Wednesday, February 11, 2009

tech. divides

"Bridging the Global Digital Divide, One Laptop at a Time."

I thought this article was interesting because as the title states, it addresses global technological inequalities, specifically with computer/internet access. It seems that in areas of great poverty, access to computers is especially difficult and hard to come by. Because of their economic status, these people are put at an unfair disadvantage towards recieving information as well as the knowledge people who do have computers available are able to possess. Many computer companies and activists are trying to bridge this divide through the creation of easy-to-use and affordable laptops that have already been distributed around the world to underpriviledged developing countries, most noteably Africa in particular. The non-profit organization, One Laptop per Child for example, has already released its first model and is working on its second version. They are hoping these computers will not only bridge the digital divide, but also educate the people recieving this technology. Some are skeptical that such laptops will really improve these people's education, but I think that technology companies are doing a good job in initiating the first steps towards bettering citizens of third world countries' lives and making resources available to them. I praise their efforts for sincerely trying to create a small sense of equity in the world through their laptop programs.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1978

4 comments:

  1. I think it would be hard to know right away if people became more educated from the computers. While I think that they would, people look for hard evidence. So a method to prove that would be to take surveys or conduct tests and then take the results and prove that these computers for children and even older adults do help educate and lessen the digital divide. Interesting article.

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  2. I agree that the primary steps are being taken to bridge the technological gap between the social classes. However, I feel, education is based on socialization. If a child is placed in front of a computer and expected to become more knowledgeable, you can forget it! Parents are the main instrument for education, and while computers will allow poverty-stricken families to have more information available, this will not increase their children's knowledge base or education. It is the combination of technological advances and socialization/learning with parents that will increase the impoverished children's abilities.

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  3. While I do think that organizations like One Laptop per Child have the best interests of society in mind, I think that their efforts could be a lot more effective if they changed the focus of their efforts a little bit. I think that, theoretically, it would be great if everybody had a laptop from which they could access tons and tons of information, but I also think that the idea of everybody owning a laptop is pretty impractical. I think that organizations workings towards bridging the digital divide should think on a larger scale, potentially introducing public places (like libraries) where people can access the internet in impoverished places. This would be a much more effective use of resources, as it would provide access to information to entire communities, not just those with computers.

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  4. I do believe that they have a good idea going here with trying to get every child there own laptop but is that really the best way to bridge the gap between information divides. Children are not just going to be handed a laptop and expected to know how to use it effectively. I think other ways of getting the information to children may be better like introducing a public library or some other type of public information access. This way, the children could gain information from a simple activity like reading, and then they could use the things they learned to effectively use the laptop. I believe starting off with the laptop would be a waste of time and they should start with a less technologically based area. You could conduct a survey of new computer owners and see how long it takes people with few years of schooling to effectively use the computer.

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