The Digital Divide - Another Excuse Not To Pay Public School Teachers More Money

NEWSFLASH! Less educated Americans have less opportunity! Next in todays news, water discovered to be wet! Jokes aside, I really was annoyed with Andy Carvin's article. Carvin says, "The digital divide is about content" excluding Pokemon and porn, Carvin puts WAY too much faith in "information" available on the Internet, case in point, this article Carvin has available on the Internet; lets go ahead and toss my blog in there too. With the good comes the bad, so I understand the good the Internet has as a potential for an abundance of information; but the bad is the validity of the information one receives from the Internet.Would you want your child to be raised with a "fair" amount of his/her education to come from exploring the Internet? In a perfect world yes, it would be great, but that's not how the world works; and that's not how the Internet works.

Getting back to Carvin's point about the digital divide and those getting left behind I had an interesting observation. Last week in my molecular biology lab we watched a youtube video of a group of 11 year olds at a private Jewish Academy in San Diego conduct our lab; so we would have a better understanding on how to do our lab...well, I'm 25 and I'm paying a lot of money to do a college course 11 year olds are doing at a private school, ouch. The point is you not only can put a price on education, you can also put a price on opportunity.

The wealthy are always going to have an advantage, and the poor are always going to be left behind. Look how societies and nations have evolved, first world countries, third world countries, the poor and technology inept countries have always been left behind. Does that make the digital divide morally right? No, but it is evidence of the realism of mankind, the realism of greed.

Until Americans vote in a bill that pays American public school teachers 90k year salary, nothing will change. There's no competition for public school teachers, they don't get paid shit. The problem with low pay is there's not enough passionate teachers to fill all the positions in public schools, which leaves "competent" teachers to fill the abundance of positions. With a higher paying salary for public school teachers, public schools would attain better applicants, creating competition and the best applicant for the job. But public school teachers are so undervalued and currently get paid so little, the better applicants I'm speaking of end up taking higher paying jobs. It all comes back to the realism of mankind, the realism of greed.

Until the voters of America recognize and use greed as a tool, greed will continue to be the problem.

A Cyborg Manifesto

Haraway's Manifesto really seems to focus on emphasizing the masculine bias in scientific culture. and highlighted that she takes a stance against essentialism. I enjoyed Haraway's point of view when she said, "There is nothing about being female that naturally binds women together into a unified category..." I probably shouldn't use the word "enjoy" rather the word interesting. It's interesting because it's seems wrong, but rings true.

Sadly, I've actually met women who are either raised or told (not sure which) that they are inferior and take on a life role believing that they are inferior but telling themselves that they have a "different" role in life. What I'm alluding to are stay at home moms who don't believe or know what they do is the most crucial role a family will ever have. I guess that kind of gets off the subject of digital diversity but I thought it was important to mention.

Chicano Interneta

What I got from the Guillermo Gomez- Pena article is a lot of Mexicans don't use the internet. Some Mexicans by choice and some not. The article goes more into depth on the types of Mexicans that do and don't use the internet and explanations for such. He also talks about him and his superhighway banditos which I did find amusing.

This article really doesn't work for me. You cant compare Mexicans with Americans. There's so many sub cultures that go along with each culture that there's endless comparisons and complications leading me to believe its almost a waste of time to do such. I used to live in Jacksonville, FL more people get shot to death in that city than there are days in the year... compare that to any city in the Pacific Northwest, it's a silly comparison because they are completely different sub cultures, and we even speak the same language! So diversifying the internet to appease both Mexicans, Americans and everyone else is simply impossible as well as unrealistic.

Not many Americans care about how much murder takes place in the South just like not many Americans care about how diverse the internet is; because its not their problem. I like how Guillermo pointed out that some Mexicans don't have as much of a want for the internet as Americans. I wish the tables were turned and America wasn't so hell bent on bigger, faster, sooner.

Technological Determinism

My first blog post is my gripe with technological determinism. My understanding of technological determinism is that technology is inevitable. Technological determinism also represents technology as autonomous and separate from society yet technological determinism drives social and economic change.

I agree with this rough definition and that technological determinism is very real. What I disagree with is the society America has become due to the advances in technology. The speed at which life is lived and the expectations people create is and can be devastating to ones mental well being. I understand that with advances in technology brings cures, treatments, life saving programs that would not be possible without todays technology; but it comes at a serious price.

I do think that its amazing someone in Nebraska can chat with someone at random who lives across the world instantly. I understand that our society is advancing with technology, just like technological determinism states; i just feel society is advancing in a negative way. People used to take things slow, conversate with their neighbors, go for walks, take the day off and have lunch with the family... That's just not how things are anymore. Everyone wants more and they want it now. I can only imagine what life will be like twenty years from now...

My benighted thoughts on digital diversity.

What first comes to mind when I think of digital diversity is all the different technological advances one can use today. I immediately think of email, web pages, television, radio, pretty much everything my grandparents didn't have when they were kids. Well, maybe radio.

I suppose I might learn about the power of digital media, since most Americans use either television, radio, internet, etc, on a regular basis. Maybe we'll explore how to find our niche to take advantage of the popularity of digital media.