Digital Equity

We had three reading for this week: “Educational Technology and Equity” by G. Solomon and N. Allen; “Digital Equity:  It’s not Just about access anymore – Sure, most schools now have computers and Internet access, but are all students receiving the same high-quality learning experience?” by G. Solomon;  “Technology and Equity in Schooling:  Deconstructing the Digital Divide” by M. Warschauer, M. Knobel and L. Stone.

The topic for this week is Digital Equity and Digital citizenship. 

     

Digital equity “is the goal of ensuring that everyone in our society has equal access to computers, technology tools, and the Internet".  This means that everybody should have access to computers, but in many places and especially outside school this is not possible due to some economic issues.  I think while in class students should have access to computers and the teachers should not assume that everyone has one at home.  The main issue is that some schools cannot have the funds to even connect each student to a working computer because or they don’t have good internet connection or for many other reasons, but at the same time other schools have so much technology on their hands that the teachers don’t have enough time to deal with everything; the students attending this schools might have others issues with so much distraction and the teachers could drop into giving less class lessons.

I know that digital items are so reachable and accessible now and that at one point the print formats will be a thing something from the past.  I do believe that students can benefit from technology if it is brought into the classrooms.  But, at the same time when there are way too many resources available in the classrooms, the student could lay back and search online for definitions or other issues and not work so hard to find out concepts and problems.  I believe that having instructional materials can help students to advance and get more ideas.   

Digital citizenship is your identity online; it’s the responsible use of technology; how people interact online; building who you are online; be able to speak online with being inappropriate;  and what is more important, been a good citizen in the digital world.  Therefore, digital citizenship can have benefits and disadvantages.  One of the advantages is that when someone sees ads and websites on the side of the screen, those sites are not random sites; they are subjects relating to the previous searches. This can be helpful to the user in the way that things are right there for the user to use. A disadvantage could be that some people do not think before posting online, so if they are blogging nasty and hurtful things; those things could come back to the blogger.   People are in control of their digital citizenship so we should all make sure to use it in a way that can help us not harm us.

What are the standard values of critical theory?

Critical theory is illuminating how social and technological structures within organizations assist to dominate workers.  The main goal is to develop a theory of society that targets at the self-emancipation of people from control. There is a sincere relationship established between the participants.  The critical theorists have the goal to try to reveal the communication practices, whether they’ll be personal, team-oriented, or organization, that only help to encourage an discrepancy in organizations. 

Critical theory has some big challenges like creating a more humane workplace, the oppressive reality of organizational life does not have to continue; encourage self-reflection, collective development, and individual opportunity.

Critical theory suggests elements of pressures and oppression and prescriptions for improving the situation. 

One of the main values of critical theory is communication which is the central and main point of the theory.  Communication is the way to freedom from the oppressive structures.  Critical theory realizes that it is through communication that oppressive structures come into being and, in turn, restrict the communication of certain groups.

In education technology, critical theory values educators analyzing their use of technology and seeing how to use technology in constructive ways.

Bringing attention to interests of the dominant group rather than moral values are the basis of historical change.

What does the rational technical perspective have to do with morality in educational technology?

I think that because of our different behaviors and backgrounds, we morally and emotionally respond to different situations in different ways, and that influence how we feel, think, and do.  We also make our selections on how we feel, think and do according to varying inclinations and motivations. We are influenced by our inborn physical characteristics, our spiritual capacities and our acquired development through our education, preparation, and experience.  Nevertheless this is not the world in which we live because the fast technology advances have changed our environments.  People that get education, at the same time they get the tools to affects our environment. If that power that is gotten by the tools of education is not hardened by morality, the changes that are formed are not likely to be constructive. Such a power, it should be entrusted to those people who are both morally rational and knowledgeable.