Ava L. Parker

Online Education in K-12 Schools: Testing the Limits of Broadband Access

July 1, 2012

Tweet Most people know that distance learning is popular with college students. Every year, more colleges and universities offer online education, and every year more students sign up. College students love the flexibility and are satisfied with the education they receive online and in blended online/classroom courses. Most people don’t know, though, that many states [...]

Read the full article →

Fighting the modern-day fire-eaters: A look back to the origins of the Confederacy

March 29, 2012

Tweet As early as the 1840s, the term fire-eaters was applied to an outspoken group of Southern, pro-slavery extremists who often used distorted, and even completely untrue, language in their rhetoric.  Sound familiar? While today’s polarized and outspoken groups aren’t exactly “pro-slavery extremists,” the behavior does ring a bell eerily close to home.  But easy [...]

Read the full article →

Virtual Job Fairs Virtually Inaccessible to Millions

January 11, 2012

Tweet The One Economy campaign to extend broadband Internet access to every household is all about economic opportunities. The World Wide Web can create untold numbers of business successes, but because access is not yet universal, it can also create some economic refugees. That, I’m afraid, appears to be the case with the trend toward [...]

Read the full article →

Detective Broadband: The Nazi Photographer

January 6, 2012

Tweet The photo editors of the New York Times last year were given access to an album of images from World War II. The nature of the pictures suggested the photographer was part of the Nazi machinery, but there was no signature, no proof. Who took the photos? Working in concert with the German magazine [...]

Read the full article →

State Action Can Make Lifeline Telephone Assistance Stronger, More Effective

December 27, 2011

Tweet Have you ever thought about life without a phone? For most Americans—the 96 percent who have telephone service—it’s a crazy notion. They are unaware of the handicap of doing without. For families who can’t afford a phone, however, the handicap is real. They are isolated from each other in times of need, vulnerable when [...]

Read the full article →

The New Digital Divide: Skills, Literacy, and the Creative Process

December 21, 2011

Tweet Access to the Internet through a broadband connection remains an issue in America, as studies have shown. But now the digital divide is being reinterpreted as less about getting to the Web and more about how we use it. With the expansion of wireless broadband and the quick adoption of smartphones and other wireless [...]

Read the full article →

Florida Tells the Unemployed, If You Want Benefits, You Have to Go Online

November 21, 2011

Tweet In Florida, if you lose your job, you need to get online. The state’s new policy requires anyone seeking unemployment benefits to apply online. This is a cost-saving move — Florida officials estimate it could save taxpayers $4.7 million a year. Going online means there are fewer state employees required to process applications. Florida [...]

Read the full article →

Democracy Online

November 11, 2011

Tweet With the Iowa straw poll now well behind us, Americans are ankle deep in the 2012 presidential campaign, and the waters are rising fast. This campaign, like the last, will be a proving ground for innovations in the use of digital communications, social media, and the Web. This investment by the candidates creates unprecedented [...]

Read the full article →

More Broadband, Less Bureaucracy

November 2, 2011

Tweet City governments nationwide are discovering ways to make their operations work faster by applying broadband technology to city operations and services. Cities that use broadband effectively also enjoy cost savings and enhanced relationships with the citizens they serve. High-speed Internet, once viewed as a luxury, is proving to be a wise investment for municipal [...]

Read the full article →

Who Falls Behind When Homework Goes Online?

October 26, 2011

Tweet “Do your homework,” my mom used to say, and she meant it. My parents insisted that school assignments were a priority for my brothers, sister and me. In our house, homework was serious business. It is serious business for students today, too. Though studies have shown that American schoolchildren in the past have done [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries