Module #9

The New Literacy: Scenes from the Digital Divide 2.0

     The article first begins by talking about the term “digital divide”.  This mid-90s label is explained as “a growing gap between those with access to computers and those without”.  This label has changed since then.  Today, the “students and teachers who are facile with Web 2.0 tools, including wikis, blogs, micro-blogs, Twitter, linking, tagging, podcasting, forums, video sharing, vlogs, Drupal-based group blogs, social bookmarking, and virtual worlds”.  It all comes down to the generation that grew up with technology and social media will have it easier when coming to use it.  Those that are “stuck on the dark side”, the generation born before technology, will have a harder time using and adjusting to use it.

     Part two explains the switch to how social media is now becoming the main learning site for students.  The new digital divide is now a divide of those that know how to use social media and those that do not.  It talks about the shift in educational focus and if it is ignored, there could be a new divide.  That divide would be between teachers today and future students.

     Part three talks about Howard Rheingold and his predictions.  He predicts that the students in this generation will become “smart mobs”.  They will be able to digitally work with different problems.  Rheingold feels that the students today are digital natives and should be working on their digital skills so they can be mastered.  Rheingold talks about the online classroom and how the social media designed classroom was to focus on social media to help students learn about it.

     Part four discusses the work of Mike Wesch, a cultural anthropology professor.  Wesch has used Rheingold’s formulation that students need to learn about social media to help cross the digital divide.  It talks about a video he made called “Web 2.0: The Machine Is Us/ing Us”.  This YouTube video, he believes that a website such as YouTube will link people together “in ways we’ve never thought of before”.

     Part five explains the digital divide and its history.  The term digital divide didn’t even come along until the 1990’s.  Many different people have given the digital divide different names such as “technological segregation” and “electronic redlining”.  This part also talks about how the divide has seemed to lessen over time since internet has grown and continues to grow.  By the 2000’s, more people have gained some kind of technology in which the divide started to close.  With that, the digital divided was then termed “digital inclusion”.

The Participation Divide: Content Creation and Sharing in the Digital Age

     The introduction talks about how the web and other digital media has made it easier for others to share with others what they have created.  Within the paper, it studies the items shared among different groups who are “highly wired” to see if new digital medias that are offered are being spread out among the users equally.  The paper is looking to find the answer to the question of whether or not “women and men participating in online content sharing in equal ways”.

     From this, the conclusion finds that the content created is “not randomly distributed among a group of young adults”.  The paper finds that any activity created is still similar to those factors in previous times which is “a person’s socioeconomic status”.  The conclusion talks about the data that was collected.  Those that are more likely to have content created online or offline are those students who have at least one parent that has a graduate degree.  The research also found that those less likely to share creations they have made are women.  The findings imply that “refined measures of digital media use such as online ability are essential for uncovering the nuanced ways in which people’s internet uses are differentiated and have implications for social inequality”.  Traditional consumers in the digital age can also produce material.  However, the results of the study suggest that there is a divide among those that post information on the web and those that do not post information on the web.  The article talks about participation gap.  They stat that “our results suggest that a participation divide exists between those individuals who post their information on the web and those who do not”.

Finding a Place in Cyberspace: Black Women, Technology and Identity

     The article begins by talking about “the myth of cyberspace as a raceless, genderless, and sexuality-free space”.  It talks about how race and gender cross through technology.  It talks about the current role on technology and race, black women in technology and how race and gender play a role on the web.  The author states that it is much like the “real world” in which technology is always white and almost always male.

     The article also talks about Black Nationalism.  The article states that “the original intent and spirit of black nationalism is still very much alive and well, especially for black women and those who disagree with or otherwise fail to conform to the heteropatriarchal ideologies that still gird those structures”.  The author mentions that there has been very little change in the past 350 years and the lack of Black Nationalism.

Slamming the Closet Door and Taking Control:  Analysis of Personal Transformation and Social change as LGBT Podcasting Blazes a Trail of Democratization of the Media

     This article is about podcasts.  This new media allows others to “be heard”.  The article first states that “the general public has finally adopted the original purpose of the Internet: for users to be content creators”.  It talks about the LGBT community finding their voice through these podcasts.  It explains that the two largest segments of podcasts include “music, and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender podcasts”.  The article says the interest is in what they can learn from the experience on how podcasting can be used in the LGBT community.

