[YL] RE: [ctcnet] digital literacy

[Martin Sweeney]

Matt,

Thank you for passing along such a thoughtful article ("Charlotte's Webpage:
Why Children Shouldn't Have the World At Their Fingertips"). I've spent the
last seven years aggressively advocating the use of assistive and computer
technology for persons with developmental disabilities and their families.
At the beginning, during and now, I continue bearing the love-hate
relationship with technology that so many of us experience -- personally and
professionally. I also have an adult daughter (age 22) who happens to have
cerebral palsy with significant physical needs.

To complicate the question even more, the serious issues raised in Monke's
terrific article notwithstanding, I have watched as my daughter's world
continues to "virtually" open up to her in ways that the "real" world
continues to refuse her. For every moment my heart breaks as my daughter
"isolates" herself online, I am forced to recognize how her online
experiences are far more real than I could ever first imagine. Where in real
space and time, people struggle to communicate with her, and more often than
not simply ignore her. She is bright, funny, alive, vibrant, determined and
not-to-be-denied. For those who know her these qualities shine, but as for
her real time social life, she can count her real-time friends on less than
one hand.

I have watched as she "virtually" reaches out into the world. She has an
active "real" life online. Friends, Instant Messages, My Space, blogs,
teachers, classmates, and even her own business in which she wrote,
designed, published and continues to sell her first book. I truly can't put
into words what my wife and I have witnessed over these last 20 some years.

Still, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the darker side of the
Faustian bargain to extract its price. I imagine a day when she turns away
from the screen and feels a stronger pull into the "real" world. And yet for
all my doubts, I continue to watch and am convinced that her technology --
which she has used from the age of three -- has truly shaped if not forged
her psycho-social development to the point of her being a well-adjusted,
psychologically strong young woman. Ironically, this opportunity is exactly
what the "real" world continues to withhold. How strange that it has been
technology (and her online experiences) that may very well have saved my
daughter from an institutional hell of isolation in the real world.

This was not Monke's undertaking in writing his wonderful piece; and my
daughter's experience may well be the exception. I pass it along only to
help remind myself of the truly significant and brighter side of this
techno-Faustian bargain. I'm still waiting for that other shoe to drop.

I encourage others, especially those working with young children and
families, to read Monke's piece and I thank Matt for sharing it.

Marty Sweeney

-----Original Message-----
From: matt crichton [mailto:bigchainring at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2005 10:27 AM
To: ctcmembers at lists.ctcnet.org; galaxy at lincboston.org;
random at cambridgevineyard.org; youthlearn at mail.edc.org
Subject: [ctcnet] digital literacy

happy friday to everyone...

I pulled this from my blog.
I think it's very useful to be aware of this..as we all zoom towards digital

literacy.
http://www.mrcmain.blogspot.com/

Some of you may know that I work at the YMCA with computer labs. So you 
would think I would be all about giving kids access to computers at any age.

Well, I read an article in Orion titled "Charlotte's Webpage" that I really 
agree with,..and it argues for keeping children connected to the "real" 
world.
http://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/05-5om/Monke_FT.html

take care..
matt


==================================
Matt Crichton
CyberY Developer
YMCA Boston/Training, Inc.
18 Tremont St.; Suite 400
Boston, MA  02108
617-542-1800 x32
mcrichton at ymcaboston.org
bigchainring at hotmail.com
Cyber Y: http://www.cyberyboston.org/
Personal: http://www20.brinkster.com/bigchainring/index.htm
AmeriCorps VISTA 2000-2002 (Seattle, Boston)

But don't be satisfied with poems||
And stories of how things||
Have gone with others.||
Unfold your own myth,||
Without complicated explanation,||
So everyone will understand||
The passage||
"We have opened you"||
ILLUMNIATED RUMI
Coleman barks


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