Connect Minnesota Recently released a report on Mobile Devices in Minnesota Education…
Across Minnesota, 90% of households with school-age children report that they subscribe to home broadband service. This means that more than 108,000 schoolage children in Minnesota still do not have broadband access at home. Almost one-half of parents or guardians who do not subscribe to broadband (46%) cite cost as their main barrier to adoption.
Outside of their homes, Minnesota students access the Internet using a variety of resources. Across the state, 84% of parents or guardians who have school-age children say that their children use the Internet while at school. In addition, 9% of parents or guardians report that K-12 students in Minnesota access the Internet at someone else’s home and another 9% say their children access the Internet at their local libraries for schoolwork.
Schools in Minnesota recognize the need for students to have broadband access and provide the necessary equipment for them to stay connected. Statewide, 22% of Minnesota parents or guardians with school-age children at home say that at least one child has a school-issued laptop or tablet device.
This year two of my kids will get tablets from school – but from two different schools. (One goes to a public high school; the other goes to a private school.) I will be watching closely to see what they actually do with them. I’m an advocate as you can imagine. If for no other reason, I’ll glad to see them not tote backpacks that I can’t lift. But I am hoping that the teachers are prepared to make good use of them.
BEVCOMM helped the Blue Earth Area school district on this initiative by enabling the district to provide 150 meg broadband in all district school sites, as well as offering broadband to residential customers during our continuing FTTH project with speeds of up to 30, 60 or 90 meg. Yet all we hear is that Minnesota’s telecom providers aren’t doing what needs to be done. Seems to me that is a classic case of opinion overshadowing fact.