Amanda Nunan

Amanda, a very interesting and current topic! I have a friend who is a teacher and teaches underprivileged children. She was telling me just the other day that a majority of her students, who are currently online learning, cannot grasp the technology because they’ve never had the chance to use it before. The school was able to provide them with the tools to submit the work but my friend is finding it hard to mark the work being submitted. The students are having to teach themselves tasks that we would find simple, like writing on the iPad. It must be so hard for them to feel confident in their work and at the same time must be so frustrating when having to learn the technology. I think the tribe you mention have created a wonderful resource and it shows us that sometimes when you need something doing, you just have to do it yourself. I sympathize with these children who deserve the same opportunities as everyone else.

Thank you for informing us that there are still people in this world doing their part to make the world a better place.

Amanda and Hannah –

I agree, very relevant topic. This is just the start to making a difference in the education gap. I have a friend that is a teacher in a bilingual school, just the other day she was telling me of all the challenges that she is facing. Her school provided all students with chrome books, but with remote learning a large percentage of teaching falls on the students parents. Many of whom may not be technology savy, she described having to try and explain how to use a mouse to a parent so they could operate the resources they have been provided with.

I think technology could be a saving grace for a large percentage of the gap in education but there are a lot of additional features that comes along, like wifi access as you mentioned and tech skills.

I have a 16 step-son who is online learning and is finding it extremely difficult to stay focused for 7-8 hours a day, Than there is my 6 year old niece who is having the same issue….For the most part, all of my friends with children, agree-the on-line learning concept is extremely hard for all ages..

I understand it must be done during these times, however i do not think it should be a constant in the future, at least for middle school and high school students for full time schooling. Technology is a great resource, however i feel the world is going down a rabbit hole with on-line learning and it will effect the younger generation socially as well as psychologically .

Great post Amanda. It’s easy to focus on the negative impacts the pandemic had on the world. This article brings out the positives. The system the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe used was not only able to bridge the gap, but it paved the way for low income students in the future. This is such. great way to provide equal education opportunity. As many people dislike online education, technology is the future. Children who do not have reliable internet access will be able to have more time to modernize with society. I hope as you said, more people follow this model.

This is an awesome innovation that I hope to see implemented in communities and neighborhoods everywhere. This would definitely alleviate a lot of the burden for families that can’t afford internet and/or help them use that money elsewhere. However, we will still need a solution for providing these families with computers/laptops. I feel like that’s why the US Census is so important. People aren’t filling these out so they can get the proper funding they need. In addition, imagine the potential for these wireless networks? We could probably establish permanent internet connections in places that we never thought we could before.

Before the pandemic I was on the fence about universal high speed internet. However, now I feel it should be a fundamental service. Just like the government provides water, swage, and electricity. There should be a process to ensure internet for all residents. If the government did this it would also address another problem, net neutrality. As a public service the internet would be protected against ISPs limiting internet speeds based on how much you pay.

Very interesting and SCARY! The use of smart technology (for instance the RING) to help us protect our home, isn’t really protecting us at all. It makes me wonder about smart technologies, to have or not to have; are we better with or without them.

Yikes. I am not comfortable with this technology and its implications. I’ve read articles about how Ring security cameras are easy to hack because people choose easy-to-remember passwords, so that doesn’t bode well unless there have been massive security upgrades: https://www.newsweek.com/ring-amazon-cameras-cybersecurity-passwords-easy-hacking-internet-connected-1477442
So in the not-so-far future, Amazon could use AI to analyze surveillance footage, learn what products consumers have in their homes and market accordingly? Hard pass from me.
Also, this technology is just asking to be featured in a “when a stranger calls”/home invasion movie.

I agree that the ease of use is an amazing appeal for using these functions. However, you are literally putting cameras in your house that you do not know what happens to that footage. Anyone can get access to it. I almost feel that storing everything on site with a single login would be better. If all the information was stored in everyone’s home, then hackers would have to break into every home’s device. This seems more secure than having one location that hackers can attack over and over and get millions of people’s worth of data, making it much more worthwhile to attack.

Amanda, your article touches on everything that concerns me about these advances in AI in smart technology. The big question of “what happens to this footage/data” is what crosses my mind, even reading some of our other classmates posts about the Roomba and online Therapy options. It feels silly, but now I even wonder about something as seemingly inconspicuous as a vacuum gathering data about the layout of my home and reporting that data to… who? I don’t know, but while all of this technology seems really fascinating and advanced, I can’t help but feel nervous and as Amber said, scared. Especially the Ring cam.