Comments on: Digitally Divided http://matthewkoslowski.com/2009/12/16/digitally-divided/ matthewkoslowski.com Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:58:18 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: John Spencer http://matthewkoslowski.com/2009/12/16/digitally-divided/comment-page-1/#comment-269 John Spencer Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:45:32 +0000 http://matthewkoslowski.com/?p=802#comment-269 I work within the Digital Divide. The biggest issue is access, not to computers, but to the internet. My immediate solution is to have then do much of their work on Puppy Linux and save their work on the flash drive. This works well for writing assignments. Next year, I'll have a class set of netbooks and use a similar framework. For all the hype about "the cloud" my students are unable to access internet and many of them are too young to be on certain cloud-based programs. Sure, Zoho is great, but it also requires an age minimum of fourteen. The second issue is one of technology criticism. Here is where students from all walks of life are failing and schools are to blame. Students are become entertainment addicts and participating in the dehumanizing of social relationships. Yes, I sound like a Luddite, but I assure you I am not Ted Kazcynski. I actually just wrote a blog post on that topic. (http://jtspencer.blogspot.com/2009/12/redefining-digital-citizenship.html) I feel that many technocrats fail to see the darker side of the internet. I know we've had conversations about this, but embracing technology for the sake of technology is outright dangerous. I work within the Digital Divide. The biggest issue is access, not to computers, but to the internet. My immediate solution is to have then do much of their work on Puppy Linux and save their work on the flash drive. This works well for writing assignments. Next year, I’ll have a class set of netbooks and use a similar framework. For all the hype about “the cloud” my students are unable to access internet and many of them are too young to be on certain cloud-based programs. Sure, Zoho is great, but it also requires an age minimum of fourteen.

The second issue is one of technology criticism. Here is where students from all walks of life are failing and schools are to blame. Students are become entertainment addicts and participating in the dehumanizing of social relationships. Yes, I sound like a Luddite, but I assure you I am not Ted Kazcynski.

I actually just wrote a blog post on that topic. (http://jtspencer.blogspot.com/2009/12/redefining-digital-citizenship.html) I feel that many technocrats fail to see the darker side of the internet. I know we’ve had conversations about this, but embracing technology for the sake of technology is outright dangerous.

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