Interesting Podcast - Equal Access
This morning I took some time to listen to a Podcast that was a recorded using
Skype. Steve Burt did the moderating.
Will Richardson,
Tim Wilson, and another gentleman whose name I didn’t catch were the panelist. You can listen to the
Podcast here.. It was a very interesting Podcast covering a variety of topics. But most of the topics came back to universal access. When will “all” students have access to a computing device and the Internet at home and at school. Will’s school has a lot of technology tools, but Will knows that his situation is not typical. As he related there are a lot of schools with very little technology and limited access. I’m not sure how we break down the digital divide. I can bet that the recent poor areas shown in New Orleans didn’t have access to the web. I know that access in my county is limited. It is frustrating to have all of these great resources available but not being able to use them from school or home.
I would add to the conversation that school web filtering tools also prevent access to some of these tools. In our area most of the schools us Bess for filtering. Bess blocks Bloglines.com and Flickr.com because they fall under the category “free sites.” (If you are reading this in some schools you won’t be able to visit the sites until you get home.) I think both of these sites have resources that could be useful in the classroom. I sure there are others that are blocked.
Access is a major issue. When I present to teachers, I am all most always asked: What about the kids who don’t have computers at home? It is a very legitimate question and one I don’t have a good answer. It is a chicken and an egg thing. Why should I spend money on a computer and Internet access for my child when the teacher doesn’t provide relevant material on-line? And as a teacher why should I write a blog, have a Blackboard site or a web site if my kids can’t access it.
The panelists also talked about teacher preparation. If you haven’t been using the new web tools can you every catch up. What I heard was that a majority of the speakers didn’t think you could. I’m not sure. I think teachers can catch up if they are open minded and want to try new things and tools in their classrooms. But each day that they don’t have access to computers and the Internet makes if more difficult.
jim