The article that I can relate to the most in this weeks reading was “The computer is not for you to be looking around, it is for schoolwork’: challenges for digital inclusion as Latino immigrants negotiate children’s access to the Internet. Just a little background about myself, I come from a first generation Latino immigrant family. Although both my parents did not speak English nor did they know how to use a computer, they still believed that having a computer and internet access would help benefit my Education. Just like any other parent, my parents shared the same feelings of being afraid that my sister and I would encounter on-line predators and inappropriate websites. As a result, I clearly remember my father monitoring every click I made by overlooking over my shoulder. When the time was right, I found ways to go on websites that interested me such as games, and back then I didn’t have a MySpace but I did use aim. I agree with the article in that these sites gave me an opportunity to interact with friends from school ( Tripp, 10). In the article “Benefits of Facebook friends”, it discusses how people are able to create opportunities while keeping in touch with friends through these social networking sites. I personally believe that my parent’s mentality that the computer was used only for school work and not for exploring also contributes to the idea that “limiting young people’s time online and reducing their access to potentially rewarding opportunities for personal development, social practice, and informal learning” 12). After having read this article, can I really blame my parents for some of the opportunities I may have missed while growing up? My parents had no experience in computer knowledge and skills to be able to educate me. I truly believe that there should be more school programs that would reach out to the immigrant population to help educate them on the skills needed to be able to help their children at home.
Jenifer, thanks for sharing your personal experience with computers, and parents who saw it as strictly educational. I just read an article for another class that made the assumption that most computer skills are learned outside of schools, but I think that the article failed to consider how many students are first being introduced to the computer at school. Or,even if they do have it in their home, they don't necessarily have parents who can instruct them on how to use it.
ReplyDeleteYour idea about having schools provide training for parents to help them better educate their children about computers is a good one. I am just not sure school districts will ever "find the money" to implement programs like that.
Thank you for your anecdote. Your post reminded me of what I used to do back when I only had Internet connection on the family computer, which was located in the the living room. I used to downloaded TV shows and hide them on CD-Roms. My parents had no idea I was watching TV shows on my computer in my room because they thought there would be no way for me to watch the show without an Internet connection. They eventually found out, but I had a good few months when they had no idea.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that there should be programs introducing the affordances of the Internet and other CMCs to empower the parents with what the Internet provides, I think something the article didn't touch upon was what happens when students go off to college where they are out of the reach of parental surveillance.
I remember watching several students on academic probation because they were hooked on computer games/TV shows. Students felt free to do whatever they wished with the Internet because they were out of parental restraints. Perhaps too much surveillance can back fire as well. Could this concern also be included in training parents with concerns about the Internet?