One segment in the documentary, “Digital Nation” really upset me. Usually I don’t get worked up about documentaries, but when I saw the Vice Principle of that School and realized what he was doing, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. Basically the school provides laptops for everyone and those laptops are used for homework, projects, etc. However, the real problem lies within the Vice Principle’s ability to monitor what the kids are doing on their laptops at any time. Each laptop is equipped with a camera so the V.P. can see if any of the kids are goofing around.
This is the biggest invasion of privacy I’ve ever seen. First of all, everyone should have their privacy. The kids that he showed us were just fixing their hair, but they didn’t seem to realize that they were being watched. What if the camera was on by accident and the person was in the bathroom or something? And what’s even more disturbing than that is the idea of taking those laptops back home. Does that mean the V.P. can look at what the children are doing at home if they decide to use their laptops? This just seems like the biggest invasion of privacy.
Second, how do we know whether or not the V.P. is a caring administrator who just wants to make sure his kids are working hard, or he is some huge creep who is watching the kids all day at school and even at home? I’m sure these kids had to sign a release form or something to allow this kind of voyeurism, but I’ll tell you right now there is no way I’d ever sign something that would take away my privacy.
I understand that schools like this one are trying out new learning techniques to keep up with the growing digital world. I also accept the fact that in that particular school with the laptops, attendance increased by 90 percent, overall performance was increasing, and there were less fights and problems in the school. These are great stats; however, it doesn’t take away the fact that these kids are being monitored 24/7 like lab rats. Hell, I’d go to class everyday and do everything I was supposed to do if I knew someone was monitoring my every move. But the point I’m trying to make is this: children shouldn’t be forced to go to class because of a technology or because they know someone is watching their every move. It totally reminds me of the Patriot Act in the U.S. Children should go to class because they want to learn.
I know that’s easier said than done and I definitely do not have a good solution. But I do know that there has to be a better way to motivate students than to monitor their every move by giving them laptops with cameras inside of them. That just doesn’t seem right to me at all. I’d rather do the old fashioned way: sit in a class, read my textbooks, and hand write my assignments. Yes, it might take longer, but at least I know I don’t have someone breathing down my neck every waking moment of the day.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Digital Nation
After watching a documentary ("Digital Nation") on the evolution of the digital world and how the Internet has created potential problems for its users, I couldn't help but think of one segment where it discussed the online gaming problem in South Korea. There are Internet shops where kids can go and stay for hours and sometimes even days. The segment also introduced to us a young South Korean boy who constantly plays games and has dropped from the top half of his class to the bottom half in school. Even the relationship between he and his mother is strained because of his excessive use of video games.
South Korea decided to call Internet addiction a psychiatric disorder; it not only affects the mind but the senses as well. Performance in school decreases, eye sight and hearing are damaged, and physical activity is almost non-existent. So what does South Korea do? They fix the problem by creating Internet recovery camps. Yes, there are actual recovery clinics for individuals who want to learn how to manage and limit the amount of time they spend on the Internet. There are even some recovery camps in the US!
Is excessive use of the Internet an actual addiction, and, if it is, are recovery camps the best way to go about curing these individuals? These camps are structured like clinics for recovering drug addicts. That's right: according to places like South Korea, Internet addiction should be treated like it's a drug addiction. I know that sounds crazy, but that's precisely what these Internet recovery camps are: rehab clinics.
I understand there are some adults who are overly dependent on the Internet to a point where it runs their entire lives; however, these clinics should be for them and them alone. Young boys should not be wasting their time going to these clinics. Instead, their PARENTS should be the ones taking care of the situation. The young Korean boy's mom is distraught over her son's situation and decided to send him to one of these camps. I've got an idea: why doesn't the mom actually intervene in her child's life and take the Internet away from him? In Internet addiction involving kids, it should be the parents' job to monitor their children's Internet use, much like they would with homework or chores. In my opinion, these camps for kids are only here because of bad parenting. Just pull the plug on your child's Internet! Yes they need to learn and grow on their own, but children need guidance from their parents.
The only people who should attend these Internet recovery clinics are those individuals (not children) whose lives are completely consumed by the Internet, and it is affecting their physical and mental health, as well as the people around them. Other than those individuals, these camps are doing absolutely nothing for these children other than delaying the inevitable. They interviewed the Korean boy during his tenure at the camp, and instead of actually making progress, all the boy did was think about online gaming. When he was asked if this camp will ultimately help him, the young boy thought he would go right back to gaming once the clinic was over. This is exactly why parents should take some initiative and protect their kids from these types of things. Camps won't do anything for children: they need their parents. And it is the parents' fault for not intervening in their children's lives.
South Korea decided to call Internet addiction a psychiatric disorder; it not only affects the mind but the senses as well. Performance in school decreases, eye sight and hearing are damaged, and physical activity is almost non-existent. So what does South Korea do? They fix the problem by creating Internet recovery camps. Yes, there are actual recovery clinics for individuals who want to learn how to manage and limit the amount of time they spend on the Internet. There are even some recovery camps in the US!
