Chasing the Dragon's Tale

It should be no surprise that I am an advocate for appropriate use of technology in learning communities. Over the last several years (with the explosion of easy-to-start-up social networking tools) I have witnessed a change in attitude within the teaching profession to embrace more of these gadgets. Resistance to embrace technology seems to have shifted from fear to more tangible factors like physical resources, training, and time constraints. This TeacherTube Top 100 Most Viewed Video emphasizes that technology is not the enemy, but ignorance (or completely shunning technology) remains a problem and a detriment to students.

Vicki Davis, author-in-chief of The Cool Cat Teacher Blog created this video. I recommend her blog and entrepreneurial spirit to anyone interested in instructional technology.

My favorite quote from the end of this video, "...technology is our friend. Ignorance is our enemy. Instead we should fear more the releasing of millions of ignorant students into the shark infested waters of the Internet. They are but guppies in an ocean full of sharks.

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 08:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For the most part, my posts here are apolitical...or completely void of politics. It is the romantic in me who holds out for a technically savvy federal administration. From a close friend who has dealt with the systems in use by federal regulating agencies for 15+years, the following list is not likely to happen (neither is a tech savvy administration). The slide show format on the 10 Things list at eWeek.com is not my favorite, however, I have to agree with most of the objectives...even if I'd rather the federal government not get involved in any of the 10 items. The list goes as follows

1. Launch a massive retraining program for IT workers
2. Create incentives to hire older IT workers
3. Work out a reasonable Visa Program
4. Create an energy policy for data centers
5. Create incentives for the adoption of unified communications
6. Drive the adoption of video conferencing
7. Clear up the Sarbanes-Oxley mess
8. Drive a health care IT reform act
9. Create a mandate for data portability
10. Learn to actually use the web (my personal favorite)

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 06:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Much of Central America is not well connected to the Internet and the associated mass of news and information available therein. I have been there several times and know from experience that technology may be a barrier to many but also feel that there is a growing desire of many to be part of the 'connected' world...and more importantly, to not be isolated due to lack of connectivity or the resources to take advantage of available connections. Two Sides Take Up Murder Case Online makes some interesting observations in Nicaragua where the traditional tabloid media has now collided with the "social media" world of electronic information exchange. From that article :

"Howard Rheingold, the author of Smart Mobs and a communications expert, believes this is part of an emerging trend. The poor people who earn a dollar a day don't have access to the Internet quite yet, but they've always had access to the networks through which rumors spread — and they hit the streets, says Rheingold. Some of those people on the streets know someone who's connected to the Internet, and I think increasingly we'll see those two worlds merge.

“Just as "conversational media" could be used to exonerate the wrongfully imprisoned, Rheingold worries that it could be used the other way.

The question is, is that going to raise the quality of the public sphere, or is this simply going to be a medium that can be manipulated, [where] people become inflamed over falsehoods?"

Good question.

Related: audio by Juan Forero for NPR

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I have been following this story over at Nashville is Talking, A Play-By-Play: The JL Kirk & Associates Saga with an interest in the community aspect of blogs and what I perceive to be a wide gap in understanding of the power that personal (or volunteer) journalism is having in the world of consumer/public relations.

There was a time when the art of complaining about products and services involved writing/typing/mailing letters to the company involved and perhaps sending a copy to the Better Business Bureau. When there were real issues and real problems, the facts (free of emotional baggage) often resulted in some sort of compromise agreement where everyone walked away happier or with a better understanding of what transpired. The time between the problem and the ultimate resolution frequently allowed all parties involved to remove highly charged, emotion-driven feelings, and simply work toward a "cooled-off" solution. There was an old PR axiom that says that if a customer is happy he'll tell a friend or two. If he's angry, he'll tell 10 or 20.." Let's just start by saying that Ward and June Cleaver are no longer with us to resolve issues in this manner. The landscape and the technology have changed the math of the old axiom.

Electronic response times to issues and crises can be nearly instantaneous. A car salesman could hear about a problem car from a cell phone as the customer rolls out of the show room. Email is ubiquitous and speedy. Those one-to-one devices pale in comparison to the dynamics of electronic communities (list-servs, mass email, and discussion boards). If you take the power of one-to-one technologies and blend it with the technologies of electronic communities, the result is a one-to-many dynamic that has the potential to disseminate information on a viral/exponential scale. Bloggers, particularly communities of bloggers (even Twitter users), can elevate the level of exposure to an issue from something personal to something that is (literally) global in the same amount of time that Alexander Graham Bell said the words, "Mr. Watson--come here--I want to see you." Thousands of words, images, and attachments can be spread with the click of an "enter" key....and reactions to those electronic elements can be published as fast as a responder can type into a blog comment box.

So the clash of an a company who resorted to the delivery of a certified letter (snail mail) and a customer who is well versed in the art of electronic communications will make a ripple across the news in the next few days. There has been damage done to the customer. There has been damage done to the company. There may even be damage to the reputaion of the law firm that finds itself in the middle of the two. Undoubtedly, there will be a new perspective on the community aspects of blogging that will emerge from this that will either enhance the reputation of bloggers and the social-activist power of these communities or there will be consequences that will damage the reputations of the bloggers and this new media technology.

There have been other cases where an individual's online presence clashed with a company. I see this as much more than that. This is a generational-technology-gap clash where technology will be on trial almost as much as the facts coming from the conflicting parties. We shall see.

Continue reading "When Technology, Complaint Management, and Public Relations Meet the Blogosphere" »

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 06:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

California imigrant children are missing the technology train:

"Many recent immigrants do not have access to computers in their homes, leaving them at a social and economic disadvantage, according to a recent study conducted by the University of California at Santa Cruz. Researchers say 70 percent of native-born Americans had computer access at home in 2003, compared with 56 percent of those living in immigrant households, a wider gap than existed in 1997, according to the report.

While nearly 13 percent of the U.S. population is foreign born and 23 percent of those aged 5 to 25 are the children of immigrants, "In California, more than half of the young people are immigrants or the children of immigrants," said the study's author Rebecca London. "If they are unable to fully participate in the new information and communications system, opportunities will pass them by and current disadvantages will be translated into long-term second-tier status," London said.

Differences in education and income were the two largest factors contributing to the different rates of computer ownership. However, researchers also found the lack of desire to own a computer to be an important factor."

Interesting thought... where do we get the motivation to own a computer? In light of recent news regarding instant messaging and growing risks of scams, viruses, and online predators...I could see why someone might be a little less than excited about buying a ticket for a family on the computer revolution train.

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ellison Research released a new study showing that one out of every four Protestant churches in the United States has virtually no involvement with the World Wide Web. "The study, among a representative sample of 871 Protestant church ministers nationwide, explored how churches use Web technology. It shows 27% of all churches have no connectivity at all – no staff e-mail, no Web site, and no Internet connection."

Continue reading "Churches Lag in Internet Use" »

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 03:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

A Eurostat study says Europe has digital divide... and these are interesting but not all that surprising:

"A gap remains between users and nonusers or between 'haves' and 'have-nots'," according to Eurostat, the European Uniion's statistics agency.

The survey found that 85 percent of school or university students aged 16 to 24 used the Internet, while only 13 percent of people aged between 55 and 74 went online during the survey. The poll was conducted across the 25-nation EU between April and June 2004, questioning 204,029 people. No margin of error was given.

Only 25 percent of those who had not completed high school used the Internet, with the figure rising to 52 percent for those who attained a secondary school diploma and to 77 percent for college or university graduates.

