Posted on 04/17/2013 12:15:20 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
AVALON PARK — A little more than a year ago, Sharon Bryant moved from public housing and into her own apartment in Englewood.
Bryant said she owes it all to the Internet.
"I never really knew much about the Internet, so I didn't bother to learn how to use it until I needed a job," said Bryant, 22. "That's when I discovered that most jobs require that you submit your resume or fill out an application online. And if you don't know how to log onto the Internet, you're in trouble."
Growing up in the Harold Ickes public housing complex, and later living in the Dearborn Homes public housing complex, both on the South Side, Bryant said Internet use was not a priority to her.
She became more digital savvy after getting assistance from the Chicago Housing Authority's Technology Lab at its Lake Parc Place apartment building, 3983 S. Lake Park Ave., where she now works as a computer lab supervisor for the agency's vendor, TEC Services Consulting Inc....
(Excerpt) Read more at dnainfo.com ...
See now they can post on their social websites when and where they are gonna go wilding. Makes for great crowds.
Introducing....
ObamaNET!
The library has too many sleeping bums and porn addicts to get access to the computers. < /sarc>
Libraries are racist.
Well, on the bright side, if they can do their drug deals online, that would take a lot of thugs off the streets.
Knows nothing about computers or the internet, they teach her to log on, and suddenly she’s the supervisor of a government-funded do-nothing program! Ain’t life in Obama-world grand! Just think what will happen when they teach her to read!
Not free. You and I are paying for it.
Great country, eh? < sarkasm / >
Wow, how did I manage to do homework when I was a kid. We didn’t have a computer or internet.
Somehow I managed to graduate high school and college without those essential tools. It must be a miracle.
Because it’s one of the new rights they have just found in the Constitution. The right to be provided for free, what those who work, may or may not be able to afford for themselves. Why are we still be taxed to pay for rural telephone and internet access?
I remember the Clinton’s always talking about the “digital divide.” What is these people’s obsession with equality? Guess what, having computers will make zero measurable difference in the lives of recipients. They’d probably be better off mot affording any technology more advanced than a printing press book.
Instead of being a “victim” after going through Hurricane Katrina in Biloxi, I worked as a supervisor at a Texas Workforce Center (I had 15 years of previous experience at Iowa Workforce Development) and we were passing out nice laptops, loaded with software along with free ISP service. That was in 2006. I had to authorize any and all “give-aways” while I worked there. Between gas cards, Wal-Mart & Target gift cards, bus passes, laptops, free child-care and unemployment, I probably handed-out a million dollars in my six months there. The majority went to the New Orleans “victims” of Katrina.
I graduated college just as internet work was becoming mandatory. I always used a computer to type papers but didn’t want to pay for internet access, so I would do what I had to here and there. It got to a point where they’d assign weekly online quizes, make you fetch supplemental materials online, have you email papers to them, etc. One more semester and I’m sure I wouldn’t have gotten away with it.
That’s what you have to bear in mind while reading this article. No doubt the kids are being assigned online articles to read, are forced to collaborate online, take online quizzes, etc. I’d be all for it if it broke the back of the corrupt textbook industry, but almost certainly it doesn’t. There isn’t any reason why teachers couldn’t have a bipartite system, whereby students can choose the internet or paper. But they’re stupid, lazy, and operate under misconceptions as to the future (as if kids won’t be able to land IT jobs because they didn’t copy and paste from wikipedia when they were twelve).
I can’t believe that a 22 year old graduated from public schools in this country without knowing about the internet and how to use it.
On a related thought, something came from Cox Cable earlier this week, that I did no read and threw away. I wish I had it back. I think it was something about a special offer or special deal for “those who qualify financially”.... like some other free phone or internet (or cable TV?) service that is paid for by the paying customers and/or taxpayers.
Fine I will give you that times have changed.
But the answer to children of poor parent not having computers or internet service in their homes is not to socialize internet access. There are libraries with computers and internet. Most schools have libraries with computers available for students.
In the private sector many coffee shops have free internet for their customers as do many restaurants (even many fast food places).
It is not the job of government to equalize access to anything let alone communication mediums. No free phones no free cable, no free internet. Why should I pay for some kid to be able to look at internet porn?!
Any marginally adequate teacher can figure out how her poor deprived students can accomplish completion of a homework assignment.
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