Technological Creativity in Low-Income Neighborhoods

In the United States, significant resources have been devoted to providing technology education to socio-economic groups who have less to access to technology. However, these resources have been focused predominantly on instructing people on how to use standard commercial software, such as word processors, spreadsheets, and Web browsers. The result is that the low-income populations are learning how to be technology users, rather than technology creators. This paper describes a series of classes taught to teenagers in low-income neighborhoods where final projects are collaborations between the students and technically skilled adults. This partnership allows youth to experience new technology, using either technology from research laboratories, such as the augmented reality technology from University of Washington, or developing software using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. Results from student surveys were inconclusive regarding changes in attitude towards technology, but showed a positive response to the classes. The quality of the students´ work for the final projects was quite high