Siobhan, I was asked to trim-off unnecessary message and repost ... So here is what you wrote: "" So, is the question, should money be spent in different ways - not to enhance technology for those who already have it, but to provide it to those who don't. Would you say that summarizes your questions? Or is that too simple?""
Here is my answer: I did not say -- not to enchance technology for those who already have it ... One can enchance whatever one wishes, but should not context be the focus of decisions? What kind of behaviours are we teaching students to be the average RESPONSIBLE citizens of the future? What kind of leaders are we hoping to bring them to this world if we do not put some common sense of basic social interactions such as respect, responsibilities etc. ? Although the university might be doing it with good faith, but the reason behind it (please read the first mail that start off this thread) is just ridiculous and pampering. What kind of Higher Education instituion the administor is portraying to the public? That is my major question about pod-casting at Coventry University. Secondly, YES, my thought is as simple as that. We are talking about 'digitial divide', I suppose that should be for the people who has less than the average person. Or sometime NONE. Simple and down to earth thinking sometime is all that is needed. Don't you agree? Complexity dosen't mean BETTER if it is not called for. In fact, often time complexity only create confusion. Solving a problem should not be just band-aid solution especially one as large as digital divivde. Furthermore, without properly defined what we are looking at, I am sure all of us are have our perspectives while looking at digital divide. Perhaps to some digital divide is podcasting a lecture (still i do not see how that should solve the dd issue except instead of sending a video tape now the individual can download it themselves), as for myself I am looking at the people who basically have nothing except a few pots to cook food in, or going to a mud-hut as schoolroom, sitting on the mud floor because there is no chairs or tables in the room except the black board, or to use a twig to trace the letters on the sand --- the pencils and exercise books of the students. What then would all the technologies good to these people when the FUNDAMENTAL structure to support things such as electricity at home is not available? Many of these people still cook food with firewood. If the arguement is well, there must be some that have them ... these 'some' are the 'elite' in their environment. The high officials and their families, the well to do, the expatriates etc. So, yes, there are people who can spend money on all these fancy things even in the poorest place. BUT what is the focus of this forum? I am not advertising to stop technological advancement, my question is 'do we need them'? How do management make decision to put money at where? Take the case of elearning. It is totally a market and money driven concept without much thoughts given to learning to start with. See where it is going after 10 years of ooh and aaaah ?? How much money do you think have been spent on all these wonderful systems? How many educational establishments have been lured into believing 'if I build them they will come'?, how many failed and cancelled proejcts? Perhap we want to ask why these system failed miserably? I don't think we understand quite yet (perhaps we do not want to understand) the impact ON learning from the push to e-learning. There is no problem with technologies, but perhaps there is problem with the basic structure of bringing it to the people? And I see the samething we are looking at DD. By the way, gadgets such as Skype are not free. We all pay for our internet services. Skype and other VoIP products are making use of the 'voice band' of the 'digital connection'. But to benefit from Skype and other such product, one must first have a PC, an internet connection. So, who can benefit from such gadgets? If I am correct, so is PodCasting. If I understand correctly, it is a form of VOICE blogging Cindy _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