Is excessive use of the Internet an actual addiction, and, if it is, are recovery camps the best way to go about curing these individuals? These camps are structured like clinics for recovering drug addicts. That's right: according to places like South Korea, Internet addiction should be treated like it's a drug addiction. I know that sounds crazy, but that's precisely what these Internet recovery camps are: rehab clinics.
I understand there are some adults who are overly dependent on the Internet to a point where it runs their entire lives; however, these clinics should be for them and them alone. Young boys should not be wasting their time going to these clinics. Instead, their PARENTS should be the ones taking care of the situation. The young Korean boy's mom is distraught over her son's situation and decided to send him to one of these camps. I've got an idea: why doesn't the mom actually intervene in her child's life and take the Internet away from him? In Internet addiction involving kids, it should be the parents' job to monitor their children's Internet use, much like they would with homework or chores. In my opinion, these camps for kids are only here because of bad parenting. Just pull the plug on your child's Internet! Yes they need to learn and grow on their own, but children need guidance from their parents.
The only people who should attend these Internet recovery clinics are those individuals (not children) whose lives are completely consumed by the Internet, and it is affecting their physical and mental health, as well as the people around them. Other than those individuals, these camps are doing absolutely nothing for these children other than delaying the inevitable. They interviewed the Korean boy during his tenure at the camp, and instead of actually making progress, all the boy did was think about online gaming. When he was asked if this camp will ultimately help him, the young boy thought he would go right back to gaming once the clinic was over. This is exactly why parents should take some initiative and protect their kids from these types of things. Camps won't do anything for children: they need their parents. And it is the parents' fault for not intervening in their children's lives.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Future of the Internet
"Spafford appears to recognize the delicate condition of today's Net, and he believes that a pause in expansion is needed--a bit of time to digest the problems that beset it." (Zittrain 240) These words of computer scientist Gene Spafford couldn't be more true. It's one thing to give everyone in the world digital access, but it's quite another to properly educate them about the ways of the Internet. Spafford recognizes the sheer difficulty of teaching everyone about proper IT use; sure we can give a laptop to everyone, but how will they know how to use it? How will they know how to combat viruses? Without training, using the Internet is a futile effort.
Giving some poor country access to the Internet is like giving a person an airplane without telling them how to fly it. Learning how to use the Internet and follow proper IT procedure is crucial in educating poor countries about the digital world. If we don't teach these impoverished people how to combat infections inside the computer, let alone teach them how to use a simple search engine, they might as well not have a laptop.
Lack of education isn't the only potential pitfall of the rapidly growing phenomenon known as the Internet. Individuals in third world countries and other poor areas across the world will be introduced to sites such as YouTube. This particular website has two potential problems that can greatly affect the virgin eyes of naive paupers. First, uneducated users will come across videos that are inappropriate, vulgar, or downright offensive. I can't even imagine some young kid in Africa typing in their hometown in the search engine and finding a video about a past genocide of his people. He doesn't know how to avoid these videos because he has been neither trained to do such things nor has he ever had exposure to such things.
Another pitfall of sites such as YouTube is the "comments" section below the video. Educated Internet users have been trained to read inappropriate comments as junk and dismiss anything and everything they say. However, let's say an impoverished boy in a third world country has a laptop and goes on YouTube to watch a video about his ethnicity. After watching the video, he scrolls down (and that's only possible if he has been taught how to scroll down, thus proving my point that without digital education, even the simple task of scrolling up and down can seem impossible) and begins to read the comments others have posted. He reads some horrifying things; racial slurs and ignorant ethnic stereotypes are but a few of the terrible things the young boy will encounter. Without knowing that certain people use the comments section of a video for their own public bashing of other cultures and things, the young boy will probably become horrified and take serious offense to the comments. And, even worse, if the boy doesn't understand the comments, he might start using the horrible language utilized by those individuals and thus contribute to the ongoing cultural ignorance of the comments section.
If we want the world to live as one in a digital age, we must not only supply everyone with the technology needed to participate, but also with the knowledge and training needed to use the Internet effectively and properly. And, since we are nowhere near that point in this current time, I agree with Spafford's assessment: we must try to halt the expansion of the Internet in order to help the rest of the world catch up in technology and digital intelligence.
Source used: http://futureoftheinternet.org/static/ZittrainTheFutureoftheInternet.pdf
Giving some poor country access to the Internet is like giving a person an airplane without telling them how to fly it. Learning how to use the Internet and follow proper IT procedure is crucial in educating poor countries about the digital world. If we don't teach these impoverished people how to combat infections inside the computer, let alone teach them how to use a simple search engine, they might as well not have a laptop.
Lack of education isn't the only potential pitfall of the rapidly growing phenomenon known as the Internet. Individuals in third world countries and other poor areas across the world will be introduced to sites such as YouTube. This particular website has two potential problems that can greatly affect the virgin eyes of naive paupers. First, uneducated users will come across videos that are inappropriate, vulgar, or downright offensive. I can't even imagine some young kid in Africa typing in their hometown in the search engine and finding a video about a past genocide of his people. He doesn't know how to avoid these videos because he has been neither trained to do such things nor has he ever had exposure to such things.
