Poverty plagues not only the developing world, but also still persists in many neighborhoods in the United States, further widening the gap between the rich and the poor. This gap is not purely economic, it is also one of literacy, of technology, and of opportunity. Society’s most powerful tool against poverty, unemployment, and these persistent gaps is education. Schools in low socioeconomic areas often fall behind more well-funded private ones, especially when it comes to technology and multimedia literacy skills, but it is in low socioeconomic areas worldwide where these skills can make all the difference to a child, to a family, and to a community. Dr. Barbara Means, director of the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International, explains, “The need to prepare students for …show more content…
The first step to properly assess technology as a solution to the global literacy and wealth gap is to examine the connection between illiteracy and poverty. … (Link between literacy and poverty worldwide)… According to the UNESCO eAtlas of Literacy, “Literate societies are wealthier that societies with widespread illiteracy” (UNESCO). Globally speaking, poverty-stricken and increasingly illiterate countries tend to be one and the same, illustrating the link that exists between these two cripplingly perseverant societal issues. These problems are not purely global, however, as many neighborhoods in the United States itself struggle with closing a similarly persistent, albeit narrower, wealth and literacy gap. One measure of socioeconomic status, participation in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), a federal school lunch subsidy, can be used to tie a child's