Naomi

Naomi is a twenty-four year-old youth manager at an educational non-profit in New York City; we chatted with Naomi about how COVID-19 and the lack of adequate technology has widened disparities within New York City’s public schools.

Can you talk a bit about how your life and work has interacted with technology?
My organization offers free math tutoring to middle school students in New York City, and technology has been very prevalent within the virtual learning that the kids are doing. For one specific cohort that’s integrated into the school day, the kids use their in-school iPads and whether or not a day runs smoothly is very dependent on whether or not the iPad is charged, if they have their headphones, working Wi-Fi, etc. In the world of virtual learning – which has become the new normal – it’s so important that students, especially those at low-income schools, have access to these technology products. If they don’t, it creates a barrier to their learning that kids who go to schools with iPads and laptops they can take home don’t have. So [technology] has the power to even that playing field, but in some of these lower-income schools, that tech is not where it should be; this creates issues.

Right, that barrier to access technology-based learning has definitely been magnified by COVID-19. Whose responsibility is it to provide the technology to the students?
Since the schools we work with are funded by the Department of Education, there’s a clause that each school funded by public resources must have proper technology for their students to use. So every student should get an iPad or a laptop computer, be equipped with working Wi-Fi, etc. But that doesn’t really seem to be happening in some schools. And [we] could try to provide the students with laptop computers or iPads by requesting grants for outside intervention, but it can be a difficult dynamic to go into a school and tell the principal that they’re not providing their students with the proper materials to learn. But we do what we can.

I’ve noticed that in other cohorts of ours – that aren’t school-funded so we’re going right into the homes of the students – it can be hard to navigate which grants we can get from Verizon or AT&T that would provide our students with the Chromebooks or iPads that they need in order to have a better, more seamless virtual learning experience. I think that COVID-19 really exposed the gaps within resources that different schools have, especially when it comes down to ensuring that if a student doesn’t have Wi-Fi at home, can we provide them with a hotspot? It’s revealed a larger socio-economic problem that many students are facing. It’s unfortunate because learning should be a level playing field, but it often isn’t.

Do you feel that technology is being utilized in a positive way within the work you’re doing?
I do. We’re bringing extra supplemental learning to the homes of students who need it. For example, for many low-income students, their parents can’t afford to bring in private tutors for them. So by offering virtual tutoring to them, we’re attempting to break down that specific economic barrier to provide them with a solution. I’ve noticed that many of our students really do benefit from it; participants in our program will often increase a letter grade, with C students earning B’s, etc. So it’s great to see how making virtual learning more accessible for our students can really benefit them. [The non-profit] used to be in-person in a traditional brick-and-mortar building, but since the pandemic we’ve switched to a virtual format and have reached 200 more students this year because of that.

That’s great to hear. From your perspective, how can the tech industry become safer for marginalized communities? What steps need to be taken?
What I’ve noticed about the tech industry is that it tends to perpetuate harmful stereotypes via images and videos – especially social media like Facebook – fear-mongering certain minority communities. This is definitely preventable. I believe in freedom of speech but there also needs to be checks and balances within this, especially if [the media] is false. These platforms are all so accessible but some of the content becomes incredibly radicalized and extreme, and we don’t know what’s fact or fiction. I think tech companies need to work on combing through these harmful posts and images that become viral; there’s a clear difference between what is freedom of speech and what is hate speech.

I also think there need to be changes in terms of the accessibility of simple tech products. I know that I had the privilege of being bussed to a suburban community for school, where there were Macbooks and desktop computers where I learned how to type. To break down educational barriers, tech companies should partner with schools in more marginalized communities – or the Department of Education on a yearly contract basis – to provide schools with up-to-date technology that the students will use in high school or college. Or they could create tech programs to help the students learn how to type. I learned how to type in second grade, but I know people who didn’t have that opportunity, and learned in eighth or ninth grade. So it feels like things that are simple – learning how to use a keyboard – are being gatekept, in a way.

I also know that many people in marginalized communities rely on public libraries for a lot of their information and resources; they can take a typing or resume building class, learn about technology, etc. Those are so important, because it can feel really scary to feel like you don’t know anything about technology. So it could be interesting for tech companies to partner with public libraries to bolster resources.

Definitely. Are there any other changes within the tech industry you’d like to see?
I think that marginalized tech creators or influencers should have the same resources as white creators. I’ve noticed this a lot, especially on Tik Tok. I feel as though I don’t see many Black or brown creators, mostly white ones. And I’ve wondered why this is, and I know that many of them have experienced being shadow-banned or flagged regularly so their content won’t show up as much, but that won’t happen to their white counterparts. So that’s something I’ve noticed and especially on a platform that seems “leveled,” things are systematically rigged against creators of color.