Digital Equity

No internet, no education, says Vickie Robinson

No Internet, No Education | Vickie Robinson | Global Stage | GZERO Media

The pandemic accelerated the shift to digital. But that left behind those offline, widening the digital access gap — with big implications for education.

Vickie Robinson, general manager of Microsoft's Airband Initiative, recalls how she dealt with school closing as a mother.

Having in-home connectivity helped her children transition from middle to high school with some sense of normalcy. But two-thirds of school-aged kids around the world didn't have that opportunity, she says during a Global Stage livestream conversation.

What's more, offline kids mostly come from marginalized backgrounds, which for Robinson makes the case for closing the digital access gap even more urgent.

More For You

People gather outside the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport to decry President Trump's travel ban on 19 countries which went into effect this morning.

5: US President Donald Trump added five new countries – Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan, and Syria – to the list of nations banned from traveling to the US.

US President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finland's President Alexander Stubb, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pose for a family photo amid negotiations to end the Russian war in Ukraine, at the White House in Washington, D.C., USA, on August 18, 2025.
REUTERS/Alexander Drago

With the release of its National Security Strategy, the Trump administration has telegraphed how the US intends to engage with allies, and what it expects from them.