Comcast Launches Internet Essentials

Comcast Launches Internet Essentials

After recently finishing a project with Napa Valley Education Foundation , I was fortunate enough to learn about their mission and vision and why they have taken up the proverbial sword against the education gap.  I started to do some research on the apparent gap in resources in California and more importantly, my very own backyard.  Around the county between wealthy communities and communities who are filled with underprivileged kids, what I found was astounding.  Study after study, research paper after research paper,  found that counties with lower income families perform at a lower level than children who have access to better tools, teachers and curriculum.

                    Related Topics

• Thousands of pupils suspended for classroom attacks 29 Jul 2010
• Coalition ‘misled public’ over academies 29 Jul 2010
• Private and state school gap ‘widening under Labour’ 04 May 2010
• Labour has failed to reduce ‘Neets’, say MPs 08 Apr 2010
• Ofsted: Labour school reforms ‘not working’ 24 Feb 2010
• A-level results show education gap widening 14 Aug 2008

Here at 4C we don’t see an immediate solution to this challenge.  Organizations like the Napa Valley Education Foundation work diligently to level the playing field.  However, we did find an interesting program from Comcast that we believe is a step in the right direction.  Comcast is offering internet access bundled with a PC at an affordable rate to give underprivileged children access to the internet and information to help them learn more quickly  and access information that they would not otherwise have access to at home.  “The goal is to have children career and college ready before they graduate from high school”, says one Comcast spokesperson.  This is totally cool.  Since 4C is an internet based company that provides business internet technologies, we believe in this program.  If information is power, and the future of business is the information worker, then the only person that will be left behind is the one without access to information.  Until now, this was the lower income families with no internet and no PC.  The key words are “until now”.  Comcast has made it very affordable with their Internet Essentials program.  For more information on the Comcast Internet Essentials program, visit http://internetessentials.com/index.html.

The next setup is to get schools to adopt a collaborative learning environment, putting administrators, educators, students, and parents on the same page to create a highly productive learning environment for the children.  What would it look like if everyone was working together to help accelerate a child’s education and everyone was aware of exactly where that child was excelling and where they were needing additional attention?  If your school is not yet online, it will be up to you as a parent to push them to get there.  If you find this informative, please comment below.  Remember to share with your network to be tweetastic!!