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These individualistic narratives always soften social support, an important but not always recognized component of learning. Ideally, this includes a stable home environment without shelter or food insecurity; a safe community with good infrastructure; and caring, talented, well-resourced teachers. As Covid-19 shut down schools around the world throughout 2020 and in many areas through 2021, the work that schools and teachers did for students suddenly fell to parents and caregivers, and it turned out that having a working laptop and internet was just one of them. step towards learning. They especially needed full-time supervision and support for the youngest students to have any hope of attending distance classes. Parents, who usually also deal with their own business, had difficulty in providing this support. The results were stark. Millions of parents (especially mothers) left the workforce due to lack of childcare. Low-income children lacking the benefits of private schools, teachers, and ‘learning pods’ months have passed quickly their privileged peers. Odds child depression and suicide attempts increased. The stress of the pandemic and the current social inequalities it has highlighted have clearly had a negative impact on students, with or without laptops.
To understand the importance of social support, we can also look at what students do with their laptops in their spare time. In Educa’s OLPC project in Paraguay, where two-thirds of students did not use their laptops even when very well supported, those who did were most concerned with media consumption – even when OLPC designed laptops to make such use more difficult. Other projects have seen similar results, including LA Unified’s iPad presentation. On the one hand, it’s great that kids can tailor laptops to their current interests: with guidance, such uses can lead to meaningful learning experiences. On the other hand, there is evidence that disadvantaged children may fall further behind as the computer becomes a distraction rather than a learning tool when laptop programs are not well supported.
A unique focus on access creates the feeling that if kids don’t learn when they seemingly have all the tools they need for success, it’s their fault, not anyone’s.
External forces could exacerbate the problem: for example, multinational companies like Nickelodeon and Nestlé on OLPC projects in Latin America were eager to advertise their new laptops to children. Branded educational technology platforms and automated monitoring tools common today. While corporate encroachment on schools is nothing new, surveillance and targeted advertising on learning devices is extremely irritating.
Sarikey, of Oakland Unified School District, says hardware is “one of the many critical parts of achieving educational equity” and #OaklandUndivided includes “culturally sensitive technical support, investment in planning for citywide broadband” and partnerships with district teachers. But messaging that puts the emphasis on hardware is hard to avoid. For example, in May 2020, Ali Medina, executive director of the Oakland Community Education Fund, which currently manages the #OaklandUndivided campaign funds, said, “Having a computer and internet access enables our children to thrive academically and supports economic growth during and after this pandemic. and health consequences for their families.”
Along the same lines, in 2012 Negroponte wrote: Boston Review “having a connected laptop will help eradicate poverty through education… In OLPC’s view, children are not just objects of instruction, but agents of change.” Such statements downplay the critical role that various institutions (peers, families, schools, communities, and more) play in shaping a child’s learning and identity. Most importantly, this individualistic framing implies that if change does not occur, it is not the fault of schools, economic conditions, social structures, or national policies or infrastructure. A unique focus on access creates the feeling that if kids don’t learn when they seemingly have all the tools they need for success, it’s their fault, not anyone’s.
Trojan horse
In the early days of OLPC, Negroponte generally Trojan horse this will give children opportunities to become free thinkers independent of the institutions around them. In 2011, even in the face of growing evidence that OLPC was failing its mission, it doubled down on claiming that children could teach themselves to read and code with tablet computers. literally fell from helicopters. Here, as in the press coverage of #OaklandUndivided, the focus was clearly on distributing the machines and it was implied that the rest of it—learning, success, transformation—would follow.
But as the Trojan horse thing didn’t end well for Troy, OLPC’s laptops diverted potential resources from reforms that could have had greater impact (even basic ones like working baths and living wages) and bolstered myths about what it would take to ultimately shut it down. digital divide. And that’s what it was for personally instructions. The distance learning that 2020 requires around the world has brought together all the problems OLPC has faced and made it painfully clear that closing this divide will take more than laptops and internet connections. What is really needed is the same robust social safety net that is crucial to tackling many other types of inequality.
He is the author of Morgan Ames. The Charisma Machine: The Life, Death, and Legacy of a Laptop for Every Child. He is an assistant professor at the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley..
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