Month: September 2018

Who doesn’t use internet?

Internet and mobile phones look astounding for their adoption rates.
But some groups get left behind consistently.

You are less likely to use technology
if you are older, poorer or disabled.

Below: Images related to technology adoption in the US, Pew research results on people with disability as well as an older research for comparison.

Technology adoption by households in the United States. Technology adoption rates, measured as the percentage of households in the United States owning, or the adoption rates of, a particular technology.
Technology adoption rates, measured as the percentage of households in the United States owning, or the adoption rates of, a particular technology.

Disabled Americans are less likely to use technology
(Source: Pew Research Center)

Thrice as unlikely to go online,
Twice as likely to use a ride-hailing app,
If you identify yourself as having a disability.

Across age groups, disabled Americans seem to have lower technology adoption rates.
Across age groups, disabled Americans seem to have lower technology adoption rates.

Also, an earlier Pew Internet report from 2012…

Disability in the Digital Age from Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project

The birth of language

How do you learn language?
How do you learn a word?

The first International Day of Sign Languages was this Sunday, September 23rd. I was wondering how do we learn our first language.

In the learning sciences, some believe learning is contructivist, some believe it is situated – some believe learning is individualistic and some believe it is social in nature. In most cases, learning is so complex that many of these seem like attempts at simplification to merely address our own ignorance. Once in a while though, they are illuminating.

MIT researcher Deb Roy presented one of the most illuminating TED Talks.

Listen to how his child learns to speak a word…
literally see how events affect how the world communicates…
magic sometimes does not care about what we hypothesize.

A 100 years late in taking kids to school?

One of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs or Global Goals for Sustainable Development) is universal education by 2030…

… and, yes, the world will be late by a century.

So many lives are affected by education and much has been achieved… much has to be achieved as well.

Read The 2017/8 GEM Report [Global Education Monitoring Report]. 

FIGURE 13.7: European youth with disabilities are more likely to be early school leavers Percentage of people aged 18 to 24 who left school early, by disability status, 2011.

© 2018 Sudip Ghosh.