April, 2005. Bill Gates’ “Speech to Governors” focused on what is wrong with U.S. high schools. Some highlights:
| … painful conclusion: America's high schools are obsolete.
Training the workforce of tomorrow with the high schools of today is like trying to teach kids about today's computers on a 50-year-old mainframe. It's the wrong tool for the times. Students who graduate from high school, but never go on to college, will earn--on average--about twenty-five thousand dollars a year. For a family of five, that's close to the poverty line. But if you're Hispanic, you earn less. If you're black, you earn even less--about 14 percent less than a white high-school graduate. Everyone agrees this is tragic. But these are our high schools that keep letting these kids fall through the cracks, and we act as if it can't be helped. It can be helped. We designed these high schools; we can redesign them. If we keep the
system as it is, millions of children will never get a chance to fulfill
their promise because of their zip code, their skin color, or the income
of their parents. That is offensive to our values, and it's an insult to
who we are. |
The RECA Foundation board agrees! It’s the same way the board feels about computer labs vs the need for computers in the homes of the same disadvantaged students that Mr. Gates addressed in his speech. The concept of computer labs as the answer for bridging the digital divide is obsolete – disadvantaged kids, starting at a the preschool level, need a computer in their home in order to have a chance at parity with their more affluent counterparts.
The RECA Foundation has been an active member of the Communities Technology Centers Network (ctcnet.org) since 1994. The Foundation has started and run numerous computer labs in and around the rural communities of southeastern Washington State. Public access to technology, including the Internet, was an identified need in 1994 when the RECA Foundation initiative – Columbia Basin Public Information Project (CBPIN) – was started, and computer labs satisfied much of that need for the technology “have-nots”. That is no longer the case. A modern public library system and computer labs in the area’s public and private schools provide ample public access to technology for all area citizens.
The RECA Foundation started a computer reuse program in 1995 that has been continually ramping up as the community technology centers projects have been phased out. The workhorse of the program is the “Beginning Computer”. This computer is designed to help a new user learn to type, read, do math, learn geography, paint, write, and learn basic computer skills. This computer allows users to explore without concern about damage to the computer—an ideal setup for young children, non-English speakers, people with learning disabilities, and adults with no computer experience. The security system, which doesn't allow one to add, delete, or modify system software, protects the computer from costly repairs and maintenance. These refurbished computers include over 20 educational software programs such as: Reader Rabbit, Math Rabbit, The Oregon Trail, Where in Space is Carmen San Diego, Merlin’s Math, Dino Geography, Dino Add/Subtract, Alge-Blaster (Algebra program), Treasure Cove, Letter Chase Typing Tutor, Hoyle’s Book of Games, Paintbrush, and MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Notepad).
The Beginning Computer does not require a computer lab to train the recipients. A very brief (less than 30 minutes) overview of the installed programs is given and the parents/students are sent home to explore and learn on their own. It works! It’s been working for 10 years. Kids are smart – including those with disabilities – they can and do self learn.
|
Dr Sugata Mitra put up his first kiosk, containing a personal computer with an internet connection, in the middle of Delhi in 1999. Street children immediately took to the machines and, through their own curiosity and intelligence, learned to become proficient. Since then, he has put up dozens more in various locations. Dr Mitra is as much a proselytizer as a researcher. He would like to think that his experiments hold lessons for technology evangelists who want to spread PC usage and for governments that want to train their workforces in essential skills. Perhaps they also hold lessons for developing countries. Because he is using computers, Dr Mitra can gather his data direct. While the children play with their new toy, their activities are monitored (unbeknown to them) from Dr Mitra's New Delhi office, where he works as vice-president of the Centre for Research in Cognitive Systems at NIIT, one of India's biggest information technology companies, specializing in training systems. "Children are able to teach themselves computing on their own," says Dr Mitra with enthusiasm. Astonishingly, although the children at that first kiosk had never seen a computer in their lives, they started surfing the internet within only eight minutes. |
“Self Learning” – it works. Why then has the Gates Foundation CAT (Community Access to Technology) consistently excluded “computers in the home” from their funded projects? And now that the CAT Program has been assumed by Washington State University’s Extension Center to Bridge the Digital Divide (CBDD), that obsolete way of thinking continues:
| “… be for projects that engage the public or an organization’s clients in direct, hands-on technology access in multi-user environments. … are not eligible for funding. Nor are organizational website development or computers-for-the-home projects.” |
Our 50 year old high school model is the wrong tool for the time. So is the 20 year old computer lab model that the Gates Foundation and other grant makers are insisting on. They all assume that students, especially young kids, require a mentoring environment, away from the home, to learn. Sure, there are some urban areas where the home may not be an environment conducive to learning, let alone living, but that should not preclude “computers–for-the-home-projects” in the rest of the world!
The Children’s Partnership’s “Measuring Digital Opportunity for America's Children” (June 2005 - see http://www.contentbank.org/doms/) reports:
| Key
Findings:
• Digital opportunities are reaching U.S. children
today in all four key areas, with opportunities most widespread in
the education arena. For example, more than half of children ages 7 to
17 use a home computer to complete school assignments, and public
schools are almost universally connected to the Internet. |
“Home computer and Internet access has become a prerequisite to children fully realizing digital potential”. Q.E.D.!
Here locally, a survey of Richland Housing Authority’s 475 family units was conducted in 2004 which showed that less than 2% of the family units had working computers. A similar survey was conducted in 2002 of 1,700 Public Housing and Section 8 tenants which showed that 98% of tenants did not have a working computer or access to the Internet in their homes. No change over a two year period! Yet the Gates Foundation and WSU’s CBDD don’t seem to think this is a problem!
This year, the RECA Foundation received a Block Grant from the City of Richland to place 30 Beginning Computers in the home of low-income residents identified through the Richland Housing Authority. The cost was $3000.00 – a lot of bang for the buck.
The RECA Foundation is working with the families that received one of the beginning computers to place an Internet Ready model in these homes once computer proficiency is gained from the beginning computer. This model of placing a beginning computer with kids and adults with little or no computer experience and then graduating to an Internet Ready machine has been in place since the RECA Foundation became a Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher (MAR) in January of 2003. The orientation for the Internet Ready Computer takes about one hour. Self-Learning works.
The Internet Ready computer uses the Windows 2000 operating system and has a standard software suite (all free!) which includes Open Office, AVG free anti-virus, Spybot and Adaware (spyware removers), Mozilla Firefox, two typing tutors, and a few other utilities. They include CD-ROM, speakers, keyboard, mouse, a 17” monitor, and 6 months of free dial-up Internet access (with $10.00/month thereafter). Like the Children’s Partnership’s report shows, many of the recipients of this model need Internet access in the home to do homework, job searches, take online courses (middle school through college through adult continuing education), and access online help (e.g. www.4people.org).
The RECA Foundation has a long history of successfully matching low-income families and disabled individuals with technology. 13 years of history, success stories, and all the projects and programs are posted on The Columbia Free-Net at www.tcfn.org.
“…painful conclusion: America's high schools are obsolete”. So are many of the concepts and practices of the Gates Foundation and WSU’s CBDD when it comes to “Bridging the Digital Divide.” But we can redesign them.
Bruce McComb
Executive Director, RECA Foundation
www.tcfn.org
www.recafoundation.org
www.cbpin.org
Attachments:
1. A few MAR participants that have similar stories to tell – the complete list is available at www.techsoup.org/mar.
2. Some of the RECA Foundation’s favorite success stories.