[LINK] The internet makes poor kids stupider

David Boxall david.boxall at hunterlink.net.au
Tue Jun 22 09:54:19 AEST 2010


On 22/06/2010 8:34 AM, Ivan Trundle wrote:
> Just as I thought: North Carolina has some strange sociological 
> difficulties introduced by computers:
>
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/21/digital_divide_worsened_by_tech/
>
> "[The] evidence suggests that providing universal access to home 
> computers and high-speed internet access would broaden, rather than 
> narrow, math and reading achievement gaps."
> ...
 From the article:
> a kid in a disadvantaged home given a computer and internet access 
> will tend to be poorly supervised and use it mainly for gaming, social 
> networking or other timewasting online/computer activities
Does that make them dumber, or do they just practice skills that the 
researchers don't value? Not denying the value of maths and reading, but 
are they _only_ valuable skills?

-- 
David Boxall                    |  Dogs look up to us
                                |  And cats look down on us
http://david.boxall.id.au       |  But pigs treat us as equals
                                                    --Winston Churchill




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