In addition to teaching, writing, and research I am giving several presentations this summer. My first presentation is at the Canadian Society for the Study or CSSE's annual conference at my own university in Victoria. In addition to demoing some software, I will be presenting a paper on the OLPC program in Latin America. The abstract is below.
Símbolo de Digital en el mundo nuevo: ¿Misión educativa o misionario?
Digital Tokens in the New World: Educational Mission or Missionary?
Abstract:
"In this contemporary study on recent efforts to foster increased educational literacy and an attempt to bridge the digital divide existing in many parts of the Western Hemisphere through the dissemination of educational technologies like the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program, I examine the neo-colonial risks a predominantly unidirectional transference poses. Using data and research from both the World Bank and OLPC, I describe how this process of neo-colonialism appears to be unfolding and present a counter post colonial analysis using the concept of the subaltern. My goal here in this research is not to stop the transfer or exchange of educational technologies but to redirect them in a way that empowers the discourse of the multiple parties involved in these projects through the creative development of a subaltern curriculum."
