"Nearly," "Many," and other ideas about technology
In reading Bruce's piece "Diversity and Critical Social Engagement," it was clear that this was written by a Digital Immigrant. While I myself am no Native, I am also not a full-blood Immigrant, and I was curious as to a particular statement buried in Bruce's writing:
"Today nearly every school in the United States has Internet access and many students have access at home, in libraries, or in community centers as well" (ed. Alverman p 4).
Okay, so one of the first things that I learned in English exposition and composition is that words such as "nearly" and "many" lack any conviction toward the argument at hand. Actually, they seem to demean his argument. Whereby, in the earlier portion of the paragraphs Bruce lists concrete numbers and stats, here there are none.
Technology is great, but it is expensive, and unless schools have funding or have great teachers to write for grants to help the schools out, I'm not sure "nearly" every school is there. I know I'm nit-picking, but one thing I've learned is not to trust every source I read. Sure, Bruce is discussing Internet access, but the questions arise exponentially: how many students are able to use the computers available everyday; how accessible are the computers; what is the ratio of computers to students; what about those students with no free time during the day or after school to use them; what type of community do these students live in and what type of funding do they have available at the school; how involved are parents in their educations and are they in support of technology; etc. etc. etc.
I'm sure that Bruce knew what he was talking about, and what he meant by his evasive statement, but this seems to support the "digital divide" we've discussed. If there are not any numbers to back his claim up, then maybe there are no studies that have been done, but I don't think that is it. There is a huge difference, economically, between students who have computers at home or have to go to libraries to use them; perhaps this should have been discussed as well.
If all of these schools, or a lot of them, have access to the Internet why are we not making greater use of them in classrooms? Is is because there are not computers in classrooms, but in labs that have to be signed out ahead of time?
Access does not equal availability, so the question is:
Who is the technology available to and when?
In reading Bruce's piece "Diversity and Critical Social Engagement," it was clear that this was written by a Digital Immigrant. While I myself am no Native, I am also not a full-blood Immigrant, and I was curious as to a particular statement buried in Bruce's writing:
"Today nearly every school in the United States has Internet access and many students have access at home, in libraries, or in community centers as well" (ed. Alverman p 4).
Okay, so one of the first things that I learned in English exposition and composition is that words such as "nearly" and "many" lack any conviction toward the argument at hand. Actually, they seem to demean his argument. Whereby, in the earlier portion of the paragraphs Bruce lists concrete numbers and stats, here there are none.
Technology is great, but it is expensive, and unless schools have funding or have great teachers to write for grants to help the schools out, I'm not sure "nearly" every school is there. I know I'm nit-picking, but one thing I've learned is not to trust every source I read. Sure, Bruce is discussing Internet access, but the questions arise exponentially: how many students are able to use the computers available everyday; how accessible are the computers; what is the ratio of computers to students; what about those students with no free time during the day or after school to use them; what type of community do these students live in and what type of funding do they have available at the school; how involved are parents in their educations and are they in support of technology; etc. etc. etc.
I'm sure that Bruce knew what he was talking about, and what he meant by his evasive statement, but this seems to support the "digital divide" we've discussed. If there are not any numbers to back his claim up, then maybe there are no studies that have been done, but I don't think that is it. There is a huge difference, economically, between students who have computers at home or have to go to libraries to use them; perhaps this should have been discussed as well.
If all of these schools, or a lot of them, have access to the Internet why are we not making greater use of them in classrooms? Is is because there are not computers in classrooms, but in labs that have to be signed out ahead of time?
Access does not equal availability, so the question is:
Who is the technology available to and when?
posted by Dawn Larson | 12:33 PM
1 Comments:
Hi Dawn, I discovered that if I use the Safari browser I can read your template! Hooray. That's why I haven't been commenting. I couldn't read your blog...it appeared in I Explorer as a brown template with "invisible" text.
More later..now that I know how to access your posts. KES
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