Equal access vs. the market

I've been making my way through the Bazerman & Rogers chapter on "Knowledge Within Modern European Institutions". Two different quotes stuck out to me toward the end of the chapter.

1. "Economic inequalities of nations that do not support the conditions necessary for the production of knowledge also challenge full participation in and access to knowledge" (Canagarajah, 2002) p.172. I realize that within the context of this chapter, the authors are talking about the availability of research journals and 'printed knowledge' that is available in developing worlds. However, I was struck by the quote because just this week I read an article (which is at school and I can't get the citation) that talked about how students from neighborhoods and schools of poverty differ in their Internet use from more suburban or middle/upper class students. While students in poverty spend time on the Internet, their habits are different than their higher SES peers, mostly due to the time the Internet is available to them and due to the tasks they use the Internet for. Knowing this information makes the above quote even more challenging to a democratic, education institution (school in the US) because our students from high-poverty areas are not gaining equal access to knowledge.

2. "The electronic revolution has also increased the incorporation of graphic, audio, and other data, including dynamically accessible databases within research publications" (Kostelnick & Hassett, 2003)p. 172. As anyone who read my 'thoughts and summaries' tonight in class, I was struck by the way Bill introduced his PowerPoint. He said, "Are you ready to watch my lecture?" Our ways of communicating knowledge have changed so drastically! HOWEVER, we also had the discussion about the very perscriptive ways dissertations are outlined. Even though this quote about the incorporation of technology may be true on many levels, the 'old standard' of the dissertation format is still very much cemented, at least in our college.

Very interesting...