Only 40 percent of unemployed people used the Internet, compared to 60 percent of those with a job, the survey said.

In total, average Internet use across the EU stood at 47 percent. A similar U.S. survey found Internet use in the United States in 2003 stood at 55 percent.

Eurostat said the low Internet use had several causes, including "missing infrastructure or access; missing incentives to use information and communications technologies; lack of the computer literacy or skills necessary to take part in the information society."

The survey found that computer use and use of the Internet was highest in the Nordic countries of Denmark (76 percent), Finland (70 percent), and Sweden (82 percent), while the lowest rates were found in Greece (20 percent).

The statistics on Greece were a surprise. Maybe the Greeks still talk to one another rather than going online...I'm thinking positive cultural influences a la My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Allen Shore writing for happynews.com shares some less than happy news in his article, "Love’em and squeeze’em: Charitable thoughts from the helping sector".

The technology gap also shows through in the Stanford review. Some 76 percent of nonprofits from the Bay Area have Web sites, compared to fewer than 27 percent nationally. A recent commentary by another nonprofit resource group, Npower, adds to this picture as well. It asserted that while conventional businesses have a technical support staff to operational staff ratio of 1:100 (down from 1:50 just a few years ago), nonprofit organizations have a ratio of about 1:30—another squeeze on their resources, and an issue of concern as technology becomes increasingly important.

If ever there was a place where students (and career changing professionals) interested in web design and maintenance could plug-in and make a difference, the non-profit sector is it. Sure, they can be demanding and difficult to work with...but so too wil be some future paying client, so get over it! Jump in there and help someone, you'd be amazed at how gratifying the experience can be. (IMHO)

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

"After lagging the broader US population in online usage, African Americans are starting to catch up. A new report from eMarketer explains why.

African-American Internet users make up 10.5% of the total online population, according to eMarketer.

"But amid the good news, there is still frustration," says Ms. Debra Aho Williamson, Senior Analyst at eMarketer and author of the African Americans Online report. "Just 50% to 60% of African American households have computers, versus 70% of white households. Though African Americans are increasingly using the Internet at work, home access is a strong driver of frequency of use."

A greater concern, however, is that the remaining lag in usage may also be self-imposed. "The most worrying factor," says Ms. Williamson, "is that a large percentage of African Americans don't appear to be interested in going online, even if they have the money and education to do it."

"Some of the digital divide is self-imposed," Bruce Gordon, head of the NAACP, told Businessweek in October 2005. "A computer and a DSL line don't cost that much anymore. We need to convince more households to buy computers and go online."

It still bothers me that so much digital divide publicity points to differences between blacks and whites. Asians and Hispanics, just to name a few, are generally included in national research but rarely included in publicised reports... I'm just sayin'

Continue reading "Self-imposed digital divide" »

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Just a few days ago, a well educated, (unnamed) Internet researcher actually typed the following into an email discussion thread: "have you ever been to Africa? ...those $100 laptops would only get stolen if sent to children in Africa". Ouch. I don't recall the last time that I went from stunned to angry in such a short time span...and I have worked hard for years to be a slow to anger kind of person. The very idea of condemning an entire continent (and essentially labeling Africans as thieves) is so wrong on so many levels. After I challenged his generalization, he added that his point was that African poverty is overpowering, social problems horrendous, infrastructure is fragile, disease is rampant (ad nauseum)...and a laptop in a child's hands, walking down the street to school would be nothing more than a target...adding that these are people who are selling their own sisters into prostitution in order to survive, they do not need laptops. While there are areas in Africa that he described correctly, his stereotypical and fatalistic view still bothers me (translation: I am not quite as angry as I was earlier).

Continue reading "Inexpensive laptops sent to Africa will only get stolen" »

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 04:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Silly me. When I purchased my KayPro II back in 1982, I thought that 64K of memory and two floppy-floppy drives was the epitome of portable computing...it DID fit beneath an airline seat (just as long as I didn't have to put my feet in the same space). Apparently, portable computers, laptops are catching up with desktop computers in overall acceptance and diffusion.

"Increasingly, notebooks are the computers of choice. Laptop sales in the back-to-school sales period, the industry's second-busiest season after holidays, hit a record volume during the first week of August, according to Current Analysis Inc. Notebooks captured more than half of all computer sales every month since May, hitting a high of 57 percent market share in August.

Two factors have driven the surge in the popularity of notebooks: Laptops have become cheaper, dipping to below $500 with some mail-in rebate promotions last month, and the surge in wireless technology allows laptops to finally deliver on their long- promised mobility."

A recent CNET article reports:

"Thanks to sales seen of late, the portable PC category is well on its way to eclipsing the 30 percent mark and should reach 35 percent of PC sales in the U.S. market by 2007, IDC said."

Wireless, portable, computing for less than one third the price that I paid for that old KayPro...Wow! In reality, the same useful power and features should (and probably do) cost less than $100.00 today...but thanks to creeping featurism, we are being manipulated into believing that more features, faster processors, ad nauseum...somehow make the computer more useful. Horsefeathers! If/when the creeping feature monster is reeled-in, information appliances of the near future will make the laptop vs. desktop discussion look like one of the silliest debates of the 21st century.

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ball State University, College of Education students pay price for laptop initiative...and not just any laptop computer, but an Apple iBook. I say good for them! A decision was made, a policy set forth, and as long as incoming students know the rules ahead of time, then go for it. And if your Apple iBook purchase is keeping you away from Ball State, I'll be happy to recommend a great university that doesn't have that requirement (insert shameless plug here *grin*).

Few subjects related to technology raise more passionate debate on college campuses more than the Mac vs PC debate. I have witnessed it. First cost, more often than not, trumps passion...yet there are compelling arguments to look at more than first costs (i.e. Total Cost of Ownership - TCO).

What I would really like to see in the Ball State discussion (and this may exist elsewhere) is a better case for insisting on the Mac. All through the article, creating an online or electronic portfolio for new teachers is a high priority...as it should be. But software programs like LiveText (and others) allow cross platform construction of teacher portfolios with much lower costs than new Mac hardware. I just want to see a better constructed argument. The portfolio development and multimedia shtick is a little weak, particularly in light of comments from one Indiana teacher:

"Apples are expensive, and from what I'm aware, almost 95 percent of computer labs in Indiana's high schools are PC," said Steven Fletcher, assistant director of music at New Castle Chrysler High School), whose own school runs on a PC platform. "So it's a shame for some of these students to leave college, hit the work force and be stuck with something that may or may not be compatible with what their students will be using."

I'm with Mr. Fletcher on this one. If your career path is headed toward an industry such as print publishing, photography, or graphic design then the argument for Mac dependancy is strong...this is the native platform for that workforce (generally). By all means, become an expert in all things Mac before you leave college. The opposite is equally true for much of the business world: learn all things PC (warts and all) and run with it! But whatever you do, don't leave college without a solid handle on one or the other...big mistake! How else will you be able to join the Mac vs PC debate?

Graphic by: Daniel Bozet - Patrick Thuillier.

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 05:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I wish that I could get more excited about Tennessee's initiative to Test New Technology Aimed at Improving Test Scores. I consider this a sad day for Tennessee. We apparently are defining technology in education as an online system to measure how well our students are doing on standardized tests that prepare them to take more standardized tests. Please do not get me wrong, I am all in favor of providing teachers, administrators, and boards better management tools for tracking progress (or lack thereof) in our classrooms. If it makes life easier for teachers, then I am all in favor of it. But please do not fall into the trap of believing that this new tracking system will actually be used to improve any child's learning, particularly learning that might include technology.