Another pitfall of sites such as YouTube is the "comments" section below the video. Educated Internet users have been trained to read inappropriate comments as junk and dismiss anything and everything they say. However, let's say an impoverished boy in a third world country has a laptop and goes on YouTube to watch a video about his ethnicity. After watching the video, he scrolls down (and that's only possible if he has been taught how to scroll down, thus proving my point that without digital education, even the simple task of scrolling up and down can seem impossible) and begins to read the comments others have posted. He reads some horrifying things; racial slurs and ignorant ethnic stereotypes are but a few of the terrible things the young boy will encounter. Without knowing that certain people use the comments section of a video for their own public bashing of other cultures and things, the young boy will probably become horrified and take serious offense to the comments. And, even worse, if the boy doesn't understand the comments, he might start using the horrible language utilized by those individuals and thus contribute to the ongoing cultural ignorance of the comments section.
If we want the world to live as one in a digital age, we must not only supply everyone with the technology needed to participate, but also with the knowledge and training needed to use the Internet effectively and properly. And, since we are nowhere near that point in this current time, I agree with Spafford's assessment: we must try to halt the expansion of the Internet in order to help the rest of the world catch up in technology and digital intelligence.
Source used: http://futureoftheinternet.org/static/ZittrainTheFutureoftheInternet.pdf
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Globalization through the Digital Divide
In today's world, the internet is a necessity. Without instant access to information, people will be ill-informed. The need for the internet is as potent as ever. Today, there is over two feet of snow on the ground in the District, making it impossible for people like me to go out and get newspapers to read about what is happening in the country and in the area. Cable is struggling as well, leaving me with only one reliable source of information: the internet. My neighbor's roof just collapsed; they live right next to me. I found this out by searching the web and looking for any information about the snowstorm in my area. Without this knowledge, I wouldn't have alerted the firemen outside to check my house to see if our house is next. Luckily, our house has a good foundation, but I can't say the same for my poor neighbor next door.
Because of things like this, the internet needs to be easily accessible to everyone across the world. The cable could be out, and conditions could be too bad to get a newspaper or something, so the internet is the only reliable source of information. The snowstorm in the District is nothing compared to some of the situations happening around the world. Just take a look at the impoverished Haiti, that suffered from a massive earthquake and killed many thousands of people. There is no power there, nor is there opportunity to get news other than talking amongst one another. How can these people communicate with family members to let them know they are okay?
The digital divide, meaning the gap between those that are privy to the internet and those that aren't, has definitely improved the global trafficking of knowledge across the world and helped countries connect with one another. However, we as a human race are nowhere near a suitable comfort zone in the digital divide. The people who can't afford the internet or simply don't have access to it are way behind the 8 ball. The internet isn't just a source of information; it is an integral part of our daily lives. We need the internet to survive.
The creation of the internet has definitely made the flow of information easier and more accessible, but the flow cannot stop here. It must continue to grow and bridge the gap of the digital divide. I'd like to think that the internet is the first major step in global peace, or, at least, global stability. If everyone had access to the internet, we would be able to help each other out, exchange important information, and contact our loved ones in case of an emergency. I'm no expert on Haiti, but I'd bet my bottom dollar that internet availability hasn't been the primary goal of the Haitian government for the past 30 years. I read in a paper the other day that a local man from the district has still not made contact with his family from Haiti. With internet access, they could reach each other. And even if his family is unavailable, he should still be able to find out information about his area or keep up conversations with his neighbors. Bridging the gap of the digital divide is a beautiful theory; now, it needs to become a reality.
Because of things like this, the internet needs to be easily accessible to everyone across the world. The cable could be out, and conditions could be too bad to get a newspaper or something, so the internet is the only reliable source of information. The snowstorm in the District is nothing compared to some of the situations happening around the world. Just take a look at the impoverished Haiti, that suffered from a massive earthquake and killed many thousands of people. There is no power there, nor is there opportunity to get news other than talking amongst one another. How can these people communicate with family members to let them know they are okay?
The digital divide, meaning the gap between those that are privy to the internet and those that aren't, has definitely improved the global trafficking of knowledge across the world and helped countries connect with one another. However, we as a human race are nowhere near a suitable comfort zone in the digital divide. The people who can't afford the internet or simply don't have access to it are way behind the 8 ball. The internet isn't just a source of information; it is an integral part of our daily lives. We need the internet to survive.
The creation of the internet has definitely made the flow of information easier and more accessible, but the flow cannot stop here. It must continue to grow and bridge the gap of the digital divide. I'd like to think that the internet is the first major step in global peace, or, at least, global stability. If everyone had access to the internet, we would be able to help each other out, exchange important information, and contact our loved ones in case of an emergency. I'm no expert on Haiti, but I'd bet my bottom dollar that internet availability hasn't been the primary goal of the Haitian government for the past 30 years. I read in a paper the other day that a local man from the district has still not made contact with his family from Haiti. With internet access, they could reach each other. And even if his family is unavailable, he should still be able to find out information about his area or keep up conversations with his neighbors. Bridging the gap of the digital divide is a beautiful theory; now, it needs to become a reality.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)