List: I have given out hundreds of refurbished computers to low-income
families. I certainly wish they were in the hundreds of thousands. But
giving out computers, particularly to kids, creates new challenges that
would need to be addressed:
1) Without computer instruction, more likely to occur in a lab, I don't see
how you get adults to learn and use them to participate in the current, let
alone, future economy. Certainly the plan cannot be, by giving computers to
kids, to wait for 12 years to let a generation with habits of use grow into
the economy.
2) Without computer skills, parents will not be able to participate fully in
their children's education, a missing, critical element in schools. One key
to success in big city schools (or any school for that matter) is to have
the schools, after school programs (preferably available for everyone) and
parents at home ALL working off the same page, reinforcing each other.
Gifts to kids could cause parental involvement to decline even further.
Kids with more gaming and music/video download skills is not the goal.
I have given out refurbished computers in nonprofit labs, in schools, in
probation deals, in rec centers and as back to school fair prizes. But to
succeed, a project needs to embrace the whole family, with a lab being the
best option I've seen. This is a very difficult problem. If it were easy,
it would have been addressed a long time ago -- government and businesses
love easy problems. This is a complex problem of traditional literacy, job
skills, weakening US role in an internationalized economy, racial, economic
and geographic isolation, bigotry, lack of imagination, lack of money and a
myriad of other reasons. So far, I have been unable to figure it all out.
Back to work.
Kevin Cronin
former Director, Cleveland Digital Vision
and University Settlement Magic Johnson/HP Inventor Center
Cleveland, Ohio
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----Original Message Follows----
From: "Ronda Evans" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: The Digital Divide Network discussion
group<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [DDN] Bridging the Digital Divide in the US
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 10:56:00 -0400 (EDT)
The concept of computer labs as the answer for bridging the digital divide
is obsolete disadvantaged kids, starting at a the preschool level, need a
computer in their home in order to have a chance at parity with their more
affluent counterparts.Want to Improve High Schools? Put Computers in the
Homes. is now published on the Digital Divide Network website. It can be
found at the following URL:
http://www.digitaldivide.net/articles/view.php?ArticleID=469
This article was written before Katrina and is even worse then before. If we
truly want to Bridge the Divide we must start taking the computers that are
being trashed, refurbish them and put them in the homes of children that
don't have computers. Please make sure in your area that all refugees have
immediate access to computers and the Internet in their homes.
Ronda EvansRECA Foundation President4People Vice Chairwww.tcfn.org -
Connecting people to technology4People.tcfn.org - Connecting people to
resourcesCalendars.tcfn.org - Connecting people to activities
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