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Throughout college and well into my teaching career, I’ve spent several hundred dollars sitting in coffee shops, drinking a latte or a Frappuccino while I completed work using their Wi-Fi until closing.
Once I arrived home, I opened YouTube on my phone and played a video at the lowest resolution, 144p. I waited for several minutes as the video buffered. This became a daily occurrence when living in a rural area.
Millions still don’t have access to fast internet at home
As of 2019, a third of households nationwide do not have a reliable internet connection. The only way those families can access the internet is to leave their homes and go to a public library, school, or Starbucks.
A week before schools transitioned to virtual learning in 2020, I remember some of my students stared at their phones under their desks. When I caught them and asked them to turn it in, they refused.
For many students, the only internet access they had available was at school. As of September 2020, 3.7 million children still did not have access to an internet connection at home.
