Re: [xmca] wikis, textbooks, developing countries, impoverished US schools

From: Carol Macdonald (carolmacdon@gmail.com)
Date: Tue Sep 12 2006 - 23:26:27 PDT


Hi Tony:
I find you argument interesting to read. However, I would like to put you
in the picture in our rural Black schools. They don't have any access to
computers (there may be no electricity) and they are unlikely to receive
textbooks--or sometimes near the end of the school year. So, they can't
even access wiki. Of course the better school in the suburbs have
electricity and computers, and so it's the case of the rich getting
richer... In the Grade 12 exams all the students have to show competence on
using Work as well as Excell, and this is manifestly unfair to those
students who have never seen a computer. Universities tend to ignore these
marks, as well they might.
Carol

On 9/12/06, Tony Whitson <twhitson@udel.edu> wrote:
>
> I see that I should have done a better job with the SUBJECT line of that
> post. It's about inequality and opportunity, not just about media and
> technology.
>
> On Tue, 12 Sep 2006, Tony Whitson wrote:
>
> > See
>
> http://tonywhitson.edublogs.org/2006/09/12/wikis-textbooks/
>
> > for links
> >
> > An article in Teachers College Press reports on the lack of adequate
> > textbooks in California's public schools — especially in financially
> less
> > well-off communities. The authors have been sharply critical of
> high-stakes
> > consequences being imposed by NCLB on students in schools without the
> > resources needed for an education that measures up to the state's
> standards.
> >
> > Meanwhile, NewScientist online reports that 'Students in developing
> countries
> > are to get free textbooks written using "wiki" technology that lets
> anyone
> > add to or edit an online document.'
> >
> > This suggests two possibilities:
> >
> > 1. Maybe California students would be better off ; and
> >
> > 2. Maybe all students would be better off if they could use wiki-style
> > textbooks developed by, say, scientists and science teachers, or
> historians
> > and history teachers, instead of the textbooks being marketed by
> commercial
> > publishers. There are people who would be terrified by this prospect;
> there
> > are also legitimate concerns.
> >
> > What do you think?
> >
> > Tony Whitson
> > UD School of Education
> > NEWARK DE 19716
> >
> > twhitson@udel.edu
> > _______________________________
> >
> > "those who fail to reread
> > are obliged to read the same story everywhere"
> > -- Roland Barthes, S/Z (1970)
>
> Tony Whitson
> UD School of Education
> NEWARK DE 19716
>
> twhitson@udel.edu
> _______________________________
>
> "those who fail to reread
> are obliged to read the same story everywhere"
> -- Roland Barthes, S/Z (1970)
>
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>
>
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