If this is an effort to advance technology use by teachers and administrators, let's call it what it is: a new system to track progress in making our students better test takers.

You can count on the system to identify students who are just below the standards so that those students can be pushed up into a politically acceptable level...but I seriously doubt that all students will realize benefits from the new game.

To call this a "new technology" seems odd also. Govenor Bredesen himself is quoted as saying, "Businesses don’t rely on a single annual inventory to tell if they’re making a profit, and we shouldn’t be content with one high-stakes test to tell us that some of our children aren’t keeping up. This program not only tells us who needs help, but also how to help them." I agree with the govenor, in part...business management systems of one genre or another have been in place since the beginning of the industrial revolution...so why is this somehow a silver bullet, "New Technology"? (I am whining now).

I should be happy that the words technology and education are even used in the same sentence, I suppose. When those new test-taking-careers show up and dominate Tennessee's economy, we will have plenty of students qualified to apply.

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 02:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

We are seeing more and more cases where Wi-Fi is expanding beyond the reach of hard-wired solutions to connect people in rural and remote areas. The Christian Science Monitor article, "India bypasses the wires to bring Wi-Fi to its remote residents" is just another example of how that is happening on the other side of the globe. What I find interesting ia a pattern within the Digital Divide community (those who seek to eliminate the have's-and-have-nots segmentation of the connected world) to take a big sigh of relief once connectivity is in place. I could easily envision a Mission Accomplished banner hanging over a computer in some remote village (yes, that is a cheap shot, 'sorry). Let's pat ourselves on the back, because the Digital Divide is conquered as soon as Wi-Fi comes to town. The playing field is level, let's go celebrate!!

Let's not break out the ticker tape yet... I need to rain on this parade, even if it is just a mist of a shower:

Continue reading "Wi-Fi is a bridge, is English the Digital Divide?" »

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 05:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Mainstreaming disabled preschool students has been argued for years. Now, NCLB regulations have many school districts scrambling for innovative solutions to make learning a more measurably, productive experience. Winchester Kentucky is taking on some of those challenges with an awareness of the needs of teachers and of their special students: "Technology and Teachers: Helping improve the life of special-needs students"

The schools and classrooms themselves must be brought up to date in the technological world. There are many devices available that can ease the transition of both students and teachers alike, but the tools may be unavailable due to funding.

With technology changing in the blink of an eye, a school may purchase an assistive device and find its usefulness greatly reduces time and money spent integrating the disabled child . However, by the time the school has raised enough money to purchase more of the devices, it may find the model is outdated and not manufactured anymore.

This is a common pattern in the chase for the technology dragon. Research, grant writing, testing, budgeting, training, more testing, and implementation are not easily compressed activities...and the technology dragon isn't sticking around while the wheels of organizations spin. It is not always about leaving the children behind. School systems and teachers can find themselves left behind in the chase for appropriate technological solutions.

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 07:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

The good news from this story, "School districts get $7 million in tech grants - Money will help teachers conduct interactive lessons", - "Los Angeles and Glendale schools will receive about $7 million in federal funds to buy laptops for students and to train middle-school teachers in technology education."

The bad news from that very same article:

According to state school officials, 60 percent of computers at California schools are at least 4 years old and 27 percent of teachers statewide were rated as technologically proficient.

Ouch! ONLY 27% of teachers statewide were rated technologically proficient?? I looked at the California proficiency standards, there is little there to make me believe that these teachers are being asked to jump through extraordinary hoops in order to be classified as technologically proficient...granted, as a geek, I could be wayyy off base here, too. But let me ask this: If 73% of the teachers are NOT technologically proficient, does anyone else see a problem with those teachers being able to generate technologically proficient students?

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 06:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)

I discovered this in a buried draft from back in April. This is one of those things where my heart says "yes, let's share the knowledge!" and my brain tells me "whoa!, let's think about this...just what is it we're giving away, and will someone else profit from the give-away?": The intellectual property digital divide - Michael Geist:

Although the precise issues to be addressed are yet to be determined, a key element is the creation of an Access to Knowledge Treaty. It could include provisions on access to medicines and globally funded research, open access to scholarly research, as well as exceptions to patent and copyright laws that serve the interests of the developing world.

As I said there is something in my humanity that says yes...but the cynic in me smells piracy and profiteering in the breeze. Are we (the developed world) being greedy by not giving away beneficial, even life-saving intellectual property to the developing world? The best answer I can come up with starts with, "Yes, but.."

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 04:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Paul Lamb writes eloquently about the statistics that most of us have seen regarding the Digital Divide. No more digital divide...not! is a good read...succinct and well documented :

"Trying to determine whether qualitative inequities exist by just looking at the quantity of people using the Net is problematic. It's like trying to determine how many people can drive a car by asking if they have ever sat in one."

Lamb goes beyond describing the problem to including thoughts on how the problem can be resolved.

Summarizing his view:
• "gather better information on the quality of technology access and use, not just the quantity
• make sure the technology industry itself is a full participant in broadening the scope and usage of technology in socially beneficial ways
• let's acknowledge that even though it is difficult to quantify, the new face of the digital divide is not new at all"

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

At the turn of this century, Michigan took a bold step to get computers into the hands of school teachers. This article, "Michigan Rethinks Laptop Giveaway Program", does not sound encouraging. Most disturbing to me is the following:

"The state’s track record thus far is dubious. In 2000, on the heels of the tech boom, then-Gov. John Engler set aside $110 million to give laptop computers to Michigan’s 91,000 public school teachers. While that may have been a nice perk for teachers, a survey conducted by Michigan Virtual University found that fewer than one in nine teachers felt they could use the laptops to enhance their lessons. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the program has resulted in no significant jump in student achievement."

Anyone have a copy of that survey? (Inquiring grad student wants to know)

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 04:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Two well expressed views on measuring the success of laptop programs in a sixth grade population: School computer gap grows

Pro Computer Voices:

"...officials from Walled Lake Consolidated Schools were convinced of the value of technology after enrolling in a program six years ago that allowed the district to lease laptop computers, for $50 apiece, for each of its sixth-grade students.

A team of researchers from Wayne State University and the University of Memphis studied the students for three years, and found the laptops significantly helped learning.

Students scored higher on writing and problem-solving tests, were more engaged in learning, better organized and behaved better in the classroom.

"The laptop kids, on average, would end up with three to five arguments and wrote their answers in the form of a persuasive essay," says Bill Hamilton, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for Walled Lake. "Teachers found that for many students it was the first time they had produced something that looked good, and because they could do this rather easily, they started wanting it to be good."

Students with poor handwriting were finally able to clearly see what they wrote. And in math, they could focus on learning the concepts rather than laboriously drawing graphs.

The results of the Walled Lake study have been mirrored by the Freedom to Learn program, with students showing gains on standardized tests."

"Why do we need to spend money on laptops when we could be spending money on teachers and textbooks? We don't need laptops," says Jane Healy, a Vail, Colo.-based educational psychologist and author. "Much of what passes for computer education is a waste of valuable brain time."

Detroit father Glenn Hodges wants his daughters to acquire the high-tech skills, but he also has a pragmatic bottom line.

"If you can't read," Hodges says, "a computer isn't going to do you any good."

