Dear David and everybody-
Thanks for useful reference about Digital Divide (I'll use the link in my
future classes). Although the report shows that school "eliminate" the
digital divide, my conversation with Latino children at Latin American
Community Center (LACC) shows that HOW schools use computers is different
for different populations. LACC kids told me that many of them have very
little access to computers in their schools but when they have access it is
very low quality access described nicely in Mike's old but unfortunately
still relevant article:
Cole, M. & LCHC (1989). Kids and computers: A positive vision of the future.
Harvard Educational Review, 59, 73-86.
In many schools with low income kids, computers often replace worksheets (or
workshits?? - pardon my French :-)/dittos to do drills or other
decontextualized activities using a "bottom-up" approach described in Mike's
paper. Meanwhile in many schools with middle and upper income kids,
computers are often used to promote creativity and higher level skills...
What do you think?
Eugene
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Preiss [mailto:david.preiss@yale.edu]
> Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2003 6:23 PM
> To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> Subject: Re: Are kids naturally good with computers?
>
> I just happen to be working on a paper on a related issue. I took the data
> below from:
http://www.civilrights.org/publications/reports/nation_online/bringing_a_nat
ion.doc . I think that they are very appropriate to what you are taking
> about.
>
> I brief, data released by the US Department of Commerce portray the shape
> taken by this divide in 2001. When computer use at home is considered, the
> digital divide remain significant: whereas 33.1% of children (ages 10-17)
in
> the lowest income category were using computers at home, 91.7% of children
> where doing so at the highest income level. However, the gap narrows
> significantly from home to school: whereas 80% of children (ages 10-17) in
> the lowest income category were using computers at school, 88.7% of
children
> where doing so at the highest income level. There are as well related
> differences between ethnic groups: whereas over 70% of the students
> identified as White, Asian American and Pacific islanders have access to
> computers both at school and at home, less than 40 % of African American
and
> Hispanics do so. Therefore, students from different income levels and
ethnic
> groups do not have the same level of engagement with technology, despite
the
> fact that computers are playing an increasing role in their education: as
> reported in 2001, 90% of all school-aged children use computers and 58.5%
> use the Internet to complete school assignments.
>
> I wander how this situation impacts on what you are just discussing: the
> technology related tacit knowledge students bring to the school. And we
> still have to note that we are not even taking into consideration
> differences in the quality of the equipment at school, how new it is, and
so
> on. And that, of course, we are talking about the USA only...
>
> I guess that the shape this divide would take in the future will not be
> related with just accessibility but also with how new these equipments
are.
> Technology is changing so fast that is going to be very difficult for the
> poorest schools [countries] to keep the pace of change. Maybe research on
> this topic will need to change its indicators for more sensitive ones.
More
> related with the topic, I ask what are the shapes taken by computer
related
> communities of practice across the digital divide?
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Eugene Matusov" <ematusov@udel.edu>
> To: <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2003 5:19 PM
> Subject: Re: Are kids naturally good with computers?
>
>
> > Hi Phillip and everybody-
> >
> > Your example is very good - I observed this difficulty as well. Kids
> > entering the world of computers have to learn a lot of tacit things such
> as
> > correspondence between their actions with keyboard, mouse and the
screen.
> > Games involve also a lot of tacit knowledge that the kids have to learn.
> For
> > example, I saw a little kid that could not grasp that when the screens
> > change the character remains the same. He thought that the game starts
all
> > over again.
> >
> > I think that it is not true that the kids "naturally good" with
computers
> > but rather outside schools, kids' diverse cultures often organize
> > "communities of practice" around computer games and other Internet-based
> > computer activities like chat rooms with relative ease creating
> > developmental pathways of learning and "intergenerational" networks of
> > players. Of course, computer companies designing games make all their
> > efforts to break into children market but still their success is
> remarkable
> > with regard diversity of children's cultures. This is an interesting
> > phenomenon.
> >
> > What do you think?
> >
> > Eugene
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: White, Phillip [mailto:Phillip.White@cudenver.edu]
> > > Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2003 12:55 PM
> > > To: ematusov@UDel.Edu
> > > Subject: RE: Dialectical materialism / Nature
> > >
> > > Eugene wrote:
> > >
> > > I want to comment only on one point out of many that Andy made:
> > >
> > > I observe many of those kids learning
> > > computers for the first time. In my non-systematic observations, I did
> not
> > > find that it is true that "young people know how to use screens almost
> > from
> > > whatever background they come from ... because they have to."
> > >
> > >
> > > to throw in my two-cents worth about what i think, Eugene - i have
> made
> > similar
> > > observations - having working in elementary schools for the last three
> > decades, many
> > > students come to school without a clue about how a computer works -
> just
> > getting the
> > > relationship between the cursor's movement on the screen and the
> movements
> > of the mouse
> > > in their hand can be for some a difficulty of some duration. of
course,
> > maybe this notion of
> > > "young people" is defined by those who have completed elementary
school,
> > say. but for
> > > young people entering elementary schools it's not true - and even as a
> > young person moves
> > > through the grades, those students whom come from homes with computers
> and
> > internet
> > > access have a depth of understanding of ways to negotiate / a sense of
> > identity and agency
> > > with computers / that students without such capital at home don't
have.
> > >
> > > and of course, there are always exceptions.
> > >
> > > phillip
> > >
> > > phillip white
> > > university of colorado at denver
> > > school of education
> >
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