Claire Molony Educational Blog

 After doing more research and thinking about digital divides in my building, I have decided to focus on digital skills instead of access. I want to focus on the digital skills of teachers and how that can be addressed to support the highest level of skills for our students. This would fit with the second level of divide, skills and usage which are determinants of the use of technology especially for more creative use  (van de Werfhorst et al., 2022).  This gets me into the "dividing factors" of my community members. "Dividing factors" refer to the challenges that prevent communities from accessing, using, or benefiting from digital technologies. My community does not have an access barrier. According to the Digital Divide Index (DDI) my county which I teach in has a low divide because even though I teach in a rural community, our county has a major urban area ( Gallardo, 2022). We have solid infrastructure, with Wi-Fi being available to students and community membe...

 Hi everyone! My name is Claire Molony and I teach high school science in rural Eastern Iowa. I teach chemistry, biology, forensics, and wildlife management. This is my 6th year teaching and my third year in my current role. Along with teaching I coach basketball and golf. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my family and friends and recently got back into reading. This is my second to last class before completing the program in May!  My community is a small rural community in Eastern Iowa. My students and colleagues are who are going to be impacted by what I learn in this class. I teach students in grades 9-12 in both required classes and electives. Our school is a 6-12 building with around 250 students in grades 9-12. Around 27% of our students are economically disadvantaged, 9% are minorities, and our graduation rate is 98% ( “Cascade Junior-Senior High School”). The readings from the week made me realize the digital divide is not just about physical access such as ...