Kevin Cronin wrote: > 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.
You can lead a horse to water... what I've found is that unless people can solve a problem that's bugging them with technology, they really don't care too much. If you show a computer doing word processing to someone who has never felt the need to use one and don't see the need to use one now, it's unlikely that they would dedicate time to it. In low income households, especially if it's a low wage household, people get paid little for lots of work - they don't have cushy jobs where they sit around all day, they are usually on their feet. Then they have children, so when they get home they should spend time with the children, though that may mean snoring lightly under the same roof. There's a good book out, 'Nickel and Dimed', which describes what low wage life is like. Having lived on low wages - fortunately, alone and without kids - I identify with the book through that period of my life. > > > 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 think it should be noted that the parents in low income families may not be participating fully in their children's education without computers, because... it's been a long day. Every day. It's not an excuse, really - some low income families do take as much time with their child's lives (which encapsulates education). But what next? I guess I painted a 'gloom and doom' picture, but... I think that the real way that parents in low income families can benefit is by showing them how they can benefit. A spreadsheet for the checkbook. A calendar for paying bills, PTA meetings and planning family events (having a planned family event committed to usually helps the event happen), and so on. Doctor's appointments. Grocery lists. Something related to their job. I think if those are started with, the parents (if interested) may progress at their own pace - like my own parents did. > 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. Amen. -- Taran Rampersad Presently in: San Fernando, Trinidad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.knowprose.com http://www.easylum.net http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/Taran Coming on January 1st, 2006: http://www.OpenDepth.com "Criticize by creating." — Michelangelo _______________________________________________ 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.
