Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 2.1
A classroom at the
Ullens School
developed country, they are well furnished and well lighted and some of them are also
equipped with a projector. The classrooms at Rudrayanee consist of bare concrete
units equipped with rudimentary benches, a blackboard, and no electricity supply.
The only room at Rudrayanee with an electricity socket is the computer laboratory
(Figs.
2.1
and
2.2
).
A small sample
1
of the students at each school were asked to fill a short survey
about their access to and use of computers, video games and mobile phones and as
one would expect there marked differences between the two schools.
While all of the surveyed children in Ullens had computers at home and enjoyed
Internet access both at home and in the school, only one child in Rudrayanee had
a computer at home and none benefited from Internet access at home. Thus while
most of the students at Ullens noted they spent between half and hour to four hours
per day on a computer most of the ones in Rudrayanee were restricted to about an
hour of computer usage per week at the school computer laboratory (composed of
fairly old computers running windows XP) with occasional use of computers and the
internet at a cyber café or during visits to relatives who owned a computer.
The section of the questionnaire concerned with game consoles revealed a deeper
schism between the two schools. In Ullens 11 of the 14 children surveyed ( 80 %)
noted they had game consoles at home with 6 of those having more than one type
of console and reporting their friends and family being in a similar situation. In
Rudrayanee, in contrast, only four children (33 %) noted they had a PlayStation at
home, and none of their friends or relatives had any at their home (one child noted
that one of the local children clubs had an Xbox).
Perhaps more telling was the terminology they used in response to the question
“Do any of your friends/relatives/school etc. have a game console you can play?”.
While the Participants from Ullens were versed with all the latest technology listing
1
In Rudrayanee a total of 12 students (8 females and 4 males) between the ages of 10 and 13 (median
13) completed the survey. In Ullens a total of 14 students (10 females and 4 males) between the
ages of 13 and 14 (median 13) completed the survey.
