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The need for No
Child Left Unplugged (NOCU) popped into my consciousness
at the end of my eighth grade year. While volunteering at
a local elementary school, I noticed a set of computers in
one of the classrooms. They were nine-year old Macs – the
same ones I remember using in Kindergarten. For a moment,
I thought, "Well, if they still work..." But I was unable
to shake off an uncomfortable feeling: those ancient things
could never run the applications I was expected to be able
to use every day at my school. Those kids would not even
have access to something that was deemed a requirement elsewhere;
even those who were learning how to use those computers proficiently
would be nearly a decade behind the curve.
I realized that
a significant new divide had opened in our society between
those who have the opportunity to learn how to use modern
technology and those who do not – and the statistics back
this up. In 1996, the State of California set a goal of a
student:computer ratio of 4:1 by the year 2000; to this day,
that has not been achieved. As of the most recent reports,
that ratio remains more than three times higher than what
can be found in private schools. When you limit it to computers
capable of multimedia work, that difference in ratio triples.¹
Since that epiphany, I have been working on establishing
a program to help socioeconomically disadvantaged students
gain equal footing with those at private schools throughout
the Bay Area through a model which emphasizes peer learning
and thoughtful use of the new tools available to us.
Thank
you for your time, and please browse around to learn more!
Sincerely,
Corey Linehan
¹California State Board
of Education "Recommendations of the Commission on Technology
in Learning for California K-12 Education Technology"
(Ratio difference based on report's finding and student:computer
ratio at Schools of the Sacred Heart, San Francisco) |
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