Friday, May 4, 2007

Breakout group - Culture and Race

The issues of culture and race are multifaceted, they often overlap with other issues of rural/urban and socio-economic students.
  • The Internet is predominantly "white" and ethnocentric
  • In general, most websites follow the same models, what would an afrocentric website look like?
  • There have been many ICT resources poured into "at risk" schools, however, not necessarily the training and staff to effectively implement the technology... particularly when there are underlying cultural/racial issues that need to be addressed
  • It is important to remember that there are cultural issues.... "sub-cultural" or "counter-cultural" issues that go beyond racial issues

2 comments:

Dave Croft said...

Culture, race and gender are important demographics when discussing tech equity in schools but I am curious about tech use and equity where physical and mental disabilities are involved. What steps might be taken by schools to ensure that all students are benefiting the maximum amount by technology in schools - to include children that are blind, deaf, autistic, schizophrenic, with Down's Syndrome, and so on.

Anonymous said...

Actually, Nova Scotia schools have made great strides to include all learners in the public school program through a variety of low-tech, mid-tech and higher tech adaptations which are appropriate to their individual needs.

In addition, many copies of software, such as Inspiration/Kidspiration, Co-Writer/Write Outloud, SOLO, Kurzweil, are in daily use in schools across the province to help students read, plan and organize, and write/publish.