Digital Divide or Infomercial ?

While we went to hear about Dr. Gates' ideas concerning the digital divide we didn't hear much on the subject. We did hear that while Dr. Gates was working to sell his idea of the Encyclopedia Africana, as envisioned by DuBois in the early 1900's, that Microsoft wanted to do a feasibility study concerning how many African-American households had computers, since the Encyclopedia was going to be produced on CD-rom. We never did find out any real numbers but when Microsoft came back and said that they would produce the work, the assumption was that it was a number that was at least one that met their minimum standard. I would like to know what that number is. I would like to have known more about how the digital divide is getting larger, or smaller in the estimation of Dr. Gates. Well, while I heard a lot about history that I already knew and I got to revisit some topics of interest to me being one who has read DuBois', Carter G. Woodson's, and Booker T. Washington's (required reading at Tuskegee University) as well as many other's works on subjects concerning the American Negro (like there is a negro somewhere else in the world), I was very disappointed.
Therefore here I will take a brief look at the digital divide and its affects on students and communities that are being left behind due to their position in the divide. This is not a new idea and has been of growing concern for years now. Recently, Anita Brown died on Sept 8th and she was one of the countries leaders in the area of bridging the gap. In her obituary it was written about her that:

"Early on, she pushed to connect African Americans in Washington and elsewhere to the Internet through workshops and seminars. One of her first efforts in 1997, "Taking IT to the Streets," attracted more than 200 people and featured a live feed to chat rooms on the Internet."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/19/AR2006091901650.html

I know you have heard of AOL, illustrating that you are not on the side of the digital divide that so many others are, well, Mrs. Brown "designed and managed the help desk for NetNoir on AOL." For more on her and her achievements in trying to bridge the gap click on the link above.

We know that the problem exists, what we as educators have to be even more senisitive to is that our students may have limited or little access to the resources of a pc in the home as well as access and knowledge of the uses of the internet. We have to be ready for this. We also have to be cautious in our assumptions that "they know how to do this stuff," speaking of our students, since they may not know. Personal computers will take a back seat to the other things that a family needs to sustain itself. Also, we must realize that the feelings toward technology and the invasion of "all that information" into our homes does scare some people and the reports on the news about sexual predators and pornography will scare some people into not seeing the need for such an appliance in their homes.

In "Factors of the Divide" by Karin M. Wiburg hits on some of the points that I have already touched on above. The idea that digital equity is something that is the same for everyone is a false one. We must attack the idea of bridging the digital divide by looking not only at the home life of our students and their access to technology but also to our schools systems taking a look at the areas that surround the topic. We must focus on Econimic factors, Language factors, Special Education, Native Communities, our Borders, and Pedagogy. The solution is to take all of the factors and find out from the groups affected by these factors what they need to meet their needs from a technology perspective.

We must understand that the Digital Divide is not only about the "hardware." It is also about access. I may have a pc and may know how to use it for word processing or doing spreadsheets or even how to create a playlist for my iPod. But if I don't have an "internet connection" then I am not privy to the plethora of information contained within the web. Harouna Ba has an interesting article from 2001 that defines what is meant by the term Digital Divide:

To date, the digital divide debate has turned on the concept of access, that is, providing access to those who have no computer or telephone and, thus, cannot enter the Internet realm at school or home. Lack of access to networked technology will result in a substantial segment of society having neither the skills nor the means to participate in the progressively more "knowledge-based" U.S. economy. The concept of "access" encompasses the acquisition of hardware and software as well as complex uses of software for design and production. Between these two extremes, which represent both physical and expressive access, lie other dimensions of access: quality and affordable hardware and software, tools with rich educational content and/or fun activities, and technical and educational support. According to Bruce and Hogan (1998), new tools afford new literacy skills, and various challenges. They also argue that computer technologies are "actors in social systems" that function in a larger social context.

http://www.tcla.gseis.ucla.edu/divide/politics/ba.html

This is what I wanted to hear about from Dr. Gates. I know that Vicodin can be a powerful "non-motivator," but touching on this subject would have taken his history lesson to the next level. In looking at teaching Minorities in America which "white folks" will be one very soon, we must be ever mindful of what our students know and also have access to in order to serve them in the most effective fashion possible. We must be sensitive to their access to books, magazines, newspapers, pc's, and the internet. We must make sure that we as educators provide all of these things to our students. We also, as parents and taxpayers must make this a priority in our city, and state government's agendas. We cannot let our students continue to be denied the digital equity they deserve because of where their house sits.

"I'm not mad. Dogs get mad. I'm angry." (Claire Huxtable - The Cosby Show)

To YA Lit or Not to YA Lit?

Older literary fare has been replaced by "culturally relevant" literature that targets students' ethnic group identification, on the assumption that sharing the lead character's ethnicity will motivate them to read.

