Cell Phone Usage Among Low-Income Families…Hmm?

While I see the statistics from Edutopia's article "Should We Be Concerned About Apps Gap?", I find it hard to believe that only “22% of low income families have used a cell phone” (Watters, 2011). Undoubtedly higher income families will always have an advantage over lower income families as it relates to the latest technologies but cell phones are common in just about every household. In fact, nearly every student (if not every student) in my class owns a cell phone and better than mine :). The flourishing of mobile companies and race for the top among wireless competitors has also practically caused a revolution of cell phone give-a-ways for little or nothing with low cost or pre-paid cell phone plans. So the percentage stated is in question for me.

Adobe: More than Just Application Software

I am happy to learn thru the Teaching News RSS feed that Adobe has a free resource available to educators called Adobe Education Exchange. For educators who were unaware like me, all that’s needed is an Adobe account which I already had from some years ago and choice of a screen name for exchanging information. Subjects range from Administration and Management to Art, Language Arts, Math, Science, and Professional Development. I have already begun exploring the Information and Communications Technology section to find ideas that will enrich my content. I admire that Adobe who is notorious for software has cultivated a give and take environment for educators across the globe. It still amazes me sometimes that there is so much teacher content on the web that countless hours of lesson planning is not particularly necessary. In fact, it could be a waste of time given that the “wheel is already invented” for the most part. The need will always exist of course to modify and differentiate lessons, but with sites like Adobe’s corner of the web for educators much of the work is already done. In a sense, sites of this nature and the web in general for that matter have become just like a grocery store for teachers—pick up what you need and leave what you don’t want.

The link to Adobe’s FREE collaborative resource for teachers is: http://edexchange.adobe.com/pages/home.

Digital Divide: What Does This Really Mean?

Edutopia’s article on the “Digital Divide” jumps out at me as I think of my current situation at the school I teach. For the last two months, I have been teaching a technology-based class without computers with the exception of the teacher’s computer. Needless to say this has been fairly challenging and rather difficult at times. Mary Beth Hertz, the author “A New Understanding of Digital Divide,” notes however that the definition of “digital divide” has changed over the years. Contrary to popular belief, Hertz rationale is it no longer means the haves and have nots. Hertz points out that today it is HOW specific groups (particularly minorities) access the web that is generating a digital divide. I never gave it much thought until reading the article that a significant number of people do solely rely on cell phones to connect to the Internet and check email. So are rapid cell phone innovations really influencing mainly minorities in overlooking the bigger picture of personal computer uses? Why do you suppose the percentages are higher among minorities as it relates to exclusively using a cell phone for Internet access and/or to read email rather than a PC? Do you think future cell phone innovations will eventually lead to the personal computer becoming obsolete? The latter is a discussion I had with my students about a month ago and at least half believed cell phones would not totally replace PCs regardless of new innovations just as cell phones have not totally replaced house phones.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/EdutopiaNewContent/~3/HM-4rznX-4w/digital-divide-technology-internet-access-mary-beth-hertz

Getting Started with Blogging

In the next few weeks, I really hope to learn ways to take my class to the next level with blogging. Although we have a class wiki space, blogging will be a new strategy I'm trying this year. I also plan to sought out helpful articles and teacher experiences of blogging in the classroom.