Comments on: Learning Divide

By: Graham Wegner

Graham Wegner — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 07:50:20 +0000

Re:”.. my biggest fear is that my own kids are going to have a passion for learning sucked right out of them.”
I too was startled and concerned at your child’s first grade teacher’s comments. However your worst case scenanio for your kids is that they have the passion for school sapped, not learning. If your blog is a first hand example of your own passion for learning (and it is!) then you are the most powerful model for purposeful learning they could ever need. I know that the Australian School system is different to the U.S. but I’d hope that a teacher whose key goal for their class is to establish compliance is not in the vast majority. My son’s primary school (elementary) is very much along the lines of personal improvement and individualised goals. Most Aussie teachers are in tune with that mindset although we have a large majority who are still uncomfortable with the bigger picture use of technology in the classroom. I don’t think that enough (teachers) can or will immerse themselves in the Read/Write web to gain the professional (and personal) learning benefits of reflective blogging. So, that’s a problem in terms of teachers becoming connectors in our kids’ classrooms but I guess it is the role of educators like yourself and the readers of this blog to spread the word and influence the way forward.

By: Ewan McIntosh

Ewan McIntosh — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 05:03:40 +0000

The digital divide is not just an issue affecting kids and their access to computers out of the classroom. We’re still finding teachers here with one networked computer per classroom (and sometimes none in operational order) and horrendously slow or unreliable connection. So teachers are turned off from using any tools – they don’t see the point investing time in learning how to use the internet more effectively so that they can pass this on their kids. Their attitude is also rubbing off on the kids.

Unfortunately, ICT planning and roll-out is normally done by non-educationalists who don’t get these kinds of arguments. They complain about us downloading rich media, webcams, audio. As far as they are concerned it can only be Bad Things that come through such media. Personal websites are also banned – including yours, Will! In the offices of our Government anything containing the word ‘blog’ is also blocked by the over-zealous firewall.

Perhaps we should start an international campaign to get this sorted. What are we protecting our students from? The real world?

By: John Pederson

John Pederson — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 20:58:53 +0000

As I read this, my 3 year old daughter is begging me to put Pete's Pond (http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wildcamafrica/wildcam.html) on her blog. (http://pedersondesigns.com/claire) When asked "What did you do at school today?", she told me about standing in line, Clifford, and the color of apples. I'm trying to get her to talk about Pete's Pond at school.

By: Aaron Nelson

Aaron Nelson — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 13:56:43 +0000

Hello Will,
Fantastic post. I would like to tell you that your blog, and the ideas you’ve been exploring have been of great importance to me. You’re helping me to think about so many issues, and I just want to thank you.

I too have been wrestling with the whole digital divide train of thought. All the big changes in how we learn, and how we should be teaching, depend greatly on technology. I too am curious about how these kinds of learning experiences can be created in “un-plugged” classrooms. Sadly, the digitally privileged are few, and therefore those who have access to this exciting world of digitally enhanced learning, are also few.

The comment “without regular access to the web none of it matters” is a strong but good one. Shouldn’t we, the “information have’s” begin working hard, and REALLY hard, to begin pushing for equal distribution? Or will we be content to allow the electronic world to go the way of the economic world we already live in – wealth concentrated in the wallets and bank accounts of a few, leaving the vast majority of the rest of the world, crushed and being crushed around us?

Look at this interesting article on the Fast Company blog which links to this very cool idea:The $100 laptop. Now the big question is this: If regular access to the web is so vital to learning today, how can we begin to get behind projects like this one, to help bridge and begin to destroy the learning divide?

As teachers in the “plugged in” classroom, how can we help our students get involved in projects like these? They will, afterall, become the decision makers of the future who will likely be in position in some cases, to help create learner equality.

A holistic approach to teaching and learning in the digital age should be teachers connecting students, throwing wide the door to our classrooms to the rest of the world. Realizing that I learn best when I am connecting my network to nodes of interest around me, and am using what I get from those connections to create my own nodes of interest to be connected to by others. But I need to also develop a realization that just because I have these amazing connections, that I have a connected computer – or access to one – does not mean that the rest of the world has one. I need to develop a drive to begin breaking down the digital divide, and become a responsible digital learner who is not content to allow my neighbor to go without. Helping my class, helping myself, to get behind projects like the $100 laptop is a very practical way I can take a stand against the growing divide.

This is digitally speaking. Wouldn’t it be great to adapt a similar approach to food, to shelter, to energy etc? There is more than just a digital divide that must be broken down in the world today…