The Chicago Tribune published an article this weekend about the impact that the Internet can have on the lives of people who are trying to make ends meet. The article mentions the WiMax rollout in Chicago, and the Lt. Governor of Illinois’ recently introduced ordinance to provide 15,000 low-cost laptops to Chicago Public School kids.

But the article is really about how the Internet gives people access to a whole new world. From the article:

Michael Bailey, who helps provide computer training for Chicago Housing Authority
residents, said that once people develop computer skills “they start to see that they can succeed. When they have the motivation, you begin to see lifestyle changes.”

The article quotes one woman who has a computer but cannot afford Internet service. She has a paying job, but other things are more important. But it started me thinking, for those who have a modest income, for whom a high-speed Internet connection might just be a little too expensive, could Internet access actually pay for itself?

With a little motivation, the Internet opens up a boat load of opportunity. Just getting the tools to apply to one job a day, or using online resources to education oneself, Internet access could result in a higher paying job. For those with time, who are willing to put some effort, everything a person would need to make money from the Internet is freely available online.

Is the Internet worth springing for, even if it might put a family outside their means? How long would it take for Internet access in a household to pay for itself?

The teachermate is a handheld computer, like a Nintendo Gameboy or a Sony PSP, and they have been in use in Chicago public school classrooms for the past school year. The Teachers’ Podcast did a review of the device last month.

A couple weeks ago I got the opportunity to see the teachermate in action at Jungman Elementary school on the South Side of Chicago.

I wrote a month ago about a school district in North Carolina that is using smart phones in class as a platform for learning.

Mobile devices could be a great way to integrate technology into the classroom. They are inexpensive, ubiquitous, and are designed for communication. A lot of kids have them already, so teachers could harness their power instead of telling the kids to turn them off.

Read Write Web has a piece up about mobile learning and the integration of mobile devices in the classroom, a response to a recent book called Augmented Learning by MIT Professor Eric Klopfer.

Klopfer call this idea m-learning. E-learning is so 2005.

Small mobile game devices are already making strides in classrooms, although they may not all be mobile phones. I’ve talked about the importance of the educational software. The mobile phone could hypothetically be a great platform, but with all the different kinds of phones and different capabilities, can you create good software that won’t require all students to by an iPhone for class?

I spoke with Chicago Public Library’s marketing director, Ruth Lednicer, about what they are doing for city residents. I asked her about the Cyber Explorer program, which pays college students to teach library patrons how to use the Internet, and about other ways the library is working on fulfilling communities’ tech needs.

Digital Divisions interview with Ruth Lednicer (transcript after the bump):

Ruth Lednicer – CPL

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Oxford professor and neuroscientist, Susan Greenfield, said children’s brains are rotting from too much exposure to technology. In an interview for The Sunday Times Life & Style section about her life and work, Greenfield discusses her theory about the effect of video games and Internet Media exposure on the brain chemistry of developing children.

Greenfield theorizes that the structure of modern technology emphasizes method over content and will rob children of imagination, creativity and personality:

If the purpose of a game, for instance, is to free the princess from the tower, it is the thrill of attaining the goal, the process, that counts. What does not count is the content – the personality of the princess and the narrative as to why and how she is there, as in a storybook. Greenfield avers that emphasis on process in isolation becomes addictive and profoundly mind-changing.

-John Cornwell, The Sunday Times

What about games that emphasize content and interpersonal relationships, like the Sims, or massive online multiplayer games, where getting along with other people is critical for success? What about the online masses who would rather participate in social networking than isolated video games, or split time between the two? As someone who has enjoyed video games throughout my life, the things Greenfield says about the addictive nature of games rings true, and yet I think I have personality.

A recent report from the Pew Internet and American Life project reveals that teens are writing more. Through 700 phone surveys and interviews with parents and teens aged 12 to 17, researchers discovered that all teens were writing for school and a vast majority enjoyed writing. Parents agreed that their teenagers were writing more then they did at the same age. Much of their writing occurs through the Internet, on social networking sites, instant message, email, and text messages.

While it’s true that teens are using the written language more, educators and others are worried that the use of the instant methods of communication where brevity is more important than proper use of the language is causing more harm than good.

I think that anything that gets kids to communicate and create is worth it. Teens are taught in school how to write properly and are required to write properly. I think that as long as they are taught the difference between the way they would write to friends and the way they would write to be taken seriously, it’s not a problem.

So what do kids do the on the Internet?

Warren Buckleitner, the editor of Children’s Technology Review magazine, studied children in 10 different households who had access to high-speed Internet. Buckleitner put video cameras in the homes and had parents record how the kids used the Internet. He found that the kids by and large visited the following sites the most:

• Webkinz
• Club Penguin
• Noggin
• Addicting Games
• Everything Girl
• Millsberry

All of these sites are associated with toys, televisions shows, video games or advertising. Most if it is over-commercialized entertainment with an apparent goal to supplement and support product brands. Buckleitner laments the lack of educational value in these web sites when compared to educational software. These popular websites do not have what he calls a high educational “quality per click” ratio.

