Reading Prompt 11

RICHARDSON Ch. 6. The Social Web: Learning Together
Technology and equity in schooling: Deconstructing the Digital Divide. Educational Policy, 18(4), 562-588.

Share an idea of two about how you could use the ideas from Richardson with ESL students.

The capabilities described by Richardson are limitless. For ELLs RSS can be an excellent flexible tool to find specific information on their interests. For example, I think that if a language learner is looking for specific car parts nomenclatures he or she could use RSS to find specific names for automobile parts and how they work. The same can be said for any other subjects. Another example, if a language learner needs to visit a doctor. He or she can find information on symptoms and parts of the body that can be useful to describe their ailment.

BLACKBOARD - Warschauer, M., Knobel, M., & Stone, L. (2004).

What is the "digital divide?” Why do Warschauer et al argue that this term may longer be applicable? What are the issues they found regarding differences in technology use with ELLs and other low socioeconomic students.

WARSCHAUER et.al. article begins with what is has been true for decades and will continue to be an issue for future decades. That is “education inequality” among the different socio-economic groups and also cultural groups. Not only “Latinos” are among new arrivals to the United States. Immigration to this country is originating from all corners of the world and these migrants share the same economic and educational background. For instance, I volunteer teaching English to refuges from Burma. The majority of them are uneducated, live in government housing, and receive economic assistance. Our country also has a considerable share of undereducated and low economic, government dependent groups. As a result these migrants and low socio-economic groups continue to be left out of any type of technological advances. There are elementary schools that cannot afford text books for all the students and on the other hand there are schools were laptop computers are issued to each student. Concurrently there are schools that are falling apart from the lack of maintenance while there are schools that have modern facilities.
Yesterday, Texas Governor Perry told the crowd at the "Game On!" symposium in Austin. "I don't see any reason in the world why we should have textbooks in Texas in the next four years," suggesting that traditional textbooks should be removed from Texas classrooms throughout the next four years and replaced with digital textbooks. He also stated that textbooks get out of date quickly and that computer software and technology can take their place. He proposed replacing textbooks with computer software, a proposal he said he plans to bring before the 2011 legislature. He said school officials can help students get access to computer technology because costs are coming down. However, he said he did not have a cost comparison between books and online educational materials.
What are some ways you could address this in your own schools or programs? The issue at hand is how technological advances can be made available to those underprivileged groups. Just like Perry said, there are no easy answers to distribute resources equally. Unfortunately, those marginalized segments of the population will continue to be left out and instead of becoming part of the main stream will continue to rely on government handouts.
I think that the major issue driving the inequality of exposure to technological advances is lack of accessibility. In other to provide for this need, I would propose extending the school day and using the additional time teaching subjects via technology. For instance, there are software programs geared toward reading improvement such as fluency, comprehension and vocabulary building. Also, there are programs geared toward mathematics, social studies, and science. Exposure to these subjects via a different environment will develop life learning students, exposed them to additional information, create interest on those subjects. Ultimately, access may no longer be an issue and the students would have had the opportunity to experience the capabilities of technology.