As for me, I agree with both sides. Appropriate use of computers can be a good thing...without adequately trained teachers to integrate computers into the learning experience, computers can turn into nothing more than babysitters.

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 02:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (3)

If you are interested in a good collection of links regarding the Digital Divide and different levels of Internet access, eMediaWire has published several recent research findings: US Broadband Penetration Jumps to 58.5% in April. Separating home access from office access may give us a more accurate indication of what students are able to do.

Home Connectivity in the US:
Most active Internet users connect from home with broadband connections. Among narrowband users, 33.9% use 56Kbps modems, 5.12% use 28/33.3Kbps, and 2.52% use 14.4Kbps modems. In total, 41.54% of home users in the US connect to the Internet at 56Kbps or less.

Work Connectivity:
As of April of 2005, of those connected to the Internet, 81.33% of US users at work enjoy a high-speed connection, down 0.2 percentage points from the 81.53% share in March. At work, 18.67% connect at 56Kbps or less.

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 05:27 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

When is last time that you heard fans at an athletic event cheering: "We're number 26!, We're number 26!!..??" We do love our rankings and love being Number 1, but I wonder at some of the formulas for how we are determining rankings, and how we are measuring the usefulness of technology in our schools. Take this article, for instance: "School technology status good now; future uncertain":

The journal Education Week looked at the ways computers are being employed in education for its review, Technology Counts. The Palmetto State (South Carolina) ranked 26th nationally in technology access. There are four students per instructional computer here compared with 3.8 nationally. When students per Internet-connected computer are considered, South Carolina averages 4.0, while the U.S. average is 4.1.

As a proponent for having the ratio of internet accessible devices be 1:1, this will probably sound strange...Just because the ratio of computers per child seems to be getting better (and I would question how the word computer is defined in that equation), what does that REALLY mean in terms of measurable learning that is taking place? From that same article, reference is made to a shift in computer use within the classroom setting for NCLB assessment purposes. Certainly, assessment is an appropriate use of the computer, for the instructor:

South Carolina, with the rest of the nation, is in the middle of changing views on how technology will be most useful in schools. Of late, it is expanding as a method for assessing and tracking student performance.

OK, I am willing to wave the white flag. Forget student use of computers...it is too easy to make that a measure of economic have's and have not's. Let's start over and make sure that every teacher is equipped with a computer, the software needed to do student tracking (assessments), and the training to make sure that the teacher can comply with NCLB reporting. I would suggest that we can soon be Number 1 in the world in our ability to assess students...but we still will not like what the assessments tell us in terms of student learning. (insert cynicism here)

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 07:04 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

Last September, Brown University ranked Tennessee's govenment web site as number one in the nation in delivering "high-quality and easy-to-use online services". From the perspective of a web developer at a university, that is quite an accomplishment and represents a ton of work. But what about indivuals who are staring across the digital divide. Is E-government worsening digital divide? The silicon.com article offers a perspective that many of us geeky-types may not consider very often:

"The last thing we need is a two-tier society where those with digital know-how can grab all the best services while the less well-informed - and their kids - miss out.

There's a broader lesson here for the government as it pushes ahead with getting services online.

While the number of online households continues to grow, there will always be a sizeable minority that will not embrace the internet.

And many of them are precisely the people that need to interact with the government - the poor and the elderly."

The suggestion in this article that "there will always be a sizeable minority who will not embrace the internet" just seems far fetched to me, but minorities who haven't embraced modern technologies are a puzzle for me as well. I don't believe that I have heard anyone suggest that online activity will completely replace traditional government services, but I would hope that we press for better engagement of minority populations, particularly the poor and elderly, instead of pulling back on efforts to deliver services online. (IMHO)

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 07:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Tom Hoffman's rant and Dilbert's experience with technology have much in common. Tom seems to want to place the blame for failures in educational technology on the companies who have delivered new technologies at a faster pace than than anyone can possibly keep up with (including educators). Dilbert, on the other hand, deals with the current reality and just moves on, in spite of the technology. My vote goes to Dilbert. Tom, on the other hand, needs a prescription for reality. Educators are not, nor have they ever, been at the controls of the technology train; and, just because the train left the station without most educators on board is neither the fault of the train or the educators...it is simply the reality of today's pace in the world of profit based, competitive technology. Tom is a wonderful proponent of open source code and the empowering possibilities of user development and shared resources. The businesses who deliver the software that Tom seems to malign would not stay in business by giving their products away. The software giants may ultimately become vulnerable to the grass roots community of open source developers, but not any time soon.

This is a wicked cycle. Educators, and many institutions who train educators, have not embraced technology nor have they empowered new educators to understand the good and the bad of technology in education. When faced with an unfamiliar technology, we wonder why educators seem to lag in acceptance of a technology that often times has already been integrated into the lives of the students. By the time educators wake up to a 'new technology', aquire training in it's use, incorporate it into the curriculum, and research it to oblivion...the technology is no longer 'new' and the students have already moved onto someting else. There is no slaying of the technology dragon, just an interesting chase.

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 06:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Stories like this are rarely deemed sexy enough to make it to the level of litter box liner, however, the struggle is repeated all over the country every year. Winchester Kentucky understands how vicious the technology chase is: " The Winchester Sun: As technology funding shifts, schools must find ways to replace outdated hardware."

"...OK, now we have the equipment, but not all of our teachers know what to do with it,'" he (Marty Park, technology coordinator for the Clark County Public Educational System) said. "... That's great. We had to have the backside set up, we had to have the equipment. Now we have to do the training.

The problem is now that we're doing the training part, the equipment is old. So we're kind of trying to catch our tail, spinning around." (my emphasis)

I couldn't have defined a chase of the technology dragon better if I had been blogging about it for over a year...Oh, wait!...

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 09:05 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (2)

If you have read anything that I have written here before, you understand that I am a proponent of appropriate use of technology in education. So, I read this story, "Distance learning via Internet more popular in nation's high schools" and reflected on what that might have meant had the Internet and online courseware been prevalent during the high school years for my children. My conclusion: probably no effect at all. Neither technology nor the Internet would have significantly changed the high school experience for my children...because I was not involved at the school level in my child's experience (well, there were a few trips to the principal's office for minor indiscretions of my angels..cough, cough).

I do not know how to say this in a politically correct way, but I believe high school as we know it is broken...and I am talking 'Humpty-Dumpty' broken. I was there. I helped push 'ole Humpty off the wall...and walked away for someone else to sweep up the pieces. Worse yet, I do not have a proposal for what needs to replace the broken institution...I am pretty sure that distance education and technology 'glue' will not fix it. I do believe, however, that high school without high levels of parental involvement/engagement/participation represent a formula for failure.

Today, nearly one in 10 of the nation's public schools offer distance-learning courses to students, according to a survey released in March by the U.S. Department of Education. And the federal government predicts that in the next decade a majority of schools will be on board.

"It's not just on the fringes anymore," said Susan Patrick, the U.S. Department of Education's director of educational technology...the traditional classroom teacher is in no danger of being replaced. Students will take at most one or two classes online. We all like high-touch, even if we live in a high-tech world."

I would like to hear Susan Patrick repeat the high touch comment, face-to-face to every parent of a high schooler...and to every school board member who feels that the consolidated warehouses that we refer to as high schools are worth saving. There is no high touch in today's overcrowded high schools and there are no technology band aids to heal the wounded institution.

Note to self: replace 'soap box' pills with Tylenol next time.

And furthermore, if I am elected...

