New York launches home Wi-Fi program as Internet prices soar

Library HotSpot, funded by a $1 million donation from Google and $500,000 in private nonprofit grants, brings some of the city’s English learners and students online, aiming to help level educational and economic playing fields.

The take-home Internet program is available to library patrons enrolled in after-school programs and adult learning classes who don't already have broadband Internet at home.

A report released Monday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranks the United States as one of the most expensive countries among OECD members for broadband Internet access, topped only by Spain, Luxembourg and Chile.

Between 2007 and 2013, American spending on Internet access increased 80 percent, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data analyzed by the The Wall Street Journal.

Currently, 87 percent of U.S. adults use the Internet, according to the Pew Research Center. Income and education levels are the major factors in determining who uses it and who doesn’t. Only 77 percent of households that make less than $30,000 a year have Internet access — about the same rate as those who haven’t attended any college. In contrast, 91 percent of people with some college and nearly all college graduates are online.

Steven Anderson, a former teacher and author of The Relevant Educator: How Connectedness Empowers Learning, advises school districts on technology and social media, and he says Internet access is a basic right.

“Like water or electricity, you have to have it,” Anderson said.

Kimberly Bryant, founder of Black Girls Code — a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that teaches computer programming to minority kids — says students who don't have Internet access at home often miss opportunities to sign up for her programs, while those who have it tend to build coding expertise more quickly. 

"It's a critical tool for young tech innovators," Bryant said. "They can find communities online and reach out and tweak their skills."

While Internet access is no panacea, experts say it's often a valuable learning tool.

Larry Ferlazzo — an English as a second language teacher at Luther Burbank High, a public school in Sacramento, California's capital city — says using the Internet to learn a language is a great way to take part in an interactive environment. But it’s not necessary for learning a language, or even for living well.

“It’s not a matter of making or breaking,” Ferlazzo said. “But for students who are motivated it provides a whole lot of reinforcement opportunity. It provides lots of opportunities to advance and learn and connect.”

In the early 2000s, Ferlazzo helped develop a program that gave his school’s English learners computers with Internet access at home. The program required each student to study English for at least an hour each day on the computer — and the investment paid off.

Participants in the home computer program increased their English skills at three times the rate of other students in school. But Ferlazzo says many of those students didn’t spend that time on the computer alone — they worked with their families, learning English together in front of the screen.

That's how it works for Magdalena Martinez’s family in the Bronx. Her eldest daughters, 2nd- and 3rd-graders who first learned how to use computers at school, are her Internet co-pilots. They teach her how to search for English/Spanish translations, and in turn they get to play online learning games and listen to music.

Magdalena’s 3rd-grade daughter Gisselle, who has some trouble with reading and writing in school, sings along karaoke-style with some of her favorite songs from music class, as she watches the words cross the screen.

Anderson, the author, says he believes the opportunity to learn online and explore the Internet for information on topics students are passionate about should be available to everyone.

“The Internet should be free and open to anyone who wants it. As a country, we need to do a better job making that happen,” he said. “When we have equitable and equal access, we have a better society, and a lot more transparency.”