at least one child in the National School Lunch Program. Additionally, eligible families cannot have been Comcast Internet customers in the previous 90 days and not have an unpaid Comcast bill or unreturned Comcast equipment.

They are also offering a $150 voucher toward the purchase of a computer and classroom or online Internet training.

Contact Comcast at 1-855-846-8376 for details.

Teachers and others wanting to help spread the word about this program can register and receive information at internetessentials.com.

There are also other resources for free or inexpensive access to the Inter­net. The county libraries offer com­puters and net access for free; albeit with a time limit. If you have a Wi-Fi equipped laptop you can take it to the library, the libraries have free open Wi-Fi Internet when they are open.

Students can also print using the libraries’ printers for a nominal fee.

Check also with your church; many have free Internet as well. Restau­rants like Bob Evans, McDonald’s and Panera Bread offer free Wi-Fi for customers too.

Now that laptops have been out for many years, there is a robust used market for inexpensive computers.

Buyers should insist on seeing them operating, and make sure they have Wi-Fi Internet access ability before buying. Buyers also should be con­scious as they look at used comput­ers that new laptops start at $400 to $500. New desktops can start as low as $300.

The county schools sell surplus computer through the auction site publicsurplus.com.

Free software is available to meet most students’ needs. Microsoft Secu­rity Essentials is a totally free anti-vi­rus program reviewers say is as good as paid anti-virus program.

Google has many free services to benefit students. I write this column in Google Docs word processing pro­gram. It also offers a spreadsheet and presentation program. Students can keep track of assignments in Google Calendar. They can track tasks in Google Tasks, learn geography using Maps and study astronomy with the help of Google Sky.

For a more serious word process­ing program that does not require constant net connection, check out OpenOffice and LibreOffice.

I’ve written before here and on my blog about Evernote. It is a wonder­ful tool for students to gather and organize research notes. While they have a paid Premium service, their free service is more than adequate for students.

Computers, Internet and software can be costly for students, but making use of these resources hopefully will put at least one student on the posi­tive side of the digital divide.

Read more at the link page at bit.ly/FamilyTech. Visit Mark’s blog at markstout.blogspot.com. His email address is markstout@gmail.com.