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 05:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Perseus Developement Corporation's random survey of some 10,000 blogs identifies some rather startling demographic and user trend statistics: Teens tell all, or not much in blogs (free subscription):

"Blogging has revolutionized the news media, but youth dominate its use: Ninety percent of those blogging are between 13 and 29 years old, according to a survey by Perseus Development Corporation, a company that designs software for online surveys. Of those, more than half are teenagers."

Before we get too excited, it is important to note that the Perseus study examined publicly hosted solutions only...(i.e. Blogger, Xanga, LiveJournal etc.) So the rest of us who either have the software sitting on a personal or remotely hosted server or paid service are not included in the statistics.

The Perseus statistics raise some interesting issues within the education and blogging communities:

All in all, however, I believe the escalating growth in the use of blogs by teens and young adults means that there are learning opportunities available. Ignoring the potential of blogs as an accepted/adopted learning tool among teens is rapidly fading option. Blogging is neither the end of the highway nor the finish line in the chase for technology, it is merely a barometer of things to come.

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 04:47 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (3)

We talk about access to computers for students and pat ourselves on the back when a school system reaches the point where there is a computer in each classroom...never mind that it took 10 years, and that the ten year-old models are one step up from an electric abacus (I regress). Susan Patrick is quoted a number of times in "Official: Schools lag - PittsburghLIVE.com", but the following jumped off the page at me:

"Education is the only business still debating the usefulness of technology," said Susan Patrick, director of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology.

"Most kids see their parents using computers in the work environment," Patrick told school technology directors at the Allegheny Intermediate Unit (Pennsylvania). "Could you imagine sharing a computer at work, the way most students do?"

To answer Dr. Patrick's question...NO !*$@! Way would I share my office computer with 30+ other people (particularly students, gasp). So why should we think that students who have access to that one classroom computer will take ownership in how they use it for learning? Having one PC (Personal Computer) in a classroom falls just short of an oxymoron. Are we defining a new PC Digital Divide?...those who have access to a (truly) Personal Computer and those who have access to a (shared) Public Computer?

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 04:54 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

Val Souza's insightful article, "Who’s afraid of the digital divide?" includes one of the best descriptions of the term digital leafrog that I have seen in print. First of all, let's not confuse this concept with the products available from LeapFrog, the company...although they have some pretty cool educational software. Digital Leapfroging is a pattern that seems to be surfacing more and more in middle-income and lower-income countries where ICT services are expanding at a faster rate than rich(er) countries and where the people in the middle and lower income countries tend to share telephones, computers, and internet accounts at a high(er) rate. The resulting level of the use of technology may be higher than traditional survey/measurement systems could identify, thus the implication that the Digital Divide in these countries may be closer to being spanned, or leapfrogged, than published statistics seem to indicate.

I may have to revisit my thinking on epiphanic opportunists, there are certainly connections to what is happening with digital leapfrogging.

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 05:31 AM | Permalink

It sounds like a combination horror movie title and ill-researched CBS Memogate report. I have read the Electronic News story, "U.S. Technology in Danger of Falling Behind" several times now...(and it does not say that we're falling into the Digital Divide...that is my stab at dramatic headlines). One might expect a technology magazine to be concerned about the growth in technology R&D in emerging free market countries...and this article validates that concern. The odd twist to this technology story is that three of the assumptions made in the article include peculiar twists of logic.

The first assumption that because of reduced levels of federally funded research (lower than 1987), the US will lose it competitive edge. The second is that the educational system is failing to produce math and science candidates for engineering schools. The third is that immigration restrictions are preventing talented engineers from coming to the US to contribute.

Continue reading "US slipping off technology edge - into the Digital Divide" »

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 11:29 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

"A Pew Internet & American Life Project study last year showed 43 percent of blacks in the United States using the Internet compared with 67 percent of whites." This quote appears in the article, AP Black technology campaign brings awareness to communities as well as Events bring awareness of technology divide by race. Both articles speak of a seven year campaign to raise the level of awareness of the technology gap within the black community...and that is a good thing. But why the emphasis on only one comparison of white population vs black population?

Consider the following information from the very same Pew Internet studies:
• Hispanics on the Internet: "Fully 50% of Hispanics who are 18 and older have used the Internet...43% of African-Americans have been online."
• Asian Americans and the Internet: "Fully 75% of English-speaking Asian-American adults have used the Internet... 43% of African- Americans, and 50% of English-speaking Hispanics are online."
• America's online pursuits: "English-speaking Hispanic users report high levels of instant messaging and downloading music compared to African-Americans and whites...African-Americans and seniors are among least likely to go online."
• The Internet Life Report: "The survey does show that African- Americans are coming online at a faster pace than whites. Of all African-American Internet users, 30% have come online within the last six months compared with 16% of the white Internet population. Put differently, fully 14% of those who started going online in the last six months are African-American.

There are technology gaps within the US due to geography (rural vs urban), age, socio-economic conditions, training/education levels, personal choice, gender, disability, and race. Black history month provides a terrific opportunity to emphasize the importance of Internet connectivity within the black community...but in terms of reporting, this is not an issue of discrimination of one race over another and the very hint of such in the exclusive black vs white comparison in the articles only propagates stereotypical cultural differences and historical prejudice. Internet connectivity is not a race to the finish line between two cultures any more than it is an effort of one race to become more technologically superior over another. Internet connectivity is a societal and cultural challenge that crosses many boundaries, and race is perhaps one of the least of those.

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 05:20 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (2)

Continue reading "Pop Quiz - How does your generation define Podcasting?" »

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 05:48 AM | Permalink

We will reach a point in the near future when someone will demand an answer to the question, "Who owns and governs the Internet?" In this UPI article, Digital divide shortchanged, advocates say, Michael Powell's influence (or lack thereof) is the target of government's lack of emphasis on closing the digital divide. Considering that the definition of Digital Divide is so ambiguous, I would question if the government should be looking at closing the divide (however defined) at all. This is not something that is fixed with a bandaid or by throwing large bundles of cash at it...closing the digital divide is a complex issue that extends all the way down to an indivual's personal choice.

From the UPI story:

Lee Rainies (Pew Institute) says, "Internet use is not a monolithic story," he would not take a position on the degree that government policies have helped or hindered closing the divide. For now, it seems that the policymakers are at a loss for creative strategies to close the remaining gaps to universal access and balance the need to reduce financial burdens elsewhere.

I recommend the article...but I also recommend that consideration be given to answering the ownership and governance question that I posed up front. How much influence do we want governments, considering the international nature of the Internet, to have over what some have termed the freedom to connect?

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 05:07 AM | Permalink

Tom Hoffman's spin on where educational technology will be in 2015, Ed-Tech Insider: Ed-Tech 2015, looks at very practical aspects of computing (lower costs, hardware longevity, ease of use) as solutions to resolve the crisis of return on investment (i.e. is learning improving after investing all this money in computer technology?). Although I agree with his assessment that the practical aspects are essential, I must disagree with his vision that technology itself will not change dramatically over the next 10 years. Reality leans towards Tom's view that the PC and the basic functions associated with it (word processing, email, presentations, digital designs, etc.) will remain intact for at least another 10 years. The dreamer in me believes that we will move quicker than anyone realizes toward the world of computer appliances as described in Donald Norman's book, The Invisible Computer. What we are seeing now with the convergence of cell phone technology/pda is only a precursor to smart devices where the technology becomes less of an emphasis and function becomes key. In an Educause event in 2000, someone from MIT's Media Lab spoke of a day when computers will cost a penny... I'm holding on to the Media Lab vision, but with a radically different definition of what 'computer' will mean in 2015.

