Oakland, The World, and the Divide: How We All Missed the Moment

I don’t know much about the issues of access regarding technology or the statistics other than the fact that some people are always at an advantage and others are always at a disadvantage. Coming from an all white, middle class school district, I can’t pretend to speak for African Americans and their struggles with the “Digital Divide.” However, I would like to argue that I believe it’s more than just a race issue, and that issues of class must also be recognized. Although Banks seemed to be primarily concerned with the race issue, he did mention how computers are distributed differently among races and socioeconomic status, which “contributes to the ongoing patterns of racism and the continuation of poverty.”

I’m not saying I’m naive about the fact that African Americans may not have equal access to technology. I just don’t feel comfortable discussing the issue without being completely informed about it, which is why I’d like to pay more attention to equal access for everybody. This was a topic that came up in my Composition of Theory course. We discussed how integrating computers into the classroom will set particular students apart from others and put them at a disadvantage. Since the language of computers is English, all other languages and their cultures are automatically seen as second-class status (Moran 215). Right away that contributes to alienating different races and/or cultures, “especially among families in poverty and families of color” (DeVoss 170). Now obviously it would be ideal for every school to have computers and teachers who were trained to teach with them, but I don’t think computers in schools is enough. Students who own computers are at an advantage over students who do not own them. When it comes to the issue of class, not all families can afford computers, so students from low-income families will not have the same privileges as students who do have a computer in their home.


Here are the two articles I cited from:
DeVoss, Danielle Nicole, et al. "Under the Radar of Composition Programs: Glimpsing the Future Through Case Studies of Literacy in Electronic Contexts." Composition Studies in the New Millennium: Rereading the Past, Rewriting the Future. Ed. Lynn Z Bloom, Donald A Daiker, and Edward M White. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 2003. 157-173.

Moran, Charles. "Technology and the Teaching of Writing." A Guide to Composition Pedagogies. Ed. Gary Tate, Amy Rupiper, and Kurt Schick. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. 203-223.