I’ve been thinking a lot about the lack of technology that my students are exposed to. I wish that I had the resources to show them all the cool things they could do online, the tools I could use to push their education to the next level. The digital divide that separates the haves from the have-nots is something I’ve been studying since my first course in my MLIS program. In my very first course at Rutgers I studied the information seeking behavior in low-income areas and how the lack of technology affects the way they get their information.
I see a lot of my students using myspace (scariest thing this weekend when my 11 year old student posing as a 15 year old, friend requested me… even though I’ve changed it so you can’t search me by name. That kid has some good researching skills…. he should be a reference librarian!), so they have exposure to the Internet, but they don’t have a clue how to use it. With all the restrictions on social networking programs in schools (understandable, but unfortunate) it’s hard to really explain or broaden their limited knowledge of what they can do on the Internet.
What I am wondering is how I can get past all these restrictions – financial (both in my school and in my student’s lives), censoring what can be accessed at school, and the limits that are ultimately placed on my students because they do not have Internet access or resources to get online at home.
June 21, 2007 at 3:59 am |
I am so glad you are raising questions about equity and reminding us about the vast divide. It isn’t just one created by age, but also means. Here we all are, most likely sitting at our homes on our PC’s surfing the net with our wireless cable connections. Are any of us doing this work from a public library? Could we access all we need to? Could we if we were in their children’s or teen’s areas? Perhaps one of the class assignments should be to try to do all these things we can do at home from one of those public locations. Not that I think libraries or librarians are trying to block users (I believe they fight against that) but their are state and city mandates, other users, and personnel opinion that could get in the way of all that.
June 21, 2007 at 12:20 pm |
There is another side to this which I also think is interesting. Some research shows that students are unhappy when they are kept from using hi-tech because of the digital divide. What I mean by that is when schools/teachers say, we can’t have you do that because some of your classmates won’t be able to. Students – low and high income look to schools and public libraries as the place to do this stuff and when they can’t…
On the topic of knowing how to push buttons but not knowing how to really search well, etc. My concept is that we use the tools students naturally gravitate to to help them learn research skills. How can you use MySpace, Wikipedia, Facebook, etc. to help students learn information seeking skills? Is it possible?
July 12, 2007 at 10:41 pm |
Interesting post. I am curious what exactly is blocked in schools and public libraries. How many of these kids have no computers at home? What are the other, less restricted, alternatives are out there for them in their community? Probably my other question what is there left for them to use? Can’t something be done on that basis to start with?
I think the example of your 11/15 years student who found you in MySpace is actually a positive sign to their ability of getting comfortable with technology, even with a limited access. BTW, i think limited access, or access in general, is only part of a problem. Also, sorry if it sounds bold, i think the “haves vs. have-nots” is a bit outdated way of looking at the issues (look at the kid that found you on Myspace).
And as your comment Linda, there is an extensive discussion going on in the research community, and though i don’t know much about it, it seems that there are uses.