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 05:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (1)

Recent Kaiser Foundation and Pew Internet studies continue to spawn articles like this: Newsday.com
Report: Seniors still not logging into Net . The observations on how seniors use the Internet and what those who aren't miss, is moving from convenience to neccesity.

Just a few years ago, people thought it was cute that grandma was getting photos of the grandchildren via e-mail, said Susannah Fox, associate director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which researches the impact of the Internet.

"Now in 2005, it's more high stakes," she said. "A doctor doesn't always have time to go through all the health questions that someone might have, but the Internet has time. Dr. Google has time."

Seniors have been slow to go online because they didn't use computers at work, they don't see the value of the Internet or they can't afford a computer or Internet access, Fox said.

Groups such as SeniorNet have stepped in to change that. The national non-profit organization, with seven centers in the city and two on Long Island, tailors its classes to those 50 and older, teaching them Internet usage, e-mail, digital photography, online financial management and computer security, executive director Kristin Fabos said.

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 04:57 AM | Permalink

Retirement Living: Offline America: Can kids lure elders to the Internet? provides a summary of the Kaiser Family Foundation study of elderly Internet use, based on a survey of 1,450 people 50 and older.

According to Vicky Rideout, vice president of the Kaiser Foundation:

"We tend to think about the digital divide in terms of kids. Our solutions tend to be school-based. We haven't focused on the big divide among not just seniors but adults down to age 50. It's not something that's going to rectify itself on its own.

Just 15 percent of seniors (age 65 and older) with annual income less than $20,000 a year have gone online compared with 65 percent of seniors with income of $50,000 a year or more.

That divide is also evident among those 50 to 64 years old. Overall, 70 percent of this age group has gone online, according to the Kaiser survey. But only 31 percent of those with incomes less than $20,000 have gone online compared to 88 percent of those with incomes of $50,000 or more."

Continue reading "Grandkids Encourage Grandparents to Connect Across the Digital Divide" »

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 05:34 AM | Permalink

"Church size was the primary factor in technology reliance, according to the latest study from Ellison Research": Study finds big technology gap between large and small churches

"The study queried a representative sample of 700 Protestant church ministers nationwide and found nine out of 10 Protestant clergy have Internet access they can use for church business, but only about half of all Protestant churches maintain a Web site."(my emphasis)
According to the survey, having a Web site varies dramatically by church size:

88 percent of larger churches (those with 200 or more people attending worship services during a typical weekend)

60 percent of mid-size churches (100 to 199 people in worship each weekend)

28 percent of small churches

Continue reading "Technology gap for churches widens based upon membership size" »

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 05:32 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

Taiwan is moving to higher speed access nationwide, an advantage geographically that is a challenge in more dispersely populated nations. Centralized, governmental agency support and control means, "Technology bringing education into reach"...an interesting history of the technology and impact of online education in Taiwan. Even more interesting is the recognition that available (and expanding) technologies have out-paced the educational system's ability to provide educators and educator support staff capable of integrating the technology.

Continue reading "Taiwan recognizes technology educator gap" »

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 05:45 AM | Permalink

The Malasian Star article, The teacher-technology divide, could have been printed in any number of US papers. It is a thought provoking and candid discussion of the lack of integration of ICT in education:

" WHAT if a teacher from the early 20th century were to travel forward in time to our century? Would she be able to function? Would a 21st century classroom still be recognisable?

Depressingly the answer is probably yes – in the majority of Malaysian schools at least. The tools of the trade, the blackboard and chalk, are still widely in use. The classroom arrangement would be familiar. And “chalk and talk” still seems to be the method of choice.

Director of Unesco’s Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau, Dr Sheldon Shaeffer, asks, "How do you measure innovation? ...in an international study conducted in 28 countries, four key criteria need to be met

Being computer literate is not enough. There is a false assumption that these teachers can go back to school and use ICT. The real challenge is to train teachers on how to integrate ICT into the teaching and learning process.”

...interesting read.

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

One of the better year-in-review summaries, State of the Divide in 2004: Indicators of Progress and Challenge , includes links to a number of good articles including one by Dirk Knemeyer, Founding Principal of Involution Studios LLC:

"Since its inception in the early 1990s, the World Wide Web has been visualized as a global communication tool that would enable meaningful participation by members of widely dispersed work groups, empower active learning networks and enable inclusive participation of ordinary people with democratic decision making. Easy to use open content authoring software designed to facilitate this vision (such as blogs and wikis) is widely available. However, still as of 2004, most private and public organizations are slow to adopt these participatory web-based tools in part due to carryover traditions from the print only era of top down public publishing and a lack of experience and skill in public publishing."

I am pretty sure that Gutenberg never thought that paper and print would be so ingrained in global cultures that one day print publishing (and all that goes with it) would be identified as part of the digital divide. Perhaps we are prisoners of Gutenberg...

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 05:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Party hopping has never been a favorite Christmas pastime for me... I do enjoy the company of friends and associates in non-work situations, but the crunch of so many parties within a relatively compressed timeframe exhausts me somehow. Lest I sound like Scrouge, I thoroughly enjoy the joy that comes with the holiday season, the music, the food, the nip of winter's air, the food, concealing bulky sweaters, the food, Cristmas cards, the food...OK, you get the point.

I find myself talking technology, blogging in particular, at parties...and I am amazed at the range of people who have never even heard the word blog. At one such recent gathering, I was chatting with a young woman from a public relations firm who graduated from a major state university just a few years ago. According to her, personal web publishing was mentioned in class one day in a rather negative light. She had been taught that publishing web pages was the job of trained web designers (professionals) and that people in public relations should concentrate on the message rather than worry about how the message gets delivered. When I mentioned to her that Technorati tracks over 5 million blogs and that TTLB ranks over 15,000 blogs by traffic and that the top 100 receive over 3,000 visits each day...she nearly passed out (well, maybe the empty wine glass in her hand may have influenced her reaction). She then asked me about my blog, how I began, etc....and eventually asked, "How many visitors do you have each day and how does your blog rank?" When I told her that I generally have 30-40 vistors each day and that I just broke into the top 10,000 blogs, she replied: "Well, perhaps web pages should be delivered by trained professionals after all."...at which point, I asked if there was more punch and stuffed my face with a finger sandwich. Did I mention that I really enjoy the food at Christmas?

...note to self: take a break.

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 05:28 AM | Permalink

The November 17th issue of Education Week features an article by Debra Viadero, "Educational Forecasting" (link requires a free subscription). The article describes non invasive brain testing of newborns and sounds a little like science fiction, but it is ongoing research at reputable institutions. The full article includes some of technological challenges faced in previous studies and offers a glimpse of what may be a new challenge for educators:

“I think, within a few years, families will show up in schools with neurological data, maybe even genetic information, and they’re going to say, ‘I want you to make use of this in educating my kids,’ ” says Howard Gardner, a professor of cognition and education at Harvard University, which held an international conference here last month on mind, brain, and education studies. “If educators do not know how to make sense of this data, I think education runs the risk of becoming subsumed by some sort of medical profession (my emphasis).”

Continue reading "Neuro Scientist or Teacher - who leads future education?" »

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 05:41 AM | Permalink

TIF's (Technology Involved Females) are out of the starting blocks and taking the lead in some areas of the technology chase (note to self: add to the most common TIF acromym list). Via Nancy White's Full Circle Associates blog, Technology involved female, is a great example of how technology gap definitions continue to grow and impact marketing.

