Digital divide, the gap between those with access to information technology and those without it, is a major concern of the country. In the latest research funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement, many children from low income families now have access to a variety of technology to help aid in learning.

Specifically, nearly 75 percent of caregivers at the federal poverty level (annual household income of less than $25,000) report they subscribe to cable television, two-thirds have DVD players, more than half have mobile telephones, more than one-third have computers and more than one-quarter have home access to the Internet.

Most notably, while television took nearly three decades to become universal, nearly 40 percent of low income families now have computers and almost a third have Internet access at home in just the last five to seven years.

This new research suggests that given the proliferation of media across the socioeconomic spectrum, although significant differences do exist by income level, a stark digital divide no longer captures the relationship between income and technology ownership and that technology is integrated into children’s lives, regardless of their families’ income.

Originally posted on October 24, 2007 @ 3:30 am

Are you intrigued by the ancient practice of tarot? SpellSpace.com is free Web site where the difficult skill of tarot has been duplicated and presented in a way that is friendly, inviting and real.

It proudly claims its authenticity for the designer scanned her own well-worn cards into the website. It is also interactive because the developer used mathematical randomization methods that mimic real shuffles, responding to every click.

Unlike the majority of sites, which present a few pre-packaged outcomes, the database-driven tarot readings at SpellSpace.com derived from the intuitions of an experienced reader resulting in thousands of unique outcomes.

SpellSpace.com also generates recommended spells related to the personalized tarot reading to help with love, career or even luck, and make purchases at the SpellStore. Readings can be saved, tracked, annotated, viewed for trends or shared with friends.

Originally posted on October 22, 2007 @ 4:13 am