Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 4
Posts 1 - 4

No power or running water - but digital books galore

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 2.8.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | childhood, digitized education, smartphone
Summary | Inside a library in Rwanda, you can see children with e-readers, smartphones, and digital books. John Kanyambo is 12 and likes digital books; children can learn a lot of new words with them. This is what Africa looks like today; parts of it welcome digital innovations, but other parts haven't had an agricultural revolution yet.
Image Description | Photographs of two African boys using a tablet, two people walking somewhere in Africa, and portrait of an African man.
Image Tags | male(s), tablet

Da hilft auch das Internet nicht

(The internet won't help with that)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 18.1.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | digitized education, politics, smartphone, threat
Summary | The access to internet has been declared a basic human right because it was thought that the internet is the only way to access unbiased information that may be censored elsewhere. While it is true that the internet opens up a flood of information unavailable outside of it, it does not guarantee that people become less biased or more tolerant. This is exemplified by the clash of cultures which happened on New Year's Eve in Cologne where foreign refugees sexually harrassed German women publicly despite all having had smartphones and thus access to the internet which could have taught them that this is inappropriate behavior in Germany.
Image Description | Portrait of the author.
Image Tags | male(s)

Schulen verbieten Handys – sogar während Pausen

(Schools prohibit mobile phones – even during recess)

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Newspaper | 20 Minuten
Date | 11.9.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | digitized education, school, smartphone, technology-free
Summary | Several Swiss schools are prohibiting smartphone use at school, even outside of classes. Apparently, teachers think that students are no longer interacting with one another. This ban clearly clashes with the Swiss German curriculum reform “Lehrplan 21” which plans to occasionally introduce smartphone use in the classroom for school assignments. It does not make sense for a few schools to refuse to acknowledge what is now a reality, namely that people now frequently use their smartphones to communicate rather than talking face-to-face.
Image Description | Series of four photographs: group of teenagers sitting together and using their smartphone, and three portraits of male interviewees.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone

C'est la rentrée à l'école numérisée

(It's the start of the digital school year)

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Newspaper | Le Temps
Date | 30.8.2016
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | childhood, digitized education, school, smartphone, youth
Summary | A school principal explains how digital devices can help children learn. He wants to progressively digitize 50% of the school material. Smartphones and laptops don't ruin the school system; we just need to know how to use them. At his private school, everyone has a an iPad where they can find their class material. Now, the school provides each child with an iPad, but soon everyone will bring their own device. Our digitized society has the advantage of tightening social relationships between people, which is something not everyone agrees with.
Image Description | Photograph of a child using a tablet.
Image Tags | chart, female(s), male(s), school, tablet

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