- From: Anne Pemberton <apembert@crosslink.net>
- Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 20:05:38 -0700
- To: love26@gorge.net (William Loughborough), <seeman@netvision.net.il>, "WAI \(E-mail\)" <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
At 07:57 AM 10/19/00 -0700, William Loughborough wrote: the use of >email, newsgroups and such on the internet is something we should be more >tolerant of. A 386 with a modem running DOS is better than a slate with >chalk. Sigh, William, as always you are right! I accomplished a lot on the Internet at a professional on a 386, and later used it as the nearly latest in a novell lab for a wonderful year with special kids ... but when I see what the internet is capable of now, I wouldn't want to use 386's now ... unless I could get no other system ... My travel budget for one F2F is (obscenely?) higher than most of the >world's folks' annual income. All the kids in Abbysinian death camps might >like to have the use of some of the stuff in those dumpsters, once they've >gotten enough food to press the keys. We do live in a country of privilege ... There is a lot of hope surrounding owning a computer and the internet draws in people whose comparable souls in other nations would never have such hopes. The children who tell me they have the Internet at home live in trailer parks and farm worker housing ... I was astounded to learn that more than 60% of our students have a computer in the home, most of whom also have the Internet! (I remember when folks prophesied the cost of a computer would never drop below $1,000 - now a family can stop by the mall and buy a computer complete with Internet access for $20 a month, no down, 3 yr upgrade ...) but, before the end of the year, my students will correspond with (disabled) teenagers in Israel who have put their hands on computers for the first time this summer! Perhaps I should say that I think that in industrial/advanced countries, technology shouldn't be an economic issue ... It seems to be happening from my perspective, but I admit to a skewed perspective being rural and living among poor folks ... no, not all my neighbors have the Internet, but those with schoolchildren do ... Anne Anne L. Pemberton http://www.pen.k12.va.us/Pav/Academy1 http://www.erols.com/stevepem/Homeschooling apembert@crosslink.net Enabling Support Foundation http://www.enabling.org
Received on Thursday, 19 October 2000 19:52:06 UTC