There is no evidence that either of these types of reading fare turn boys into lifelong readers and learners.
Exerpt from "Young readers' interest waning"
Published in The Lake County Leader and the Advertiser
By Dennis Anderson
Posted, March 23, 2006
http://www.leaderadvertiser.com/articles/2006/09/20/columns/columns03.txt


So, this is the conclusion from the President of the Mission Valley Friends of the Arts reacting to a study published by the National Endowment for the Arts. Mr. Anderson does note in his article that the disparity between young girls and young boys when it comes to reading is alive and well. He also nots that boys "prefer adventure, war, sports and historical nonfiction, while girls prefer personal relationship and fantasy tales." It seems that that is where teachers should be focusing their lessons for their young adult readers. It would seem at least to me that Mr. Anderson's view that the problem of disinterest by young adult readers is the K-12 curriculum is unfortunate. I think he is missing the point. Educators need to look at the stats and research and find ways to fix the problem in front of them. They need to find ways to bring the materials into the classroom that will interest our young readers.
As for the idea that culturally relevant literature and ethnic group identification don't work to motivate readers is just not true. The purpose of Young Adult literature is to have a protagonists that the reader will associate with. If the reader is a young Chinese-American girl shouldn't she have available to her works that have strong characters like herself? Or, in the least shouldn't there be works available that have characters that she identifies with? I think that this may stimulate her to continue reading through those tough years in middle and high school. If she comes out of those years with positive feelings toward reading in general and the tools, taught by her teachers, to move on to more difficult works then she will be armed to tackle other works in not only her literature classes but all of her classes. She will be able to see some "relevance" in what she is doing, and she will understand why she has to do what her professors will have her do.
The focus of the article seems to highlight boys and how they aren't becoming lifelong readers, but I would contend that boys growing into men read like most people. The read what they LIKE to read. It is not our job as educators to dictate what should be enjoyed. It is our job to assist our young adult readers to become better readers and comprehenders of what they are reading. We are to use those two tools to be better thinkers. Therefore educators need to use whatever possible to motivate our young adult readers at a time when their society (school culture) is telling them that reading sux!

(This article was found using Yahoo News/Education)

A Blog on Searching for Blogs!

Since I have spent the last 4 hours looking for information about Teaching Minorities using YA Lit. and have been very unsuccessful I thought it might be a good time to write about it. It is interesting in these times of revamping the educational practices a dictated by NCLB and with the pushes in American Public Schools to close the achievement gap between students of different ethnic backgrounds that there would be more information devoted to my chosen topic. While I won't give up the search it is interesting that finding good sources has become analogous to finding good literature that is not only relevant to young adult ethnic minorities, but also interesting and focused on them.
I have gone to large bookstores and perused the YA shelves for books that were written by minority writers for a minority audience. While, I think they were there, somewhere, they weren't in anyway highlighted to be found easily by the novice YA Lit. reader like myself. Why is this? Why aren't these texts available? Why aren't they easy to pick out? Were they in other parts of the store? If they were why weren't they with all of the other YA texts? If I was having such trouble let's consider the young adult reader. Does this person just say, "I'll just read this..." and move on? The YA texts on the shelves were categorized largely in two categories, Fiction and Fantasy/Sci-Fi. Now where do I find YA texts that are for a particular ethnic group? Should I be? Should fiction be for a particular group or should young adults cease to separate themselves and be open to all the of the stories of their peers? Is it really necessary that a Hispanic male read stories containing a Hispanic protagonists?
I think that the answer is obvious but I don't think that the current way that these texts are or are not displayed is loyal to the feeling that all readers need to read stories that contain characters that are similar to them. What does a young Black female read? Or what about the Chinese boy? Where are the stories about them?

On Preparing Teachers with Knowledge of the Literature of Minorities

1972 NCTE Annual
Business Meeting
in
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Background Activities of recent years
have indicated growing awareness among English teachers that
a study of American literature must include the literature of racial and ethnic minorities of America. Teachers have revised courses to reflect this belief; the National Council of Teachers of English itself has adopted a policy refusing to advertise as "American" literature any anthology which does not include the literature of American minorities.
Even greater emphasis can be given to this concern by having it
reflected on nationally used standardized tests of literature. Be it therefore Resolution Resolved, that the National Council of Teachers of English express to the major testing services its
continuing belief that questions about American literature should require the examinees to demonstrate knowledge of the literature of racial and ethnic minorities in America.

http://www.ncte.org/about/over/positions/category/lit/107431.htm NCTE Resolution (1972)

So, this is my dilemma. Finding the texts, finding the sources for info has become my Jones-ian quest. I won't wear the hat....and I will be staying away from whips, but the quest is in front of me nonetheless. So come with me and let's dive into the
pool of YA Lit and find where teachers are to get the texts necessary to appeal
to all of their students that will entice and create a thirst for reading that
will enlighten their lives.

I step down from my soap box for now.