Sam Hering
AMST 475 Final Paper
Individual Paper For Digilemmas
For our video documentary Group 3 shot a short documentary entitled “Digilemmas”. Our project goal was to focus was to investigate the “digital divide” present here at Washington State University. The short useful life of computer hardware and software coupled with the ever-increasing reliance of university class material upon computer technology, has created an example of the “Digital Divide” here at Washington State University. This divide prohibits students from being able to remain competitive in an increasing number of classes. Our documentary was divided into three different parts that focused on different aspects of the digital divide. The first part was myself interview students here at Washington State University about their personal computers and if they did not have a personal computer if the university provided adequate computers that is up to date to accommodate the students ever growing need to do schoolwork that is online based. During the second part we examined the usage of the campus computer labs on campus. This section will include interviews with the WSU Surplus Stores as well as representatives at the Academic Media Services. Act Two will be the part where we examine truly whether the university provides students with the adequate tools they need. Finally in Act Three we will look at what are the solutions to these “digilemmas” and all four of us talking about our views on “digilemmas” and what we think defines digital diversity.
My individual contribution to the documentary was doing the interviews of students for Act One. For my interviews I tried to interview people with Macs, PCs, and students without laptops. While I only had six interviewees make it into the documentary I talked with many other people on campus concerning the problem of personal computer usage on campus. In my interview with people with personal computers I focused on whether their computers provided the adequate programs to keep up with professors ever increasing tech-based schoolwork. For students without personal computers I tried to focus on if they felt the university provided the adequate resources to complete their schoolwork. The reason I was interested in doing this part of the documentary was because I wanted to interview the students to get their perspective. In my opinion the perspective of the student tells the truth about the state of the campus. When students are complaining about how the university is not providing them with adequate resources to complete their schoolwork they are only inflating the digital divide. For some students they are not able to pay for the ever-increasing cost of laptops that require constant updates to keep up or they will become obsolete. I myself have suffered by the university’s neglect of their computer labs and computers they provide. During my sophomore year I was in my Public Policy Economics class and we were assigned a project requiring a program called Statplus. I looked up the program and to download it costs fifty dollars, which I was unwilling to pay. Instead I went to the Economics Lab at Hulbert Hall where I do most of my economics homework. To my surprise I found that the lab did not have any computer with the program making it impossible to complete my project. When I went to my professor to figure out the situation he told me to figure it out. Eventually I had to buy the program to install onto my laptop and have yet to ever use it again. I think that it is ridiculous that students have to go through situations like this where not only are we paying astronomical amounts for tuition and books but also we must pay for programs to complete our schoolwork.
The “Digital Divide” is something that over the course of the semester has been something that I have been trying to form. To me the digital divide is something that has been caused by the ever-increasing advancement in technology. My laptop that I bought back in 2010 was the one I brought to college and it took me only a few weeks to realize that I was going to need a new computer. There is a noticeable gap between students who do not have the newest phones, computers, or whatever else Apple has come out with and those who do have these products. From my research on this product and just my own personal experience I can say students who are generally behind in classes involving mostly technology based coursework are generally students who do not have the newest technology. Now what does this mean for students? In the coming years I see that in colleges all over America professors are going to transition to classrooms where a laptop is required. No more blackboards or chalkboards. Notes are going to be given online, lectures will become video based, and homework will become online based only. This is already happening here at Washington State University. When I was a teaching assistant for a beginning microeconomics course I gave video reviews that were posted on angel. Many people will fall behind if we continue down this path. With the ever-soaring costs of tuition, books, and personal computers we will continue moving towards a more divided student body. We must step back and take a look at what we are moving towards and ask ourselves why we are moving towards this new culture on our campuses and if it is truly a good place to be headed.
