There is a local care center in downtown Lake Wales to help out thousands of people here and in Central Florida with economic problems and to donate stuff to them. Every day, they also receive many donations which they use to give to those who do not have much. I attend a school that was established to help those who can't afford to go to most private or Christian schools around. I learned that there were students who attended there in the past who were forced to do their homework in the car because the parents couldn't afford to pay for their bills.
One huge benefit about my school is that it offers a program called step up for students. In case you don't know what that is, it is a program that takes away a lot of the tuition involved that a student needs to attend private school. As I learned from watching your, "hole in the wall experiment," I noticed that kids in India get extremely excited about something as common in America as a computer.
It was very shocking to me to see that so many kids would crowd around one computer until there was twenty or so, from what I saw in the video. Here in America, people are getting more and more excited about hand-held devices and cars. Hand-held devices are really cool because they have the same capabilities as computers but are small enough to fit into your hand or pocket.
As I saw from the video, I saw that the internet really helped benefit the kids because it gave them something else to do after school was done for the day and before school. I learned that it was improving their education and helping make these kids literate. I was very surprised how fast the kids learned to use these computers when this was the very first time they had seen one.
I have learned quite a bit of information lately about India's poverty but I did not learn that there was an experiment done with computers and children. I am very happy to know that this experiment was done because computer literacy is extremely crucial for children while their brains are most active. The earlier you teach children how to use a computer who don't live in an area with them, the more accustomed they will be to it as they get older.
All I learned about India over the years was it had serious poverty issues and a lot of people there live in the slums. I learned how bad medical issues are, how dirty the water is and the lack of clothing and food there is to eat. I never even considered the fact that there was a business that made high speed computers.
When I watched the children observing the computers, it almost made me cry in complete shock. I have grown so accustomed to owning a computer all of my life but when I saw children who had never seen a computer before, I had the hardest time accepting that. The children in India are probably the only people that I know of that do not own computers and are not accustomed to using one.
Since I had grown up with a computer in my home my whole life, it is not a new thing to me. But it baffles me to know that kids five and older are able to figure how to use a computer within a month. In m opinion, that is determination!
The internet has changed society in many ways but I will only name a few. One major way the internet has changed society is through Google. People used to depend on dictionaries and encyclopedias for information. My parents always tell me when they were young they didn't have internet like my brother and I are used to.
It has become so convenient for me to find homework help today compared to the 1960's, when my parents grew up when they didn't have that technology. I was on Google the weekend before Christmas break trying to find out where the first Publix started. It would have taken hours to weeks for my parents to find the information but it took me only thirty minutes.
Yes, I admit that I do have my local library to find books in but why do I need to when Google has all of the information that I need. Google hasn't just helped me, it has helped millions of people today, especially here in Lake Wales. I say that because Lake Wales is a very poverty stricken city but with technology, people have pulled themselves through it.
Because of technology, people can apply for jobs online. People can even take online education which was unheard of twenty years ago or so. It is a lot easier to learn the importance of driving a motor vehicle than it used to be in the 1950's.
Without technology in my city, some people would be forced to purchase newspapers since not everyone can afford the newspaper or computers. Without computers, jobs could not be posted online for Lake Wales which would make it extremely difficult for anyone to live in Lake Wales. Lake Wales has had such bad poverty that businesses have ran out of business frequently; I could imagine how bad Lake Wales's economy would be without computers.
Computer literacy is so crucial today because the world is turning towards the media more and more every day. This forces people to learn how to use a computer for multi-purposes, that way they will be prepared to use one whenever needed to. On Google, you have the ability to research anything.
If I wanted to research math then all I have to do is type into Google, math. Google is the best tool to have excellent computer literacy for, so that you will know what to do if you have to study for tests or learn to be an accountant. Without computers or the internet here in Lake Wales, it would be a lot harder for people to go through life than normal. At my local library, I notice that the public computers are always occupied since many people in Lake Wales don't have computers.
With computers, people in Lake Wales can still: have a Facebook, buy cheap furniture on Craigslist , look up the lottery, research information on Google, read the newspaper for free, etc. Without these computers, I can bet that many of these people would not be doing very well at all. Considering the fact that the care center does so much as it is, Lake Wales may be in bad poverty but is still way better off than India.
Sincerely, David Dunbar
