RE: [DDN] The real digital divide (fwd)
This thread caused me to remember: The word educate comes from latin root words which together mean 'to draw out from within.' I always liked that because it spoke to me of the value of understanding. Wanda Jean ThreeHoops.com Visibility Resources for Tribal Nations, NA Businesses and Nonprofits 2011 Fall Hill Avenue - Fredericksburg VA 22041 - Tel: 540 371 4199 -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2005 1:30 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [DDN] The real digital divide (fwd) --Dear Bonnie and Others: As an educator and student, I agree that we certainly are experiencing a backlash to anything intellectual that requires critical thinking skills. As a matter of fact, in most workplaces independent thinking is downright discouraged, leaving those who still possess a flare for it feeling alienated and ostracized. We have acquired a persistent tendency to believe that if results cannot be produced quickly and failure might be an issue, they are not worth the bother. This may be true in certain areas, but when it comes to developing critical thinking skills and acquiring a solid educational foundation, this is certainly not the case. Students in underserved public education situations are no longer allowed the intellectual courtesy of why they should be interested in studying certain concepts and until we approach this problem and link concepts so that relevance can be understood and used to correlate ideas they will not feel the fire of true learning and where it can take them. Teaching to the test certainly doesn't cut it. Try as we might, we cannot quantify everything with our current mathematical capabilities. In any given class you can see those who have been given this gift, who understand why they are there. They stand out; the student who had that one educator who linked ideas together to motivate them and how they use it like rocket fuel to propel them along a path, eating up knowledge because it has become self-relevant. When we give learners a place a sense of belonging and a sense of why learning is important to THEM that is when educators do justice to their profession. Maybe then intellectualism might stand a fighting chance once more. So John, I don't think that they are really lazy, I just think that most of them are directionless- take the leash! Excuse the rant, I wish I could sound more like Mad Dog - he certainly burns rocket fuel! Regards, Susan Susan Crane-Sundell [EMAIL PROTECTED] SUCB [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In a message dated 3/16/05 8:29:32 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Final note: All this means today's American college and high school graduate had best get off their lazy butts and realize what the REAL competition is going to do to their job situation. -- I don't know. I spent three years on all kinds of projects that were to prepare students, they sort of got defunded. The children don't create the curriculum or create the ideational scaffolding toward curriculum. They are the ones who grew up in the culture of media. Seems to me that the reality is that so many people are looking at reality shows and entertainment that academics have gone away. Nationally we seem to be making fun of anything intellectual, challenging or of science. Sputnik got a rise out of congress years ago. maybe the Singapore triumph in technology will open the eyes of the sleeping. You don't get to Mars by reading a book. Thinking is an evolved practice. Maybe we have some other kind of divide that is anti-intellectual. Bonnie Bracey bbracey at aol.com ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
RE: [DDN] The real digital divide (fwd)
No good deed goes unpunished or Do good anyways and Bloom where you're planted - so people have told me in the past...when faced with the natural tendency of people to examine or criticize good work from a variety of important and legitimate perspectives. I remember once learning about how the federal budget process worked and the sharer of information said a very wise thing. He said Of course, it is obvious, that very intelligent people can legitimately disagree about priorities. I struggle with where the balance is too - is the most effective action policy and legislation based (to achieve a long term goal or open a market)? Is it the 'on the ground' one on one work in communities who may not ever directly benefit from changed legislation and market opportunities due to a variety of factors? Is it in the profit sector? Is it via faith based or NGO or nonprofit efforts? Is it with an individual (teach them to fish or in this case give them fishing poles)? An organization that's community based (teach them to fish together)? An institution that has far reach and the fiscal wherewithal to sustain effort (research best fishing practices, create models and provide resources to increase the catch for all fishermen - regardless of a lack of existing fishing poles and the money to buy them or put them to the best use of some fishermen)? Is sustained effort the measure of success? Are open markets the measure of success? Are increased communications/technology abilities the measure? Or is the actual increased economic condition of people living in poverty the marker(individually increased cash flow, and/or increased short long term assets made possible via technology that would not otherwise exist)? And then with all these questions - there has come a new thought to my mind of late as I have observed the interaction of IT projects within more culturally traditional and more assimilated communities. In forensic science there is a concept that when a person goes to a place they leave an impact on the place - a speck of dust, a hair, something...and the place also leaves an impact on the person - reciprocally giving to them - a speck of dust, a hair, something...in some interactions the reciprocity is balanced, in others it is highly imbalanced and produces more of an impact on one or the other. As we focus on bridging the DD - it appears that there are cultural exchanges that are inherent in this work, with impacts. Are there models of completed DD projects that work specifically with the markers of retaining and/or strengthening the intact cultures to which the technology is introduced while bringing economic benefits to those communities? I wonder at the impacts technology can have that either purposefully, or without intent, act as a 'great assimilator.' Can anyone recommend readings/research on this topic? I am very interested in any thoughts any of you have on this topic and appreciate them in advance. Thank you, Wanda ThreeHoops.com Visibility Resources for Tribal Nations, NA Businesses and Nonprofits 2011 Fall Hill Avenue - Fredericksburg VA 22041 - Tel: 540 371 4199 -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tom Abeles Sent: Friday, March 11, 2005 1:39 PM To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group Subject: Re: [DDN] The real digital divide (fwd) Hi Andy The mobile phone and radio, as others, here, have suggested seems to have been spot on. What we must also realize is that the many emerging features of the mobile phone, including txt msgs, gps and even pda capabilities are being actively deployed in the developed world for a number of commercial uses that, in the past, would have required a pc. Some applications, of course, require reading skills. But for many it is not needed. A colleague has been in a car where four different occupants were on cells in four different languages. The claim that phone access is not available in some remote locations is less of a problem than the regulatory issues within a country As I have said elsewhere, the issues are at the institutional levels more than in the technology arena. It seems that eager hands/minds in the NGO and foundation community find it easier to embrace a village project and rationalize it when a combined macro effort, with the stroke of a pen could release more opportunity and allow those who want to work in the field to be much more effective. The other issue in the DD which relates to this is where exactly to attack the problem. For example, working in a remote village is interesting: but when compared to the number of disenfranchised who are living on the streets of major urban areas driven out of the economc dearth of the remote villages to the city, then bringing the digital world to the urban poor seems to have leverage. Why in a remote village in Bangladesh when the urban poor in the streets of Dhaka mean you could begin right after landing.
