To kick off 2012, here are a few new articles from us at EdTechTeacher.

On EdTechResearcher, Justin Reich published Is the inequality inside or outside of your classroom? As he prepares for a January 17th talk at the Berkman Center, he writes:

Teachers who had concerns about digital divides and did not use technology in the classroom often focused on within classroom inequality. They would talk about variability in home access, not wanting to have students feel shame, concerns that not all students could complete online work. Since not every student had equal access–or an equitable baseline of access–to technology, these teachers argued that technology highlighted inequities in their classrooms and disadvantaged certain students. Therefore, they tended to avoid technology or to avoid integration strategies that involved any technology work outside of classtime.

Teachers who had concerns about digital divides and did use technology in the classroom often focused on between school inequality. The gaps that concerned these teachers were between the suburbs and their own urban or rural schools, not the inequities in their own classrooms. They knew that technology access was more difficult for some students, but they reasoned that ceasing technology integration for all students because of challenges with a few students would be unfair to the entire group vis a viz the kids in the burbs. Some teachers were very explicit about how hard it was for some kids to get access, but they argued that these challenges made it all the more important for teachers to create activities and incentives to encourage kids to find ways of getting online. Others pointed out that often times the students with the most difficult access challenges could be supported by ensuring that classroom, lunch, before- and after-school access were prioritized to support those students…

Visit EdTechResearcher to read the full article.

Beth Holland examined Social Media Revolution 2011 from the lens of mobile technology.

A few weeks ago, Richard Byrne, of Free Tech for Teachers, posted Social Media Revolution 2011, which is actually a post of someone else’s. The point being, through social media – I received Richard’s post via Google Reader as well as @rmbyrne and on FaceBook – I found this video on the revolution created by social media.

Sure, it is – in some ways – a twist on much of what appeared in Did You Know 4.0, which is really an evolution of Shift Happens from Xplane, but isn’t that what makes this interesting?

In the past six years, social media has changed how we communicate, how we share information, and even how we learn. Lately, I’ve been looking at the impact of mobile technology on research, reading, and learning. However, the bigger question may be how does mobile, social technology impact research, reading, and learning? Food for thought…