This was a response (comment) to the post with the same name - but it was too big, so I'm making it a post.
This is a promising thread! Sarah asks:
"So there is the issue of equity to access of documents. Kids without computers, or who chronically forget them, or refuse to learn to use them, are at a serious disadvantage. There is also, however, the equity of entrance into the conversation."
Way back when the internet first emerged, a number of savvy forward thinking types predicted that the internet would be a democratizing force. They couldn't have been more correct. The internet has accomplished this in a number of ways including:
1. Access to intellectual information
2. Access to data- especially in the context of current politics
3. By providing a forum for the views of everyone to have the potential to be weighted equally
There's more, but this could turn into a manifesto quickly, so let's think about these three ways as they relate to education.
1. Access to intellectual information. When I was in High School I really wanted to know a lot of stuff. One day I asked my civics teacher how the Roman Empire fell. He said, laconically, "barbarians...barbarians overran the empire." Although I nagged him about this topic, he never gave me much more than that, and in the pre-internet age, my trail of inquiry ended there. I had already read the school's encyclopedia entry about the fall of the empire, so I was at a loss. I didn't understand how barbarians could have overrun such a powerful empire, but what was I to do? This was the case with most info , and I totally accepted the idea that I just wasn't going to know certain things - not without amazing amounts of work. Either I could read The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, or I could move on. Now, of course that info couldn't be easier to gain. I've noticed that my students access this kind of information on a daily basis. Many of them know a lot about stuff - often topics that are only tangential to the school curriculum - but if you think about it this is a kind of democratization in and of itself. The internet has superseded the school's once mighty strangle hold on information. Even, if like Texas, we wished to rewrite our history texts to reflect various "realities" the counter "realities" would be just as assessable to students. For myself, this democratization has ramifications for my students, and I see it as part of my job to encourage them to explore the information they are interested in.
2. Access to data can be powerful, and I think we have a responsibility to teach our students how the internet has empowered the citizenry of the world. Before the internet, when a politician told the masses something, the vast majority of people had only two options - believe it, or maintain an uniformed skepticism. There was often no way for the average person to verify the validity of the actions or statements of public figures. Now that reality has completely changed. We no longer have any excuse for remaining passive consumers of political information. Where, before the internet, a politician could hide a duplicitous piece of legislation behind a misleading euphemism (clear skies initiative anyone!) now we can simply read that legislation for ourselves. The goal for my AP language students is - among other things - to become critical consumers of information. In the past that meant developing a sensitivity to the whiles of rhetoric - now we can add virtual information savvy to rhetoric as another weapon that our citizens can arm themselves with against the misinformation and manipulations bombarding us on a daily basis. This new reality has ramifications for "what" and "how" we teach.
3. Self expression has never been more powerful. While youtube is cool as a way for average people to steal some lime light from Hollywood, the Internet's greatest contribution is that it provides a forum for the ideas, arguments, and expressions of anyone. Before the internet the TV and press media were the only forum for ideas - and both forums were rigidly controlled. This is perhaps the most powerful expression of the democratizing force of the internet as it literally democratizes ideas themselves. In my view then it is absolutely essential that we educate students with the mindset that their ideas matter - not just in the abstract (as in the past) but in literal reality. More than ever before, every one of us possesses a voice that can be heard. For the first time we each have an equal potential to step forward and enter "the conversation" that up until now has been closed to a very small and select few. I think that we are fortunate to live in such an empowered age.
