Week 1 Blog Post

 Introduce Myself

Hello everyone! My name is Alex Facciponte. I am from Long Island, New York. I graduated this past May from a small private university called St. Joseph’s University. It was a quick and convenient commute. My degree is in history adolescent education. I have been working as a permanent substitute at South Ocean Middle School this year. This school is located within the Patchogue-Medford school district. I wanted to get valuable experience substituting while working on my master's in the meantime. However, I have gotten more than I bargained for. I have basically walked into a leave replacement position as a special education English teacher. Although I feel severely underqualified, I am doing my best and learning a lot daily. It gives me more confidence that if I can do a good job in this role, I could only imagine the possibilities if I taught my subject area of expertise. I look forward to getting to know and working with you all in this course! 

Insights/Connections from readings to future project

My school district resides in Patchogue, New York. It is a beautiful town with many local businesses, such as stores and restaurants nearby. Based on 2020 census data, my school’s community comprises 12,408 people (Census Bureau, 2020). My community is also very diverse. The majority of students are Hispanic. Census data also backs this up, as there are 3,520 Hispanics in Patchogue (Census Bureau, 2020). Most people in Patchogue work in industries such as education, health care, construction, and retail trade (Census Bureau, 2020). The average median income for someone living in Patchogue is about 105,246 (Cubit Planning, 2025). Regarding math levels in New York, students rank barely above average (274 to 273) compared to the United States (Nation's Report Card, 2022a). As for reading levels, New York also ranks slightly above average (262 to 259) compared to the rest of the United States (Nation's Report Card, 2022b).

For my project, I plan on focusing on the digital divide of resources students have in terms of resources. Yes, all students within the district are provided computers, which is a fantastic step in the right direction; however, these computers are given to them during elementary school, and they are fully expected to have them through their high school graduation. Over the years, the constant use of laptops daily, the beatings they take, and software updates make these computers much more complicated to use, which causes an inconvenience in the classroom. Students have to update their computers in class, which results in slower computers that cannot handle the new software they have been updated to. In this project, I would like to see how students perform better when they receive updated technology in their educational journey. Maybe receiving newer educational technology every time schools change can make a difference for students and educators. 

I believe there are many connections from the resources given to help me with the project I plan on doing. In Lee’s photo essay, we are exposed to people lacking resources regarding broadband networks (Lee, 2019). Reading this essay sparked the idea of how students and teachers are frustrated with the quality of resources given to them. I do not understand how the administration expects these laptops not to become outdated by the time students are graduating seniors. The reading from the US Department of Education mentions many sections regarding the digital divide (Ramani, Zhang & Colleagues, 2018). Section 7 mentions how in 2015, only 87 percent of students had access to a computer at home, and only 77 percent had the internet (Ramani, Zhang & Colleagues, 2018). Although the issues are inherently different, student computers are holding them back from accessing the internet properly as their computers are not working as well or even having problems with connectivity in the classroom. The Office of Educational Technology also provides insights to students who lack access to these resources. This source, in particular, mentioned potential solutions to digital lack of access. It mentioned developing learning plans with stakeholders to influence the state, district, or administrators (Office of Educational Technology, 2024). This can be a great potential solution for my project to try to influence others by giving students more updated resources so they could have better educational experiences. Students should not have to worry about their computer's shelf life; instead, they should be put in a situation where they can succeed with updated technology. 

References

Cubit Planning. (2025). 11772 income statistics. 11772 New York Income Statistics | Current Census Data for Zip Codes.. Retrieved from : https://www.incomebyzipcode.com/newyork/11772

Kewal Ramani, A., Zhang, J., Wang, X., Rathbun, A., Corcoran, L., Diliberti, M., & Zhang, J. (2018). Student Access to Digital Learning Resources outside of the Classroom. NCES 2017-098. National Center for Education Statistics.. Retrieved From:  Student Access to Digital Learning Resources outside of the Classroom.pdf

Lee, N. T. (2023, June 26). Closing the digital and economic divides in rural America. Brookings. Retrieved from : https://www.brookings.edu/articles/closing-the-digital-and-economic-divides-in-rural-america/

NAEP report card: Mathematics. The Nation’s Report Card. (2022a)  Retrieved from : https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/mathematics/states/scores/?grade=8

NAEP report card: Reading. The Nation’s Report Card. (2022b) Retrieved from :  https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading/states/scores/?grade=8

Office of Educational Technology. (2024). National Education Technology Plan: A Call to Action for Closing the Digital Access, Design, and Use Divides. US Department of Education. Retrieved from: https://tech.ed.gov/netp/

United States Census Bureau (2020.). Explore census data: Patchogue Village, New York Retrieved from : https://data.census.gov/profile/Patchogue_village,_New_York?g=160XX00US3656660#race-and-ethnicity