Do Technology bridge the Digital Divide?

Technology plays an indispensable and inevitable part in our every second of our lives. Days without a gadget is unimaginable. Education sector is also supported by technology either directly or indirectly. Even if no gadgets are used in a class the technology is playing its role as a silent spectator (Students reaching class by bicycle/auto/etc, the books printed in a press and so on).
In my schooling days I had the conventional talk & chalk method of learning, In college I used over head projector, LCD projector, laptop, MS office etc
Hence Technology can be attributed to the shadow of Education (really?) 
Does One swallow makes a summer?
Technology as such can't bring in a Herculean change in education sector as it has other prominent factors (like community participation, teacher's openness, funds available, etc) supporting the technology as a bank of the river. One should accept and welcome the changes. Should use it and appreciate it.  I should not say something will not work as I don't know about it (it is foolish!)
It is a well accepted notion that technology supports educational sector. Then comes the question How much is too much? What extent should we expose the child to technology.
The issue of digital divide also a stumbling block to equity in education. Which technology can be used to bridge the digital divide? 

The least thing that I know.....

The least thing one knows is about oneself. I can appreciate, critique my pals who are in close quarters. But If I need to say in which area I am strong/ weak precise to draw a SWOT analysis I am cornered.
According to Johari window there are open area, blind area, hidden area and unknown.

Picture Courtesy:http://underside.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/johari-window-mbaknol.jpg

Then how far I am correct to represent me to a thing or an object that is more or less resembles my attitude, values, beliefs etc?
Let me try....
The highway... long unending roads connects people. It leads and goes and take you along with it.

The least thing I know and with that I say the highway represents me...

Picture Courtesy: http://unshakeablehope.blogspot.in/

 

Article Review

The following article reviews the Chapter ‘The Role of School Social Worker’ by Robert Constable in the book School Social Work
Practice, Policy, and Research (7^th Ed). 2009. Lyceum Books

The teachers should learn, unlearn and reproduce themselves as teachers are the future society builders (Thulasidasan, 2011). If this fails then there is a need for someone to intervene. Is it the Social Workers?

School Social Work Association of America (2005) defines School Social Work as the specialized area of Practice within the Social Work profession. This could be linked to the Cognitive development proposed by Jean Piaget as children’s pre-operational and concrete operational phases play a very crucial role and school is their second home.

National Association of Social Workers (2002) defines it as the Social work services provided in the setting of an educational agency by credentialed or licensed school social workers. This specialty in social work is oriented toward helping students make satisfactory adjustments and coordinating and influencing the efforts of the school, the family, and the community to achieve this goal.

Constable says Schools are becoming the main public institution for social development. Schools are working to include those previously excluded from the opportunity of education. This argument suits to the present condition after the implementation of RTE in India.

Constable argues that School social workers practice in the most vulnerable parts of the educational process, and so their roles can be as complex as the worlds they deal with. The SSW helps the students in the domains of dropout; psychological issues, attendance, bullying and school violence and they also help them to improve their skills and capabilities.

Social work in simple terms is helping oneself to help themselves and it also empowers the individual per se. Hence it can’t be seen as a different entity in the education realm.

The basic focus of the school social worker is the constellation of teacher, parent, and child. The social worker relates to and work with all aspects of the child’s situation, but the basic skill underlying all of this is assessment, a systematic way of understanding and communicating what is happening and what is possible the author asserts.

SSW cannot work as a single entity but needs the support of head teacher, class teacher and parents to resolve an issue of a child. The knowledge of Child Psychology helps a SSW a lot.

The school also brings in lot of crisis as it involves multitude of problems coupled with diversity. Hence there is an opportunity under the wraps of the crisis!

The chapter also outlines the Historical evolution of School Social Work accompanied with few case studies. The author has given a glimpse on the issues of Children with Special Needs (Children with Disabilities)

As the world is moving towards the inclusion, rights based approach the role of SSW is indispensible as it is quite impossible for a teacher to attend all issues of the class.

More over the blogger feels a Government initiative to place social workers in schools will also give employment opportunities to social workers.

Education had moved from a status of necessity to commodity in the order of the day and the schools must appoint SSW and the assassination of Ms.Uma Maheswari, a school teacher in a School in Chennai by 9^th standard student warrants immediate action.

Poem on Trees

Ages Counts Infinity- Gives

Human Beings a Certainty.

Fruits so sweet

Shades so cool.

Our joys so high

Activity as well High Five!

Communication Sans words- Trees

Perform many deeds.

Join hands for Noble Cause

Cut No trees for Future Cause

Heredity> Environment or Environment > Heredity? Will Mathematics answer or not

By assigning values to the alphabets in English language, E takes the value of 5 and H takes the value of 8. Mathematically 5< 8 no doubt about it. But it is not true when the debates are on Heredity and Environment. Kurt Lewin says that for an individual development (defining development is… bit tricky) both the above said factors plays a crucial role. Myriad research studies assert the individual IQ depends on the brain size. Let us exile a child with bigger brain size to unhabited place; will his IQ be more after analyzing after few years? On the contrary if the average brain sized child lives amongst the conducive environment his IQ will be more than the average.  Debate though seamlessly unending; I am skeptical about the IQ tests that are designed. Do those tests have cultural fluidity? Though IQ has some quantitative measures, it is qualitative in nature too.

If Heredity & Environment both contributes (let us say) then what about the Intellectually Disabled children? They are categorized into educable, trainable and custodial. How IQ frame can be fit to the children with disabilities?