On my last post I talked about the digital divide between generations but... what about the digital divide between("northern countries" and "southern countries"; countries in developing and developed, or any other variant)?
I have read an interesting article from Daniel Becerra which I recommend you to read because it will make you think about the divide in a different way.
Lets thing about a lost tribe of Africa: What is more new for them: a tractor technology or a computer, if they had not seen any of those things in their life?
Is it more useful to learn to drive a tractor (if they did), or a computer (if they had computers, wiring and networking)?
Who would teach them? Sadly, the general society, among which I include myself, are a real computer illiterate. Are we really going to teach them new technologies ? And, what’s more, what specific purpose?
I don’t think that people in Africa need to communicate with their friends via Facebook " when they hardly have time to greet him. When they finish work, the people gather under a tree and talk about the day's developments. This, in developed and advanced countries, is called "network" .
Who of us will have the nerve to go to one of those tribes and explain how much ICT will improve their communication?
Furthermore...What education model will they use? Education is a right. But there are so many theories and many models like flies on a sugar cube. What model will "bring" us heralds of the absolute truth, at least next two years? Does ours?
And when we see the picture of education in our countries, the next question come to my mind: Who are we to tell anyone how to raise, when every day, demonstrates that our models do not work?Finally, for a couple of millennia, we have been trying to evangelize the rest of the world with our values; so we will export our “fantastic model” to those countries. A model which we will change in five years because it won’t work or because it won’t be “fashionable” and the new paradigm will go back to that tree under the one a teacher teaches the children about writing with a stick in the ground, and we will tell him that that is not a good way to educate, and we will bring a package of progress that includes the melting of the poles, and training in new technologies: we will donate a computer that they won’t have where to plug in , and we will say that with those things they will be freer and more developed, like us.
Furthermore...What education model will they use? Education is a right. But there are so many theories and many models like flies on a sugar cube. What model will "bring" us heralds of the absolute truth, at least next two years? Does ours?
And when we see the picture of education in our countries, the next question come to my mind: Who are we to tell anyone how to raise, when every day, demonstrates that our models do not work?Finally, for a couple of millennia, we have been trying to evangelize the rest of the world with our values; so we will export our “fantastic model” to those countries. A model which we will change in five years because it won’t work or because it won’t be “fashionable” and the new paradigm will go back to that tree under the one a teacher teaches the children about writing with a stick in the ground, and we will tell him that that is not a good way to educate, and we will bring a package of progress that includes the melting of the poles, and training in new technologies: we will donate a computer that they won’t have where to plug in , and we will say that with those things they will be freer and more developed, like us.
Digital divide is a huge problem for poor countries. Nowadays technology is important for education, life and economy, but poor countries can't have same access than developed countries, so I think in the future they will be more poors and the digital divide could be bigger
ResponderEliminarI totally agree. If we don't move our ass, for sure it will be like Alvaro says.
ResponderEliminar