Dive Brief:

• While many schools are ready to embrace the future and adopt new technological innovations, ensuring that students can still utilize these tools from home is proving more complicated.
• When Tennessee's Hamilton County decided to replace some textbooks with iPads, its school board didn't consider access issues that could arise if students come from homes without Internet.
• The lack of Internet access in low-income areas has become such an issue for schools that, according to the Associated Press, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to increase spending by 60% in order to outfit libraries in poor and rural communities with high-speed WiFi.

Dive Insight:

While schools are attempting to move forward and embrace technology, meeting families halfway is also important. Eliminating textbooks when not every child has Internet access could leave students in not only an uncomfortable or difficult situation, but also one that is potentially embarrassing.