As an economics major I thought this project was going to be a particularly boring project if I am to be completely honest. Yet after doing the research I found there was an economic side to this project that had parts to it that I have not yet seen in my economics courses. One of the readings you assigned, “The Deadly Labor Behind Our Phones, Laptops and Computer Gadgets” shed a new light for me upon where my tech goodies come from and the true economic costs behind them. These people are working in sweatshops to make our phones for them that are becoming a societal need. We never really stop to think about the cost of our pleasure do we? Apple can pay companies like Foxconn to cheaply produce Iphones and Macs for almost nothing. The cost is absolutely outrageous though. Those who work at the sweatshops are condemned to almost torturous conditions. Forced to live in dormitories near the sweatshops there are strict rules for the workers. In these dormitories relations between men and women is strictly forbidden. On the floor people are ruled with an iron fist. Talking and stretching are forbidden on the assembly line, and clocking in five minutes late may result in the loss of half a day’s wages. Bathroom use is limited to 10 minutes, which is strictly enforced by an electronic key card. There are some that have turned to suicide to get away from these conditions. In one case in 2009 an engineer committed suicide after being accusing of stealing an Iphone prototype and reportedly in his suicide note he said that one of the main factors were the overbearing guards at the facility that were harassing and beating him. All of this abuse and the company only pays the workers $1.18 an hour in the best paying places. In terms of the amount these people endure to the amount they are paid it is unbelievably. This is basically slave labor. Yet, Foxconn is still trying to find ways to decrease the amount of money they have to shell out to these workers. The main way they are trying to do this is by introducing robots to start doing the work. Still though according to the article Apple only pays nine dollars for every four hundred and ninety nine dollar iPad they make. This is the definition of winning in terms of a profit margin. But are they winning in terms of the human cost? They are absolutely not. The truth is that globalization is creating a new form of economics that is driving people into poverty and hardship. As long as companies like Apple are creating these new amazing products that we all (no one can say they cannot) are guilty of exploiting the people in these sweatshops around the world. How can we solve theses problems though? That is something that we a people must come together to solve. For the most part the exploitation of workers for profit happens in developing nations where they are trying to find their niche in the world economy. Developing nations seem to not care about exploiting because that is the only way they are going to move forward as a country. I think that if we all come together to figure out how to make the process of nation building and building economies a move humane process we can avoid the process of exploitation of their people. Maybe the United Nations can do their jobs for once but that will probably not happen anytime soon. Once we come together that is when we can figure out how to stop this exploitation.
The university charges all of us outrageous amounts of money in terms of tuition, books, and what not. Why are colleges increasing their costs while they are not increasing the services they provide for us? I have had multiple numbers of my friends go to the university trying to get student loans as tuition increases but they are constantly running into problems. The university is very non-understanding when it comes to costs. They expect all students to be able to give them money and thus they will give them degrees. This is not the case most of the time because the university does not generally take into account socioeconomic status of most students who are unable to come up with adequate money. Also most universities do not care to take into account costs of rent, clubs costs, and other expenses of collegiate life. For example, I am in a fraternity here at Washington State University and we have dues like most other organizations on campus. Many of my brothers have difficulty dealing with the growing number of debts they have from both the school and the fraternity. This cause many of my brothers and thus they are forced to go live in the slum that is college hill, even though I love that place till I die. Many people face very similar problems and have to deal with a university that generally takes months to get you your financial aid.
While the university is dealing with the rising cost of everything there is another fast growing problem at this university: technology. I briefly touched on this earlier but I will now go much more in depth and give my true opinion upon the rise of the laptop classroom here at Washington State University. While moving towards a more digital classroom sounds like a good idea it is an idea that is like a train that is barreling towards the edge of a cliff. We must slow down the train to identify the pros and cons of the situation before making the decision. In our video one of the interviewees in the communication department mentions his view of that eventually labs will be made up of a few computers and stations to plug in your laptops. This is just something that cannot happen now especially with the current situation of our students and the resources the university has. By taking a breather I think I have identified a few areas that we need to look at before we make this move. First is looking what does the university provide? Do we actually currently the infrastructure to provide students with the things we need? Next is identifying what access our university provides to its technology labs. Finally we should talk about the way professors are teaching in classrooms these days.