"Not often recognized as early adopters, women in the survey are revealed as leading the way with wireless Internet access, as more women than men believe this is one of the most important features for a laptop to have (39 percent women versus 29 percent men). While men (51 percent) and women (48 percent) agree that the airport tops the list of the most useful locations to have wireless Internet access, women (38 percent) are more likely than men (30 percent) to desire a connection in a doctor's office as well."

Continue reading "T.I.F. - Gender and the technology chase" »

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 07:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Periodically, I search through Technorati looking for commentary on the Digital Divide and generational technology gaps. Two of my most recent finds come from a Canadian firefighter and a much younger college student in New York. If I could propose a thesis on a cross-section, generational view of technology, it would follow two (over generalised) patterns, both of which fall under the digital native/digital imigrant category: Older generations view technology with a sense of fear, intimidation, and frustration. Younger generations view technology with a view of dominion, acceptance, and connectivity. My digital imigrant, Smokes Place, speaks of the fear of technology that he feels will eventually leave many people behind (i.e. unable to function). Conversely, my digital native, Lyneve Quiles' Study Guide Blog speaks from an adopter of technology in terms of new uses for communication devices as a part of her domain, an accepted part of life:

"Our generation defiantly (sic ?) has an advantage through the use of such technologies. How many times has your cell phone helped you out of a jam, and afterwards you wonder, if it weren’t for your phone, how would you have gotten through it. People in our parents generation would have found a way to survive a situation, rather than talking their way out of it."

Two examples do not make a defense for a thesis...but there are patterns here in the Christopher Alexander pattern language sense that are worth exploring. And on that note, it is good to see Meatball Wiki used as a tool within the pattern language and pattern systems communities.

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 06:32 AM | Permalink

By way of Ray Schroeder's Techno-News Blog, "People Aged 55 and Up Drive U.S. Web Growth", a report published on the ClickZ.com site. I get a little nervous/skeptical/enthused when I see headlines like this. The report sounds like what one might expect from a normal diffusion and acceptance curve where the late adopters join in. But there are two issues that I have with the report, inspite of the great data that the survey collected:

Rural dwellers left behind in 'digital divide': Chris Cope, executive director of the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI), reports that the time commitment for inividuals who must use dial-up Internat access places them at a disadvantage.

"We see this as a real digital divide where the citizens of the rural regions are not able to participate in the same kind of social economy using broadband as a tool.

Nearly every second home has some kind of small business associated with it, whether it's a an agricultural business, or software business in a basement...as a small home office. There's an incredible demand for broadband in the rural part of Ottawa"

According to the article, "About 35 per cent of homes in rural Ottawa have access to broadband services."

Continue reading "Rural Ottawa - looking across the Digital Divide(s)" »

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 05:24 AM | Permalink

A good read on tackling the digital divide in the UK: BT highlights the digital divide:

"According to the latest figures, 51 per cent of the UK adult population (24.2 million) are digitally excluded in the most basic sense of having no access to a home computer or the Internet. When extrapolated to 2025, it is conservatively believed this will reduce to 23 million adults. While this might seem like slight progress, it was pointed out that this 'hard core of digitally excluded' will be even more adrift in a high-technology society - the divide between the digital haves and have nots will be even more marked.

The gap widens with greater innovation,' he said. 'People who are confident, educated and skilled are on a virtuous circle, while those excluded are in a vicious cycle."

Continue reading "Virtuous Circles and Vicious Cycles" »

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

From T.H.E. Journal: The Paradox of Integrating Handheld Technology in Schools: Theory vs. Practice

"The first true step for school leaders is to take comfort in the realization that a willingness to learn anything about technology is a step toward the integration of technology in your life. Because the technology integration process is multidimensional rather than linear, we have to remember that each participant in the technology revolution approaches this culture in a different way. That is why there is no clear global definition of technology integration. And like so many other issues related to the evolution of a school, the job of figuring out how technology plays a role in student learning and achievement is up to the leadership team of a community to decide."

Continue reading "Perspective of a reluctant (administrator) Dragon Chaser" »

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 06:25 AM | Permalink

Dr. Mathew Mitchell's blog, ICT Connections: Local Ideas, Global Applications must have slipped in under my radar when it began back in June. Although most of the posts are focused on broader social and economic issues traditionally associated with the Digital Divide, embedded within a number of posts are references to the divide's impact on education. I look forward to following my new find and have added it to my blogroll.

Just as a personal refresher, defining the Digital Divide requires a degree of flexibility and context...from a July 2003 article in Educational Technology Review, The Digital Divide (DD): A Reconceptualization for Educators:

"It is the more nebulous social DD that the educator is most equipped to bridge. The social DD is composed of barriers to motivation, knowledge, skill, content, and social networks. Each of these barriers constitutes an exponentially more difficult problem than access due to the interrelationships between the barriers."

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 06:08 PM | Permalink

Global ICT Conference Begins in Baku: Minister of Communications and Information Technologies in Baku, Ali Abbasov:

"...about half of the telephone communication system in Azerbaijan is digital and that currently there are 15-18 computers per 1,000 people in the country, and 5% of people in the country use the Internet".

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 07:23 PM | Permalink

Have you ever had the feeling that you were working for your computer instead of your computer working for you? Survey finds digital divide among federal CISOs "A survey released today (November 22, 2004) shows that federal chief information security officers (CISO) who lack the political clout that often comes with big budgets are struggling under the weight of regulatory paperwork, while counterparts at larger agencies have the time, money and manpower to work on strategic planning."

Perhaps it is just a strange coincidence, but this article appeared about the same time that I was exploring the amount of time spent doing software maintenance rather than software development/programming...intuitively, it appears that the number of applications running on a system is inversely proportinate to the level of resulting productivity, largely due to the amount of maintenance involved to keep the applications running. And from that perspective, I am asking: how productive will the teaching profession be with an ever increasing load of applications to manage?

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 11:29 AM | Permalink

Bridging the 'digital divide': EU policies

"Within the EU, the main factors driving people out the information society are:

Poverty and social exclusion

Education and skills gap in ICT (digital literacy)

Poor or no access to the internet in remote areas or regions

Personal factors such as age, gender or disability

"

"The EU's enlargement on 1 May 2004 has tended to exacerbate these disparities, with populations in the ten new member states having on average lower income levels and lower ICT penetration rates. According to Commission figures, the income, rural, educational and age gaps are all greater in the ten new member states than in the former EU-15."

Continue reading "EU Report defines the Digital Divide" »

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 08:54 AM | Permalink

A sense of urgency in connecting the world highlights a recent report, "Global Democracy - Israel spearheads drive to open the information society to all"

"In Israel some 50 percent of the population are connected to the Internet from home, and some 65% through work or home."

"Whoever fails to use the Internet as an everyday tool will be deprived," warned Dr. Amir Etziony, president of the Israel Internet Association (ISOC-IL). "The real victims are those with special needs."

"Some 2 billion people in the world have no access to information resources," said Azerbaijan's Minister of Communication and Information Technologies Prof. Ali M. Abassov, explaining the urgent need to bridge the digital divide. "Ninety five percent of the information resources are used by people in developed countries. Lack of information is one of the main obstacles to development."

