Web Questing and the Digital Divide

I wanted to take a step back for a moment with this entry and think about how we ( adults and children) are engaging the web. Recently, I spoke with a friend of mine who told me a story about how he and his son had engaged in a conversation which led to a  question, and then together they sought the answer via the tangible qualities of a physical artifact, and then the reproduction of an artifact on the web.

Such instances of connectedness in engaging in critical cognitive practices for both parties are especially important in dealing with the widening gap in how information is disseminated and discussed. Together, both father and child interacted in a learning project that: 

1) Fostered trust between adult and child through collaboration

2) Allowed for evaluation of what is considered "real" and what is not in regards to certain types of information.

Now imagine the classrooms that are allowed to engage in such practices. Take a smaller step further, and imagine that this is applied to schools and communities engaging in such practices to alert each other to how much better we can be. Such a small example of taking the time to learn with each other utilizing what we can safely surmise  as the greatest evolution of communicative ability and information dissemination since Gutenberg's mass producing printing machine is of utmost importance. I speak of this not only as a teacher, but as a citizen and human being inhabiting a growing digital space that is in danger of growing to such a point of segregation that the power of our abilities to learn how to teach and talk to each other about the wealth of information may be lost. We have failed as a nation with such an irresponsible rate of illiteracy because we did not figure out how to work with the printed artifacts correctly for the betterment of each other, instead choosing to create a power structure that still has ramifications today. If we are to move forward, this must not occur again.

Higher Ed and the Textbook

**This will be an ongoing series of article review and topic debate concerning this subject**


The New York Times  reported a few days ago about students at Hamilton college who, like many university students, are struggling with choosing to use e-texts, traditionally purchased texts, or even the new idea of text rentals as they pursue a degree. This is an interesting issue as we face on ongoing digital divide and a seemingly inescapable abyss of cost with traditional texts.

What is of great interest in the story, however, is that as of today, 40 universities will participate in the Affordable Textbooks Day of Action, being headed by the U.S. Student Public Interest Research Group. The goal is of course re-state the very high cost of textbooks for students, and pressure universities and professors to offer more affordable print versions and/or free e-text versions.

Here are a few questions I am wrestling with in thinking more about this issue:  What is the price of education, and the information we disseminate from education,  in a world that is seemingly becoming more interconnected? Should not technology make education more affordable and open to the public? In providing that access and affordability, are we not moving more towards a goal of a better education for all, a some what more democratic education?

Please let me know what you think about those questions, and any of your own, below.

The Non-Private Privacy of Facebook

In the Wall Street Journal  ( please click on the hyperlink to read the full story and get some very good graphical information) today , a story was ran that detailed the violation of privacy that Facebook had insured to its subscribers, stemming mainly from the use of second party application developers for the more popular apps including : Farmville, Mafia Wars, Texas HoldEm, Frontierville, Causes, Cafe World, Quiz Planet, Treasure Isle, and IHeart.

Essentially what this means is that Facebook is in violation of its own terms of use. This was an issue the company had, reportedly, gone to great lengths to fix with new user agreement and supposedly better personal info protection. But in light of these findings by the WSJ, it is apparent that Facebook has failed to police itself and those that help to provide streams of revenue for the company. The bottom line in all of this is that if you engage in playing with these apps on Facebook, it is likely that media and advertisers are begin given your info and you are being targeted with spyware, spam, and other nuisances of digital life. Basically, you are being bought and sold without knowing it.

 What needs to be asked here is: Who has the right to obtain my information, and have I been falsely led to believe that my information is safe? This isn't a question of social security numbers and bank info necessarily ( or at least not yet), but this is a question concerning the infringement of individual privacy; This is a question of have we become too trusting of software developers who realize that we are not educated enough about how this technology works to ensure we are able to maintain perhaps these new digital civil rights that are developing?

Where do you stand with this?

O Brave New Imbalanced World!

A little over a month ago, the NYtimes reported on their technology blog about how Eric E. Schmidt, Google's chief executive, speaking at the Zeitgeist conference, responded to a reporters query about the web and politics by saying that the web has led to political polarization, and that also it has allowed more of an imbalance in who gets their viewpoint out to the masses. He supported his assertion by using the example of the Florida minister who threatened to burn the Koran on 9/11 this year.

This is interesting, as it would seem Mr. Schmidt's comments only re-enforce the idea that if the public is to become the press more and more often, then there will need to be added pressure to correct the, as he sees it, "imbalance", in monitoring and checking the information that is disseminated by any group engaging in political/social commentary or opinion on the web. Are we, however, prepared to make strides to educate people on such issues of the web? Also, would a "free" internet , an internet with no charge and completely open to everyone, be a step in the right direction to correcting such imbalances?

If You Can't Beat Em, Join Em: Cell Phones and the Classroom

According to a story in the Chicago Tribune this week on the 11th, a number of schools in local districts have started allowing the use of cell phones in class, citing that it is time to embrace the technology because it is so overwhelmingly present in number. In fact, according to the story, the Pew Internet and American Life estimate that 75 percent of all high-school age students have cell phones.

These districts have begun making strides to offer training to teachers to help them integrate cell phones and other technology use in the class, much like at a conference in New Jersey this week. Does this mean that we should, as budget concerns  in both public and private education, both college level and below, embrace the idea that students should now provide their own technology? Would such measures open the door to helping students to learn or have more open dialogue with teachers and peers?

I believe such measures are indeed a good step simply because it allows kids and adults ( parents, teachers, siblings, family) to share technology, share it responsibly, and to most importantly learn from each other. This could, hopefully, point towards fixing some of the technology driven media potholes that have developed as technology has stratified current generations. It also adheres, I believe,  to a more centralized locus of authority for the communities and schools at a local level, which can then be developed into levels of the new etiquettes and social rules we are developing in using new media and its various tools.

The battle of e-mail v. Facebook

Over at the New York Times tech blog today,  a story was published concerning the 18-24 year old demographic using less and less e-mail, and more and more social networking. In fact, some have gone as far to describe e-mail as on its way out.

Now this raised some red flags in my camp, because it brings up another point of contention with me concerning how we use social networking tools to communicate. Being of the older demographic, but yet of the generation that first embraced e-mail, I still use it quite frequently, as the nytimes article also suggests. I actually find Facebook to be very ineffective in communicating really much of anything with friends other than visual gags and disposable talk ( which of course is fine, I am as silly as the next person,  but all the time!?!) .

So the question then is, where do you stand on your communication platform? How does e-mail allow better communication versus Facebook or vice-versa?