Week 9/10 - Tailoring education for cultural and preferences...

Is there a potential problem being stored up for people if 'education' is tailored to fit into their cultural and personal preferences?

It’s quite empowering to think that society now have the chance to mould education to fit around our own preferences through the developments of technology, an example of social-determinism.
However although this can be seen as a positive happening, when it comes to education, could it be seen as though computers are replacing the fact that students needed to be ‘stretched’ within their studies. Using new media is to me seen as a compromise of two separate elements and although arguably has a success rate, is it deferring away from traditional elements of education. By neglecting these traditional aspects of education I think is neglecting valuable skills which are attained through the interaction of students IRL situations therefore practical work is being missed out on. There needs to be a high amount of maintained motivation because “those with low motivation may fall behind.” (see link)

However, everything in society has its disadvantages. So going back to the ‘empowerment’ the internet gives us, it does give the majority of people (providing they have internet access) the chance to learn, as it works to diminish geographical issues. There are potential problems, but society is aware of these, and what doesn’t have potential threats?

http://www.newman.ac.uk/Students_Websites/~m.m.friel/dis.htm

Week 9/10 - What difference would this make to a digital divide - A

a) To socioeconomically related access issues within a society?

With everything rapidly going online it has to be asked what will happen to the ‘digital divide’ and will it get wider. In terms of ‘lower income families’ not affording internet access, there are arguments to say that there are ways around this ‘divide’, Brady (2000) would say that “even lower income families could find a way to get wired if they viewed it as a high enough priority.” However, in counter argument this could be seen as a view from someone who does have new media access, and therefore takes it for granted possibly?

“Of those over 65 years of age, only 7% have ever accessed the internet. Of the poorest 10% of the United Kingdom's population, only 12% have ever accessed the internet.” (Wong) the validity of this quote may be questioned, (it was taken out of a different context – one regarding internet and health) but I think the percentages do highlights how the internet can be seen as marginalising parts of the digital divide.

However, could it still be said that these ‘marginalised’ divides don’t necessarily want to use the internet… as we’ve all looked into ‘digital immigrants’ it was found commonly that older generations didn’t want to access the internet, but with society being constantly directed towards using the internet as an internet alternative, will people be able to neglect the internet for much longer? Will they succumb to an online world and become adapted to technology, or will the digital divide become even more so divided?

Should techno-determinism take hold again and accommodate the internet minorities who are unable to access the internet as apposed to society determining technology for the majority?

http://www.swetswise.com/FullTextProxy/swproxy?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnms.sagepub.com%2Fcgi%2Freprint%2F10%2F2%2F295.pdf%3Fxdata 3D212219220116&ts=1237984389663&cs=693993184&userName=5845157.ipdirect&emCondId=5845157&articleID=36253616&yevoID=2224839&titleID=144954&referer=1&remoteAddr=212.219.220.116&hostType=PRO
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/328/7449/1200-b (Wong)

Week 4 - The Lecture

Online communities are an opportunity for people all over the world to get together and become part of a “virtual community” as Rheingold would say. There is the inevitable stereotype of a community being towns and villages meeting once a week to discuss the goings on within the neighbourhood, but online communication allows this to be furthered, where geographical state doesn’t need to necessarily be an issue. Being online has advanced us from associating a community with solely where we are in the world, it can be “talk of groups with common interests, shared goals, activities and governance.” (Preece, 2001, 9) These factors described by Preece can be applied to online communities. I do agree with Levy in that an online community “offers nothing less than the rebirth of the social bond through real time direct relationships among all people.” (Lecture) Therefore traditional communities can continue to exist.
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A question raised in the lecture is that … is technology creating the ability for online communities to exist, or have we created them to help assist us in our lives? Have we allowed ourselves to continue the social bond in communities into online interaction?
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Here is a quote that I found quite interesting by Winston Churchill, which also links in with last week’s topic of the ‘open architecture’ of the internet…

“There is no doubt about the influence of architecture and structure upon human character and action. We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.”

I think this shows how techno-determinism has affected us in that social-determinism is now playing more of a role in how we use the internet to create online communities connecting more people which isn’t possible in real life.