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 03:43 AM | Permalink

The statistics looks something like this:
• 60% of all US households have some type of Internet connection.
• 28.2 million have high-speed access (or roughly 27% of all US households).
• In US households with incomes above $75,000, half have high speed Internet access.
• In US household with incomes below $30,000, fewer than half have any access at all.

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 02:00 PM | Permalink

"Notably, the academic computing officers ranked education faculty as being slightly less prepared than their colleagues in the science, business, engineering, mathematics and occupational programs, but they were judged to be better prepared than their colleagues in the fine arts, humanities, and social sciences."

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 08:47 PM | Permalink

"Barry Adams, a consultant and the Executive of the Year for Apple computers in 1992, spoke to the crowd. He helped create educational technology to meet the needs of students and teachers who use personal computers." "In 18 months time, the hottest thing on the market will be obsolete," Adams said. "Now, in everyday terms, that means if you buy the best there is to offer today, in three years you will want to upgrade."

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 03:57 AM | Permalink

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 06:07 PM | Permalink

"The digital index of age groups over 40 and 50 is painfully low, standing at 58.3 percent and 27.6 percent, respectively. What makes us worry more is that the informatization index among those in their 40s and 50s is struggling to find their feet in terms of Korean national competence, considering they are supposed to play a pivotal role in our society. It shows they are lacking the competence in informatization even though they are in the position to lead society with brisker activities than other age group members. Considering the characteristics of the age group, the fact that over half of those over 40 years old are ignorant of Internet usage gathers dark clouds on the nation's future. Worse still is the informatization level in the impoverished classes such as low-income families and the disabled."

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 06:02 AM | Permalink

"The digital divide refers to the socioeconomic gap between those who can afford to get connected to the Internet and those who cannot. Malaysia's broadband penetration rate -- amongst the lowest in the region -- stands at less than 1%, according to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission. ..Malaysia also needed to increase the number of knowledge workers, experts and researchers in the country. We are currently addressing this through our 'brain gain' initiative...there must also be an increase in the number of local ICT companies that have the ability to compete globally."

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 04:39 AM | Permalink

"Thirty-six percent of Hispanics have Internet access at home, compared with 66 percent of the general market, according to the 2004 U.S. Hispanic Market Report by research firm Synovate.

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 07:59 AM | Permalink

"They walk into a classroom, frankly, they could have walked into 50 or 100 years ago: a flag, a clock on the wall, and maybe a white board instead of a black board," said Kurt Larsen, who directs the WestEd technology consortium for Western educators. But there are exceptions. Next August, Tucson's Vail Unified School District will open a new high school without textbooks. Each of the 250 to 300 freshmen and sophomores will be handed a laptop computer instead. "If we can rely on almost limitless information available on the Internet, why do we need a textbook?" Vail Superintendent Calvin Baker said.

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 04:38 AM | Permalink

1. Anything that is in the world when you're born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that's invented between when you're fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

(Douglas Adams)

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 05:59 PM | Permalink

"Putt says technology is an anomaly because creative incompetence is common. He cites several examples, including Albert Einstein, who was unkempt and never wore socks. Einstein never had an adminstrative job and spent his career doing theoretical physics. The second anomaly is the lack of a competence criterion for technical managers. He cites a manger in a commercial lab who was supposed to be developing nonfading dyes and instead discovers an insect repellant. Is this success or failure? These two anomalies cause a competence inversion, hence Putt's Law."

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 04:49 PM | Permalink

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 05:01 AM | Permalink

Posted by Paul Chenoweth at 05:37 AM | Permalink

From the article:"What's happening is the market is proceeding at a faster pace than the research," said Kathryn Montgomery, a communications professor at American University. "It's taken awhile for the academics to reach a point where they are addressing these questions. The marketers, they were clearly on the case 10 years ago."

Posted by admin at 03:01 PM | Permalink

From the article: "In its 2003 report, "Vision 2020: A Model Wisconsin Economy," the Wisconsin Technology Council noted that Wisconsin ranked about 30th in educational attainment among the 50 states and 21st in per capita income, both below the national average. Nationwide, the mean income for people with a high-school degree only was $27,978, which rose to $35,103 for adults with a two-year associate's degree and $51,649 for people with a four-year degree. People who hold masters, professional or doctoral degrees earned even more, on average."

Posted by admin at 08:31 AM | Permalink

Posted by admin at 09:18 AM | Permalink

Posted by admin at 07:49 PM | Permalink

Posted by admin at 05:25 AM | Permalink

In his testimony to congressional committees, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld indicated that the flood of pictures was now beyond the US authorities' control. "There are a lot more photographs and videos that exist," he said. "If these are released to the public, obviously it is going to make matters worse... I looked at them last night and they are hard to believe."

Posted by admin at 04:47 AM | Permalink

Posted by admin at 05:46 AM | Permalink

"The new high tech and information revolution is moving in a warp speed where a life span of a product is being measured in terms of dog years. As technology and products move faster than ever in a global market without boundary, the gap widens between countries that embrace the digital paradigm and that do not."

Posted by admin at 12:10 PM | Permalink

According to H. E Alhaji Aliu Mahama,Vice
President of Republic of Ghana, "systematic approaches to policy making aimed at internet accessibility to the rural areas through the construction of the
rural tele-centres in Africa is considered laudable." "He contended that one important factor which has impact on
development is the use of the internet adding that this is linked to
quality of the broadband telephone service. The Ghanian Vice President noted that it is important for developing
countries to realize that IT can only serve as a tool for economic
development if it is treated as an investment good rather than a
consumption good."

"The most exciting possibility with the hand-held computers is the student's ability to immediately transmit questions to their teacher's laptop and receive instant feedback." Seventh-grade student Morgan Harris said, "They are really cool and allow you to take notes on them as well as beam questions and answers to the teacher. I think those hand-held computers would be a wonderful experience for all students." "The benefits for teachers include generating reports on student progress, planning, developing and implementing lesson plans, correcting student papers on site, and communicating effectively with students and their parents. Another benefit of using hand-held computers is that they tend to improve students motivation to write."

Posted by admin at 11:00 AM | Permalink

Posted by admin at 02:15 PM | Permalink

"I believe the term 'technology' scared the kids away like beets on a dinner plate. ...We must first educate the educators. They can't teach what they don't know. Teachers need more training."

Posted by admin at 09:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

"The library's new policy (to charge one dollar per hour for Internet access) began Feb. 9. Bloomfield residents 19 years old and younger and college students with a Bloomfield library card are exempt. "

Posted by admin at 11:03 AM | Permalink

"As part of Speak Up Day 2003, 210,000 K-12 students submitted surveys on technology and education, sharing their ideas about using technology and the Internet for learning and for fun. NetDay?s analysis of the data reveals interesting findings and themes. Today?s students are very technology savvy, feel strongly about the positive value of technology and rely upon technology as an essential and preferred component of every aspect of their lives."

Posted by admin at 08:24 PM | Permalink

Continue reading "No One In Higher Education (Administration) wants to look stupid" »

Posted by admin at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Posted by admin at 06:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"Anything with a three-letter acronym like 'IDX' or 'VOW' sends shudders down their spines. When we started talking about 'IDX' with agents, (only) about 20 percent of them understood and embraced it. But when we called it 'online broker reciprocity', (more of them) understood it. It is not a question of understanding the value of broker reciprocity and other tehnology tools. Technology types just need to package them in a fashion that's easy to grasp"

Posted by admin at 03:25 PM | Permalink

Posted by admin at 02:59 PM | Permalink

Posted by admin at 08:53 PM | Permalink