I recently read this blog posting from Lucie deLaBruere at Infinite Thinking Machine, a rather interesting blog that I recommend. Lucie mentions quite a few interesting things, mainly focusing on the idea of digital equity, providing opportunities for all learners, regardless of socioeconomic class. She mentions the alternatives to much commercial software that appears on the web as “Web 2.0 tools”. For example, Google Docs replacing Microsoft Office, or Picnik replacing Photoshop. But, the point is also made that many students do not have internet access at home, thus can not access these tools while at home. One further way to lessen the divide is the use of open source software in schools. This software can legally be put on a disk and sent home with the child. Thus, as long as the child has a computer at home, they can access and use powerful learning tools such as Open Office, Gimp(Photoshop alternative), or Free Mind(Inspiration alternative). Thus, at this point, the main issue is getting computers in the hands of all learners. I am not quite sure what percentage of students, especially those in the lowest socioeconoic classes, have access to computers, but with all of the talk of the $100 laptop, you would think that being able to provide a computer to every school aged child would become a priority as we move forward in the 21st century.
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