IP: LAPTOPS v. BOOKS

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 10:56:20 +0100
From: Gary Chapman <gary21cp () mail swbell net>
To: chapman () mcfeeley cc utexas edu
Subject: L.A. Times column, 6/15/98


Friends,


Below is my Los Angeles Times column from Monday, June 15th. This is a
little late getting out to this listserv because I recently installed ISDN
at home and had to switch my ISP and various e-mail accounts and
parameters. (You can still use my old e-mail address,
gary.chapman () mail utexas edu, to reply back to me.)


This column produced an unusally heavy volume of mail in reply, and I've
collected a fair number of those replies on a Web page, which is now at
http://www.utexas.edu/lbj/21cp/responses.htm. This subject is heating up,
partly because of the comments (mentioned in the column) of Newt Gingrich.
I did a radio interview yesterday, and got a call from The Today Show,
although they wound up using someone else (which was fine with me!).


Hope everyone is enjoying the summer. We're struggling here with heat and
drought -- we hit 110 F. one weekend (43 C.), and have consistently seen
days with a "heat index" of between 112 and 115. Not pleasant, and no
relief in sight.


Best,


- -- Gary


Gary Chapman
Director
The 21st Century Project
LBJ School of Public Affairs
Drawer Y, University Station
University of Texas
Austin, TX  78713
(512) 263-1218
(512) 471-1835 (fax)
gary.chapman () mail utexas edu
http://www.utexas.edu/lbj/21cp


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- ------------------------------------------


Monday, June 15, 1998


DIGITAL NATION


Push to Trade Class Textbooks for Laptop PCs Is a Misuse of Technology


By Gary Chapman


Copyright 1998, The Los Angeles Times


AUSTIN -- Last month, I testified at a hearing in the Texas State Capitol
about the proposal under consideration here to replace public school
textbooks with laptop computers and CD-ROMs. I attended this event at the
invitation of Dr. Jack Christie, the chairman of the Texas State Board of
Education and the man behind this idea. Dr. Christie, a chiropractor,
packed a hearing room with legislators, state education officials,
legislative staff, reporters, and many, many presenters, most of them
vendors from the computer and software industries. His intent, he told me
on the telephone before the hearing, was to "dazzle" the audience with
computers and educational software.


This was a dismal experience for me. I was the only skeptic in the entire
program, out of more than 40 speakers. As one might have expected, there
was a huge outpouring of support and praise for Dr. Christie's plan to
lease a laptop computer for each of the nearly 4 million children in Texas
public schools -- this praise and support came from computer manufacturers,
of course, who shamelessly lauded Dr. Christie as a "visionary" and other
superlatives.


There was also a fair amount of pure Texas hucksterism on display, such as
one vendor who poured water on a laptop to show its durability (he also
invited a portly legislator to jump on the machine), and a demo of a
software product that, inexplicably, turned ordinary addition problems into
animated cartoons.


It dawned on me early in the course of this event that almost nothing will
prevent Texas from wasting huge sums of money on trying to get every kid in
the state to use a laptop computer. Other school districts and states are
watching this closely, and tens of thousands of parents seem to be jumping
on this bandwagon. Ohio is also considering a version of the Texas plan;
Beaufort, S.C., has already implemented a "laptop for every child" program;
and schools all over the country are experimenting with the idea.


Last week, House Speaker Newt Gingrich endorsed this trend. "One of the
goals should be to replace all textbooks with a PC," Gingrich (R-Ga.) told
the Supercomm trade show at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta a
week ago. "I would hope within five years they would have no more
textbooks."


There is a frenzy over getting computers and the Internet into K-12 schools
that is reaching a point of pure excess and foolishness. In the interests
of helping to promote some balance and rationality in this debate, I am
presenting my own admittedly opinionated FAQs (a widely used Internet
technique called "frequently asked questions"). These are offered as points
of consideration for parents with school-age children.


Are computers important in my child's education?


Yes. Computers are transforming communications and the economy, and every
child should be exposed to this technology to understand the significance
of this transformation. Every high school graduate should know how to use a
computer and the Internet, understand how a computer works, have some grasp
of how to find information on the Internet, and generally know how
computers are used by businesses, the government, educational institutions
and people in their homes. At a bare minimum, students should know how to
type, how to use a word processor, how to "drive" an operating system and
how to navigate the Internet.


Does this mean I should buy a computer for my child?


Not necessarily. What young students need is access to a computer --
routine, easy and free access. If students can use a computer at school,
especially after school hours, or at a public library, or in a public
access center near home, this should be sufficient if a household cannot
afford a home computer, printer, and Internet connection. The advantages
for students who own their own computers are not so great that students who
use public access computers will suffer greatly by comparison.


What is more important is that students at home use their free time to
study, to read and to visit interesting places and people. They should also
be encouraged to pursue their interests with discipline and perseverance.
Kids who have their own computers waste a lot of time using their machines,
just as adults do. If your child always has his or her nose in a book, you
can be proud and relieved. If your child is always in front of a computer
screen, you might need to worry.


Won't my child be disadvantaged in the new high-tech economy if he or she
is not an expert with computers?


No. Most people who use computers as part of their work learn what they
need to know about the technology as part of their job, or, if they learn
at school, in the last year or two before starting work. The technology
changes too rapidly for us to expect that children in grade school or
middle school will be learning anything relevant to what they'll encounter
in the workplace.


To succeed in the new high-tech economy, people need two things: a solid
grounding in fundamental fields of math, science, economics, history,
literature and other traditional subjects, which are all taught best out of
books; and a great capacity for change, flexibility and "life-long
learning." To shortchange these subjects, or these qualities, for the
evanescent skill of using some particular software package or operating
system on a computer would be a great disservice to young people.


The growing mania for getting a computer for every child in school is
dangerous and foolish. It will impose colossal and unneeded expenses on
schools, which are already strapped just trying to provide computers in the
classroom or library. The requirements for technical support for millions
of computers used by kids are unthinkably immense and expensive -- there
probably aren't enough technical support personnel in the entire U.S. to
manage such a task, and schools can't pay these people what they can get in
the private sector. The idea of replacing textbooks with laptop computers
is a misapplication of a useful technology to the wrong problem, and the
enthusiasm for "edutainment" software is alarming and discouraging.
Learning is difficult and always will be.


There appears to be no greater danger to public education today than the
misguided and inexperienced "evangelism" of grandstanding political
leaders. There's a lot we need to do to improve education in this country,
but excessive enthusiasm for computers will be a serious liability, not an
asset.


Gary Chapman is director of the 21st Century Project at the University of
Texas at Austin. His e-mail address is gary.chapman () mail utexas edu.


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