Friday, November 28, 2008

Colonial Discourse and the XO

Among the controversies surrounding this laptop, colonialism seems to be on the far edges of the spectrum in the conversations occurring in the mass media.  But their have been arguments that have concluded that this laptop is the preservation of colonial discourse.  Is western discourse permeating in the third-world through these laptops?  I need to do further research into colonial discourse and the uses of these laptops to determine whether this is a significant concern.  But there is a video online that raises these questions of western permeation  and the flattening of the world. 

On You Tube, there is a video of a young boy, somewhere in the British Isles, using one of these laptops that his father brought back from Nigeria.  How his father got one is up for discussion.  But the significant part of this discussion is when the boy begins to talk about his new online friends from Nigeria.  The laptop, when turned on, immediately sets up a mesh network with the other laptops around it.  So, every child in one class will automatically be connected with one another.  The point is to promote collaboration to solve problems.  But, the connection to these Nigerian children still remain on this computer.  The disturbing part is that the young boy from Britain refers to they're use of English as "poor" or "bad."  Now, how many little "proper" English speaking children are going to get one of these laptops and "correct" their new friends' "inferior" speech.  I don't think this is a situation that is going to happen often.  However, many of these countries that are receiving these laptops are promoting connectivity.  And their are other avenues in which these children may speak with "proper" English speakers.  So, these connections may continue to rise as more under-privileged   children receive these laptops.  So, this is a situation that may continue to repeat at an increasing frequency.

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