What really struck me is one of his first comments: “I watched children as young as three use Google to look up sites (don’t tell them they can’t read!).”

How can you use Google if you can’t read? Their entire site is text-based with a few splashes of color. It reminded me of a few recent discussions I’ve had with educators, where the notion came up that email, instant message and the Internet are encouraging kids to read and write much more then they used to.

It’s an interesting idea and, hopefully, a positive trend. As long as kids are not spending all their time reading and writing about Barbie dolls. Although grown-ups do spend a lot of time reading and writing about their toys.

via TheLedger.com

If technology is growing and changing at exponential rates how do people keep up with all the skills? Kids are great at intuitively picking these computer skills, its the adults that need the education.

This opinion piece at the Financial Times argues that continuing adult education is becoming so much more important with the fast-paced changes in the economy. The author, Michael Schrage, makes some poignant observations that go far in making his case. The population is aging. People are healthier and live longer. Older workers are in need of investment.

Schrage goes on to discuss how the Internet and global communications should make this continuing education thing a snap. All kinds of free media is available online, including high quality educational resources, podcasts, and lectures.

The San Francisco Chronicle has an interesting op-ed up on their website about a Digital New Deal. With a recession and a lot of young people coming of age having used the Internet for most of their lives, the author, Helen De Michiel, argues that the government should start an online public works program. The program would put savvy young ‘millennials’ to work building a public commons, kind of a super-social networking site, commercial-free and open to all.

This sounds like an interesting idea, especially with an impending recession that some have said will much worse than what we’ve seen in a while.

There is a response to the article at PBS’s Mediashift Idea Lab that brings up the most important issues of a kind of Digital New Deal, stuff that was not addressed in first article: broadband penetration and willingness of people to participate.

I think the priority of a Digital New Deal should lie in doing something about these issues. Like the effort to provide electricity and telephone service to rural areas in the ’30s and ’40s, we need a serious push to wire rural areas and neglected parts of urban areas for Internet access. Connected Nation, Inc.,, and not-for-profit that promotes broadband adoption and computer literacy, released a report that said that increasing broadband availability would add an extra $134 billion to the economy every year. That’s economic stimulus.

I think once this is done, we can discuss the possibility starting an online digital public works project. There is much that could be done with the Internet to improve our society and government, but we can’t leave people behind because they can’t get or afford access to it.

The Teachermate is targeted at kindergarden through third grade.

The XO laptop is designed to be easy to learn for kids of all ages around the world

Intel’s Classmate is slightly more powerful than the XO, but lacks custom software.

A new low-cost handheld computer called the Teachermate was introduced in March by non-profit Innovations for Learning, Inc. As part of a pilot program funded by the JP Morgan Chase Foundation, one-first grade class in each of Chicago’s 500 public elementary will get a full compliment of the $50 devices, each equipped with reading and math software that can be coordinated and monitored by teachers.

I spoke with the executive director of Innovations for Learning, Seth Weinberger, about the device and its place among the recent flurry of new computers designed for children, such as One Laptop per Child’s XO laptop, and Intel’s Classmate, among others. Weinberger had and interesting take on were the Teachermate fits, and with the experience he has in the educational software market he gave some interesting comments on the approach of the One Laptop per Child program and others.

The Teachermate is designed to be as simple as possible to keep the cost down and make it simpler and more reliable. But most importantly it keeps things simple for the young kids using it. Weinberger said that a full keyboard and Internet access aren’t appropriate for the age groups the device is targeted to.

“When you’re talking about a first grader they don’t really need to get to the internet and if they do, it should really be so filtered for them as to almost not really be the Internet. It has to be mediated by the teacher,” said Weinberger.

Weinberger sees devices such as the XO laptop and Classmate playing a larger role in older classes, after the students have graduated from using the Teachermate.

However Weinberger drew a deeper distinction between the Teachermate and the XO laptop, saying the Teachermate is designed in conjunction with educational software whereas the XO laptop has be developed as a tool or platform.

“They’re providing a platform for educational content, and they’re leaving it up the open source community to really come up with the content. … We work from the exact opposite approach. We started with the software that is needed from a content level to make a teacher effective in the classroom and then we were forced to create hardware, that would be a delivery system for that software but as a result we came up with a complete solution for the teacher.”

It’s an interesting observation on the problems of using technology to educate. It certainly makes sense that for a device that is destined for the classroom, software designed to help teachers teach the basics, reading, writing, math and science, is almost necessary. It doesn’t look like there is any work being done right now on any subject-based education software for XO laptop, at least.