     The findings of this article is based examining different research questions.  The first asks “what is podcasting and new media?”  Podcasts are a way to record your voice and post it to the internet.  These podcasts are able to be searched for.  Another question asked in the article is “what is podcasts relationship to LGBT issues and people?”  The article simply says that the LGBT community is given the opportunity to be heard through podcasts which can be done without given an identity.  The article ends by showing how podcasting and different new media can be used for instruction because it gives others to have a voice and gaining empowerment on the internet.

One Laptop Per Child mission

     The first video talks about the vision of one laptop per child.  Their mission is to create education opportunities for everyone, even the poorest children with low cost laptops that can face the toughest conditions, called XO.  Five Core Principles were introduced: kids keeping the laptops, focus is on early education (ages 6-12), no one gets left out, kids need a connection to the internet, and free to grow and adapt in which the laptops must have free and open-source software.

     The second video discusses why; why give a laptop to a child who might not have electricity or running water.  They first suggest replacing the word ‘laptop’ with ‘education’ because all deserve to be educated.  This is why the XO laptops are rugged, low cost, low power, connected for access and collaboration, readable in sunlight, and have a built-in webcam.  This would allow all students to connect all over the world.  The video ends with the answer of why as “give a laptop, change the world”.

Can One Laptop per Child Reduce the Digital Divide and Educational Gap?  Evidence from a Randomized Experiment from Migrant Schools in Beijing

     This study of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) was a study to see if the OLPC could reduce the digital divide and education gap.  The study was consisted of 300 third grade students in migrant schools in Beijing.  The students were provided with the laptops in which included software that was installed that follows along with the school curriculum with what they were learning in class.  From this study, the student’s computer skills had significant improvement from the six months after beginning the program.  The program also showed some improvements on the outcomes of student academics and had an impact on the non-academic traits.  The study given is a start, but it also states that “more program evaluations should be conducted before large investments are made by governments and schools in OLPC programs”.   

Reflection

     The first article, The New Literacy: Scenes from the Digital Divide 2.0, shows how the Digital Divide has transformed from the 90’s to today.  The gap between those that have access to technology and those that don’t has changed to a gap of how to use the Internet and social media sites for information.  This was not surprising because more and more are getting computers and the Internet, the gap as just changed to how to use these pieces of technology and media.

     The second article, The Participation Divide: Content Creation and Sharing in the Digital Age, explains that their study shows that everyone creates content, however men are more likely to share their creations than women and those of different backgrounds.  The study of those that have at least one parent with an education plays a role in creating certain content as well.  The article also talks about “participation gap”.

     The third article, Finding a Place in Cyberspace: Black Women, Technology and Identity, was not my favorite reading.  It was hard to understand in which is why my summary is probably shorter than other readings.  I guess the only thing I understood from this article is that the internet is mostly made up of white and mostly male and the goal is to get more black women in with technology.

     The fourth Slamming the Closet Door and Taking Control:  Analysis of Personal Transformation and Social change as LGBT Podcasting Blazes a Trail of Democratization of the Media, told about how podcasts (which I don’t think I have ever listened to a podcast) and how they are used in the LGBT community.  It seems like a good way to be able for others to share their thoughts and voices be heard.  A podcast would be a good way to be incorporated into the classroom as a technology tool.

     The two videos from, One Laptop Per Child mission, seems like a good idea.  Will it ever work though?  I think that to be able to use the technology for learning and make in successful, you have to have the right instructors along with other factors that play a role such as the environment.  I know it will take time for this type of mission to take effect and I think it is an awesome idea.

     The final article, Can One Laptop per Child Reduce the Digital Divide and Educational Gap?  Evidence from a Randomized Experiment from Migrant Schools in Beijing, is a study to see if OLPC can reduce the digital divide and education gap.  This study was done with 300 third grade students.  Like stated in the article, there needs to be more research on the OLPC program to see exactly how successful it could be.  I think this is a good idea but not sure how it will all play out.

     After reading these articles and watching the videos, the term “Digital Divide” has changed since it was created back in the 90’s.  “Digital Divide” was the gap between those with access to technology and those that do not.  According to the articles, today’s meaning of “Digital Divide” would be the gap between those that know how to use, create and share content and can apparently be based on race, age, gender, etc.  As for the “Digital Divide”, we just need to understand that it can affect the way learning takes place along with creativity and obviously communication from here on out because technology is constantly changing.