IT Destined??!

While reading Warschauer's book Technology and Social Inclusion, I was struck by an answer to my own questions regarding the place of ICT in my time/energy/future. He says, "...the most valuable learning in society involves not so much learning about as learning how" and that learning how is intimately tied up with learning to be (Warschauer, 2003, p. 122). I've been pondering the necessity of becoming much more technologically literate, both for the sake of my own future, as well as for the futures of my sons and students. So, here I am...attempting some blogging...well, it's a start, anyway.

Digital Resources: Excellent Models

I wanted to see what Warschauer labelled an excellent site. For promising health care information see HealthNet. HarlemLive, Playing2Win, and Think Quest, and are sites that reach people who could possibly have less access to ICT.

Online content and Literacy

My husband, Terry, had an interview this week to teach in the United Arab Emorate. So while I am reading Warschauer's Technology and Social Inclusion, I am also doing some on-line research myself. Everyone who has been there raves about it. But, I am somewhat concerned about being a Christian in a Muslim country so I figured I'd check it out. Scott Sutton mentions a public healing service in the city of Dubuis while Voice of the Martyrs claims imprisonment is still a threat. (I am wondering how to copy and paste web addresses into links as I just handwrote that out and then typed in every letter - yes, I'm an immigrant to using technology.) I did, however find a voice of moderation. So, what is really happening there?

I also found a really juicy example of misinformation. Apparantly Tsunami was created by joint American, Israeli, and Indian underwater weapons testing.

search query quandaries

I have to say that I first had to look up the spelling of "quandaries". I know I'm an immigrant to generation.com simply because the only way I knew how to look up a definition is to open a window in Microsoft Word and write out "quandries" and then check its spelling. After I had located the correct spelling, I went to Wikipedia to make sure I had used the word correctly only to find it has not been added to this online dictionary yet - feel free to experiment. Wikipedia was not available for some reason, so I had to go to google.com.

Anyway, the real purpose of this blog is to inform you that I have access to the devices and the conduits, but am concerned about my information literacy. I am not sure that I can formulate appropriate search queries. I was curious about the "ongoing financial woes" of Amazon.com and so I proceeded to search in google. I tried "Amazon.com finances new high-risk" and other such combinations but failed to find anything truly useful. What I found was a somewhat informative site and a site to which I've already lost the address.

So, I am a blind man with a stick and I go tap, tap, tap. Where do I start?