Dear Charlie,( thank you) I thought according to our government that there was no problem with the digital divide.
Some gurus or policy wonks decided that because cable "wired" all schools, that there was not a problem. I think many reporters have not been to rural, urban, or distant areas. I think a lot of people have not looked at the solutions to the digital divide or education that are so boring and dull that they put the light out in kids eyes and thinking. We can deal with boring, but we can't deal with the dullness in the classroom that is a drone of memorize this and test this. Well some of us can, but this is a new generation of kids who have all kinds of stimulation, except perhaps, in lots of classrooms that are .. well, state of the art, for 1980. In the meantime the real world goes on. Don't reporter ever visit schools, or is the problem that they don't understand what they see and the machine and the wires or wireless are it? The reporter had access to Andy.. but I think they don't listen. So sad. So terrible. Is this one of those stories planted to get our attention, as in media.. and how insulting to Blacks. Please... Navajo children are getting access only at school, but as Andy says, what's that. I worked as a teacher and then as a technology teachers. Can you say interruptions, can you say two kids on a computer, if they all are working? Can you say that the stuff people wanted me to use , was junk. I can. Can you say drill, drill, drill, and kill all interest in learning? I can. I always remember a teacher, a male who hated the technology, as I was able to get a child interested that he could not control, he would storm into the tech room and grab him by the ear. " No technology until you do as I say!!" He never even let him come after school. ( I fixed it.. I found an old computer, much as Phil might have understanding the situation. I taught him to read but in a church not one I belonged to but just because it was safe from that teacher. There are children who only have access at school. I know, because like many dedicated technology activists, or teachers who are desperate for kids to love learning as I do, I would stay until seven at school every day except Friday. None of my students had a computer at home. Many had only that half an hour in the school, well 40 minutes sometimes.. but there were constant interruptions, there were teachers who didn't think the technology period was sacred and so they took kids out of technology even with two kids per computer, to finish their homework or as a punishment. I could write a book on the interruptions, fire drills, community candy sales, practice for the test time, PE helpers to roll up the maps. You should laugh because if you don't you may begin to see the gravity of the problem when it is just school as access. Then, then.. there are the teachers who restrict computer access because the kids want it so much. That's why I add to Marc Prensky's groups the digitally deficit. The fun thing about learning technology is that it is always changing . The frustrating thing about learning technology is that it is always changing. Phil has to remind me or someone to do the newest thing, to look at it, to think about it, and sometimes I balk and I have time. How can we say that the digital divide is over? Hello? Content is still one heck of a problem for minorities. Ideational scaffolding for the construction of websites is a problem as there are those who do not make the computer sites user friendly or accessible to many populations. Content is a big problem. There are some outstanding sites that are jewels, but.. one has to e-learn to be understanding of what constitutes a great place to learn. The content for inclusivity still has a broken key for minority information, hello! The skills of people teaching children with technology are ever changing. As we access the most common types of technology, there are new and wonderful things coming. i am so excited about one I saw today, but if I tell you, I would have to shoot you... the ideas that people have are ever changing the use of technology in many ways. Think, Internet 2, think parallel computing, think teragrid, think , think think.. technology is often what I think is fluid.. and maybe that does make me an activist. I know that one or two people no matter what color do not have the total perspective that we have here on the list, or that people in individual occupations have. I love visualization and modeling, I love technology as media, as a tool , I love it for construction, expression, inquiry.. do you get the drift!?! Until that person who proclaimed that the digital divide can demonstate a geowall, stand inside a CAVE and other new things coming and promise me that we all will have access to it, I rest my case. Innovation will always create new and interesting applications, tools, and techniques. I go to UIUC where the new applications are and wish. I beg my friend to let me use the access grid.. does that reporter know what that is. I bet not. I know not . Here is an opportunity to understand some of the new applications .. and yes there is , a digital divide. Meanwhile you may have some people who are eligible for this. I hate it when people write an article that has a purpose other than the article title. Bbracey/Sutton > Call for Student Participation - 2006 Summer Grid Workshop > > June 26-30, 2006 > South Padre Island, Texas. > > Dear Colleagues, > > We wish to bring to your attention an exciting one-week summer workshop > on Grid computing and its application in scientific data analysis for > graduate and advanced undergraduate students. > > This 3rd annual event, first held in 2004, is jointly sponsored by > the Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy (CGWA), a NASA University > Research Center at the University of Texas at Brownsville, > the International Virtual Data Grid Laboratory, the Grid Physics > Network and the Open Science Grid. > > The aim of this intensive school workshop is to provide a basic > foundation in distributed computing, and valuable hands-on training in > distributed computing techniques. The workshop introduces essential > skills that will be needed by students in the natural and applied > sciences, engineering, and computer science to conduct and support > large-scale scientific analysis in the emerging Grid computing > environment. > > Undergraduate or graduate students in Computer Science, Physics, Math > and other sciences may apply. Applicants should have at least > intermediate programming skills (one to two semesters of hands-on > experience in C/C++, Java, Perl, and/or Python) and hands-on experience > with UNIX or Linux in a networked environment. > > Workshop participants will work with some of the world's leading experts > in Grid computing, through a blend of lectures, discussions, and > hands-on computing exercises on large-scale Grid hardware and software > resources. > > The curriculum will cover: > > * Overview of distributed computing concepts and tools > * Concepts, tools, and techniques of Grid computing > * Discovering and using Grid resources > * Grid work scheduling and distributed data management > * Web-service and Grid-service concepts > * Tracking, managing and sharing data and applications > * Techniques for workflow and collaboration > > Full or partial scholarships (including travel, accommodation, and per > diem) are available for students, subject to evaluation of their > application. Students from Minority Serving Institutions are strongly > encouraged to apply. > > The school will take place at the University of Texas facility on South > Padre Island (off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico) from June 26 to 30, > 2006. > > The deadline of application is April 23, 2006. Selected candidates will > be informed by April 30, 2006. > > For more information and an application form, please visit our web-site, > > http://cgwa.phys.utb.edu/Events/Summer2006/summergridws2006.php > > or contact our Student Development Coordinator, Ms. Martha Casquette > (Phone: 956 882 6765, Fax : 956 882 6722). > > > > Thank you! > Scott > > -- > Scott Lathrop > TeraGrid Director of Education, Outreach and Training > > 217-714-2517 (Cell) > 630-252-6257 (Argonne National Laboratory) > > www.teragrid.org > www.eotepic.org > > -- > Robert M. Panoff, Ph.D., Pres. and Exec. Dir., Shodor Education > Foundation, Inc. > 300 W. Morgan St., Suite 1150, Durham, NC 27701 http://www.shodor.org > VOX: +1-919-530-1911 FAX: +1-919-530-1944 > > > Bonnie Bracey Sutton [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org 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.