RE: [DDN] Lifeline/Link-Up Violations - Order Admonishing Verizon
Kevin and Valerie, Thank you both for sharing this info. I don't know that it is related or not - but it made me think about the situation in charitable giving in general as regards Native American 'issues' and inclusion. That over the last decades - funding to support Native American entities has never, to my knowledge, risen to even 1% of all grants made from foundations making grants over $10,000 on an annual basis. Reliable sources cite low averages ranging from 1/6 of 1% down to 1/20th of 1% of all foundation grants over $10,000 made annually. Even while Native people represent 1.4% of the population and according to the 2000 US Census 24% of this population lives at or below poverty level. I wonder why the actual charitable dollar support remains so low? On a hopeful note, I envision a day when it will be able to be said that average charitable grant making percentages match population percentages. Wanda ThreeHoops.com Visibility Resources for Tribal Nations, NA Businesses and Nonprofits 2011 Fall Hill Avenue - Fredericksburg VA 22041 - Tel: 540 371 4199 -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of K Wong (UVic) Sent: Friday, March 11, 2005 3:49 PM To: 'The Digital Divide Network discussion group' Subject: RE: [DDN] Lifeline/Link-Up Violations - Order Admonishing Verizon Thank you Valerie for bringing this notice to the attention of the DDN. It is incredible that a small telco would be fined $20,000 for not publicizing to one reservation and yet Verizon would get admonished for ignoring eleven over three years. At least Qwest took the high road, paid $250,000, and promised to go to a few pow-wows sarcasm/. This slap on the wrist looks like it will do little to help Native communities get connected. I don't know why it is that Aboriginal or American Indian digital divide issues get ignored, even by experts, but I have my suspicions. I was at a meeting the other day with a group of educational technology gurus and assistive technology advocates. We discussed issues for about an hour before I finally brought up the fact that nobody had invited the local Aboriginal society for people with disabilities. This despite statistics that show lower SES indicators across the board for Aboriginal people and a disability rate 1.3-7.0 times the Canadian average (depending on which study you cite - they are all higher). Everyone there genuinely seemed surprised by those numbers. I got the feeling that had I not been there by some grace of the Creator, nobody would have cared. I am not convinced it is racism, perhaps benign neglect or, dare I say in academic circles, ignorance. I suppose I will just have to be there whenever I can to pipe up at opportune moments. Kelvin Wong Department of Computer Science University of Victoria My Blog on Aboriginal People and Technology http://nativetech.blogspot.com/ -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Valerie Fast Horse Sent: March 8, 2005 9:30 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [DDN] Lifeline/Link-Up Violations - Order Admonishing Verizon In Order DA 05-525, the Commission admonished Verizon for violating Section 214(e)(1)(B) and the rules by failing to publicize the availability of Lifeline or Link-Up services in a manner reasonably designed to reach those likely to qualify for the services. The Commission found that Verizon failed adequately to publicize Lifeline or Link-Up to low-income residents of 11 tribes in its service area for a period of approximately three years. http://www.telecomlawblog.com/fcc-daily-455-lifelinelinkup-violations-or der-admonishing-verizon.html http://www.telecomlawblog.com/fcc-daily-455-lifelinelinkup-violations-o rder-admonishing-verizon.html FCC Memorandum Opinion and Order: http://www.fcc.gov/eb/Orders/2005/DA-05-525A1.html Verizon Gets Slap on Wrist for Failing to Publicize Lifeline and Link-Up: http://www.bennetlaw.com/rss.php#article20 http://www.bennetlaw.com/rss.php#article20 Lifeline Link-Up Outreach http://www.fcc.gov/eb/tcd/LLUO.html Valerie Fast Horse Director, IT Coeur d'Alene Tribe ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
RE: [DDN] Typing software for Windows
Brian, if you aren't particular about it being Windows - and just want it to work - maybe one of these openware word processing programs might be useful? I can't vouche for any of them - but they are free! See: http://www.softwarevault.com/Word-Processing Wanda Jean ThreeHoops.com Visibility Resources for Tribal Nations, NA Businesses and Nonprofits 2011 Fall Hill Avenue - Fredericksburg VA 22041 - Tel: 540 371 4199 -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brian Russell Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2005 10:26 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [DDN] Typing software for Windows Hi all, I'm looking for some *free* WINDOWS software to help teach BASIC typing skills on a laptop. This is for a adult student learning to read who is an absolute beginner with computers. His job requires him to use a computer occasionally. Any suggestions? Thank you! -Brian ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
