Judy Lightfoot

Judy Lightfoot is a writing coach, academic tutor, curriculum consultant, and a freelance writer/editor as stated on her home page (http://home.earthlink.net/~judylightfoot/). In researching her further, and reading published articles, I realized that Dr. Lightfoot is an advocate for educational technology, yet she doesn’t ever mandate as this being the only educational tool. This became most clear in an article published by Seattle Weekly. She talks about a private school in Seattle that is deciding over making laptops mandatory. Some believe it is necessary while others feel the computer labs are sufficient to offer student access. In reading more about the issue, I realized that if this kind of situation became mandatory in school, many students throughout the United States will not be getting the same education as those that are privledged. When did education become about economic status? Let’s be honest, there are more children in the country that cannot afford a computer, let alone a laptop, how can that become a necessary item like a 5 star notebook. If big businesses decide to donate enough laptops to cover the countries population of children, then maybe a solution could be made. Judy Lightfoot states that many of the students that attend this private school are children of big business people. I think this points out an issue with e-learning. Although technology is VERY important, there are many that are not going to benefit from this. It’s cost is too high to apply nationally, and will ultimately keep those without the monetary funds on the bottom. How can we enforce something that many of us cannot supply?

In this weeks readings I was brought to realization that this information has been a constant within my education through the years. My generation, the twenty somethings, seem to have learned and processed so much information through the great technological advances, that one doesn’t realize the basics of it all. From learning about computers through grammar school games such as Oregon Trail and that Lotus game with the turtle. Although I remember being completely entertained by this, I now realize I was getting a full education in computer usage, and an introduction into prompting and commanding. What was most interesting about these chapters was not only the complete breakdown of computers, but also it’s offering to teach how to apply these basic tools. The beginning chapters describe basic background information from hardware of the computer to in depth explanations of computer networking and connecting. What became evident through the readings is the need for those to understand the technologies they are using. What I mean by this is a teacher needs to offer their students insight into how exactly they got connected to the webpage they are on. In chapter 5 there is the most informative breakdown of how those using their computers for internet based applications are able to do so. We learn the different networks, them being LANs, WANs, and the internet. Some may think this is basic information that will never truly apply to themselves, but the basic knowledge gives users the ability to problem solve technological issues. I also feel that in education it’s important to work from the ground up learning the history of through the present. Computers offer a completely well-rounded education. Not only does it apply science, math, and English, but computers offer the use of common sense to students, i.e. if you right click to copy, you will right click to paste. As I often state, e-learning is an outlet for students beyond classroom learning, constantly expanding ones horizons.