First let’s talk about what the university provides students. Currently a laptop is pretty important to help students conduct their schoolwork. How can we be expected too complete our homework without it. During my interviews I conducted with guys in fraternity I learned that the university has laptop rentals available. Before this I had no idea about this option. Why does the university not market this option to students? If they do not mention this to students they will never be able to get students to take advantage. I went to see what the laptop rentals were all about and their prices were pretty fair for the condition that most of those laptops were in. For the most part they were in pretty good shape but I doubt that they would be able to stand a whole school year of abuse. The university also provides the computers in the libraries, which are less than helpful in my opinion because to put it bluntly they are terrible PCs. One of the great things I learned in this project though was how amazing the university is with E-waste. After hearing about the interview that Drew and Max did at the WSU Surplus place I was amazed that our university was able to handle that much recycling of computers. Being able to say that my university is one hundred percent E-waste clean is a pretty cool thing.
Moving on from what the university provides we can talk about the access the students have to certain labs around campus. I was shocked to learn that the labs that we were using in the communication department were only available to students that were in the communication department. This was really surprising to since I think that as tuition paying students the field of study that we choose should not have any impact on what resources we can and cannot use. A policy like this only hinders student progress at this university. As an economics major I generally only use the labs at Hulbert Hall. But say I need to edit a video that my laptop does not have the programs to do. I am not going to buy that kind of program online because it probably costs a fortune. Instead I am going to go look around campus at other options. How can the university justify denying students access to resources they need? Denying access is denying access to new knowledge. That is not the way to run a university.
Finally, we must examine how our professors are moving in terms of teaching. Over the past few years being here at Washington State University I have noticed the changes in terms of technology. With the implementation of clickers professors have news of taking attendance, providing pop quizzes, and just testing if students are paying attention. But of course these clickers have not come about because of a need rather because the textbooks we buy are coming with them. Textbook publishers are marketing towards certain professors to make them buy them thus upping the costs of books. Besides that we are moving towards more laptop-based classroom. One article I read predicts the almost complete extinction of computer labs as we move towards more laptop based work. I agree this will happen but I do not agree we should. Why should we be getting rid of our labs that provide certain students with the ability to do work? We cannot just assume that students are going to go out and get laptops just because we want them to. What ever happened to a professor answering questions in classrooms? This is happening less and less in my opinion because people are just asking the questions through emails. In my opinion online reviews, online, homework, and online classes take away from the learning process. We are losing the ability to ask our professors straight up what is going on in class. How does this benefit students overall?
To end this little reflection of mine I would just like to thank you Joseph or any other of my classmates who are reading this for an excellent semester and quite the interesting class. I have never taken an American Studies or DTC course before. This course has to my quite literal surprise changed how I look at the Internet and this digital age we are in now. This class has challenged me in many different ways that were way out of my comfort zone. Blogging, tweeting, and defining topics such as digital diversity are things that I have never been engaged in before. Each one of the blogs prompts we have been presented with has provided a new and interesting topic to talk about that I have never seen or heard about before. They have made me look at things in a new perspective that make me think differently. Tweeting is a new and interesting thing to me. Before this class I had sworn to never get a twitter account. To my surprise I have found tweeting to be a fun experience. I can see how people all over the world can use this simple website to create interest for people to look at topics they normally do not look at. Topics such as digital diversity are new to me and I have never seen them before. In this class I have been exposed to a whole new style and way of learning. Watching some documentaries in class has really opened my eyes to some of the hardships of this world and I am very happy for it. But is this not the true point of the collegiate experience? This class has opened my eyes to something new and fresh. I came to college hoping to find new parts of myself. In this class I have found a new intuitive part of myself. We are all together able to solve each other’s “digilemmas”; we just have to work together. I hope our documentary provides a catalyst for discussion about these issues not only on our campus but also all over the country. Again thank you to Joseph and my classmates for truly one of the most interesting classes I have ever taken at Washington State University.