Prompt 11

Reading Prompt #11
RICHARDSON Ch. 6. The Social Web: Learning Together
BLACKBOARD - Warschauer, M., Knobel, M., & Stone, L. (2004). Technology and equity in schooling: Deconstructing the Digital Divide. Educational Policy, 18(4), 562-588.

Share an idea of two about how you could use the ideas from Richardson with ESL students.

What is the "digital divide?' And why do Warschauer et al argue that this term may longer be applicable. What are the issues they found regarding differences in technology use with ELLs and other low socioeconomic students. What are some ways you could address this in your own schools or programs?

Richardson introduced “Twitter” and “social bookmarking” to facilitate ESL learning, and I am really interested in the “Twitter”. Twitter was created as a way to send quick updates to any “followers”, and it limits you to 140 characters per tweet (p.86). As a “micro-blogging” tool, twitter allows students to follow educators, post questions and get answers, share link to great blogs, or share ideas for their projects. And twitter can also be used to check students’ progress of their projects, for example, I used to use twitter to finish my “tutor project”, for each tutor hour, I would update the tweet. By checking the tweets, the teacher would know whether I finished my project or not. Moreover, the cell phone feature of twitter can help students to post update, check feedback, or interact with followers no matter when and where. I will definitely use twitter in ESL teaching.

The term “digital divide” refers that based on different socioeconomic status, students have different opportunities and abilities to access the digital technologies. And Warschauer et al argues that this term may no longer be applicable because right now, even though both the high and low socioeconomic schools use computer for teaching and learning, but there is great gap in using this technology. The high socioeconomic students are tending to use computer in more ways than low socioeconomic students. In ESL classroom, the ELLs normally have more troubles in using computer than native speaker students. To address this issue, I think first of all, educators need to be well trained to use these technologies. Second, when using digital technology, don’t assume students know how to use “power point” or check “blackboard” etc., teachers need to give students explicit instruction.