The final assignment has been begun, the CTW race is coming to a close soon, however, there is still a significant amount of work that needs to be done for me to finish out this course. 

My paper about the internet and computer use in higher education is coming along nicely, with a few small bumps in the road, but overall progressing in a positive direction. Recently my professor sent me a link to an article about links between technological literacy and poverty, which I am going to strongly incorporate into my final essay. This essay by Cynthia Selfe is the perfect connection that I need, as it allows me to better find my own niche for my argument, something we are striving to do with these essays. I found my niche to be how the internet is vital to being successful in school, so therefore any group of people unable to access the internet, such as a group with large amounts of poverty, are not going to be able to be successful academically which then sets them back as they attempt to enter into the modern workforce.

This trend draws itself very strongly upon racial lines, which makes this an issue beyond just poverty, which would be bad in of itself, but because of this revelation it becomes a part of a much larger problem of institutionalized racism, something that needs to be actively combated to get rid of. I then am going to offer the idea that if governments provided some sort of base technological education or supplement to Americans who can not afford computers on their own, then millions of Americans would be able to live much more financially successful lives.

Nate Miller

As one of our assignments for this class, we have to create a survey to do in person research about our topics at Santa Clara. I think this is a truly interesting way to do research for a paper, as it gives a truly personal view into how the topic affects people at the same institution that we are all at together.

To create a survey, there are several thing to consider. 1) what do you want to know? 2) how do you want to ask your questions? and 3) how are you going to get people to respond to your survey? I have come up with conclusions to try and answer these questions in regards to my own survey.

First, I need to figure out what I want to know. My topic is how the internet affects student life at Santa Clara, so i need to create questions that accurately gauge the levels of internet use at the university. I also need to clarify whether that use is for education or entertainment, as those are two very distinct categories of internet use.

To achieve this goal I am going to create questions that ask for hourly counts of internet use in both categories, so I can compare them side by side for accurate results. The next thing to tackle is how important people think their internet use is in relation to their education, so I shall create questions that have the responder rate on a scale of 1-5, agree to disagree, things such as: The internet is important to education, The internet hinders my ability to learn in class, I would be able to be a successful student without the internet, and etc. I think that this will give me good insights into people’s opinions about the internet in higher education.

The final obstacle is getting people to fill out my survey. I hope that my teammates will fill out the survey, as well as people from my class, but I am also going to send out emails and facebook messages attempting to get people to fill out my survey, as the more responses I have the more accurate my conclusions will be able to be.

Nate Miller

In class today, we gave our presentations for our first research assignment. I did mine on the effect of the internet on higher education, but there were lots of other unique  presentations too. One presentation that I thought was fascinating and important was James’ presentation on diversity on College campuses.

Within this presentation he brought up a lot of good points regarding the need for increased diversity on campuses everywhere, and the benefits brought about by having a diverse student body. As James laid out in his presentation, having a diverse student body not only allows for a more open minded community when it comes to civil issues, but also produces better students and better leaders, both very important things that universities are striving to do. With racial issues being such a large influence on many large issues of today, any organization that strives to bring the most people into the most enlightened view about race is doing a good thing. This, combined with proven increases in academic
success on diverse campuses leaves very little room for doubt that having diverse campuses is beneficial to everyone involved.

I went to a fairly non-diverse high school, so Santa Clara has been a greater step into diversity for me. Other students may come from more diverse schools and by attending Santa Clara, are stepping into a less diverse community. Either way, we need to recognize the need for diversity and strive to create a community where everyone has equal opportunity in everything, and is not held back or looked down upon because of their ethnicity.

Nate Miller