#050 – Microsoft: The Digital Divide

22nd February 2021

In this episode of The Youth and Education Podcast, CfEY Associate Alix Robertson chairs a roundtable discussion on the ‘digital divide’, with a panel of guests including Chris Rothwell, Director of Education at Microsoft; Sebastien Chapleau, Headteacher and Community Organiser with Citizens UK; Kelly Loftus, Director of External Relations at Teach First; and CfEY’s Chief Executive Loic Menzies.

Alix, Chris, Sebastien, Kelly and Loic discuss:

  • What we mean by the digital divide
  • The extent to which the digital divide is an issue at present
  • Why the digital divide is important to Microsoft and its work
  • How the challenges of the digital divide are affecting young people
  • How access to technology has changed since the beginning of the pandemic
  • How different stakeholders can help
  • Examples of positive change
  • Lessons that can be learned from previous work

The conversation follows the launch of Microsoft and CfEY’s report: ‘The Digital Divide: Closing the achievement gap in the connected classroom’, which included findings from a TeacherTapp survey, for example that just 1% of primary state schools provide devices that their pupils can take home, compared to 38% of private primary schools.

You can read the full report here.

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Music credits:

‘Follow Your Dreams’ by Scott Holmes from http://freemusicarchive.org

Want to contact us?

[email protected] / @sambaars

[email protected] / @AlixHRobertson

[email protected] / @VanessaGJ__