Those efforts have indeed shrunk the divide. But they have created an unintended side effect, one that is surprising and troubling to researchers and policy makers and that the government now wants to fix.
I've decided to take my students on a fun-filled blogging journey for the last few weeks of school. In some ways I think I might be crazy trying to do this in such little time, but my guts are telling me to, "Just do it!" I'm glad I listened!
Google Launches New Search Education Site with Lesson Plans Google has launched a new site called Search Education aimed at educators who want to teach online search strategies. The site includes lesson plans geared at different levels of expertise - beginner, intermediate and advanced- as well as training videos that walk through different strategies for subjects like using Creative Commons and Google maps.
We see this a lot with educational spaces. They are free (so teachers are apt to try them to save money that they don't have in their classroom budget) but then forget what they are trading: the eyes of their students, and advertising dollars.
we need to be able to see the damage we are causing as a first step toward solving it. Words, like the ones you are reading now, often are not enough.
But I also like to think that, as a teacher, direct lessons around privacy and digital lives can make a difference, if not immediate, then long-term. I remain hopeful of that.
First, our collective move away from open standards and decentralisation means that choosing to use a different service involves significant social impact. Second, even if an alternative does rear its head, the ending is all-too-familiar: it is acquired and swallowed by one of the huge incumbents
Each subsidiary company is branded differently, so we often forget where all the data streams are ultimately heading.
Again, another teaching moment that often gets lost. What about teaching how to read "terms of service" agreements? Eh?
For the next generation, will they know the difference between the Internet and Google or Facebook? Will they, to put it bluntly, know the difference between a public good and a private company?