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Computing technology in our schools
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2006 11:01:23 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Tom Fairlie <tfairlie () frontiernet net> Date: July 3, 2006 10:28:04 AM EDT To: David Farber <dave () farber net> Subject: Computing technology in our schools Hi Dave, [Long post, sorry] There's a very important issue that I'm concerned about and I'm hoping that perhaps you or some of the IP'ers can weigh in with their opinion. The problem I have is with the use of computer technology in primary and secondary schools. First, though, is what I love about it: teachers can now post grades online and reply to questions via email. These two developments make a parent's job much easier in many ways. However, I take issue with the fact that computer technology seems to have been sold to school districts with the promise that it would either revolutionize teaching or at least help today's student to avoid missing out on a good career. The problem, as far as I can see, is that the computerization of our nation's schools has instead crippled them. First of all, the quality of the teachers themselves does not appear to have increased at all over the past 20 years. In fact, I have seen many useful teaching methods (e.g., diagramming sentences) dumped over this same period because they were deemed "inappropriate" in some way (too hard?). Few teachers are savvy technologists and most have little understanding of what computers can do in the first place, let alone leverage them effectively in the classroom. At best, the quality of teachers is a wash. Next, we have the increased reliance on computers. For example, my daughter's high school actually *required* that every parent purchase a $100+ graphing calculator. I hate to sound like a fuddy duddy, but I checked out her assignments regularly and never once saw any hint of linear analysis or anything that would even remotely require such horsepower. Classrooms that use computers regularly -- most likely 7-12th grade --put little emphasis on writing, printing, drawing, or any other manual skill. Composition is still being stressed, but most computers now catch spelling and grammatical mistakes so effortlessly, that the lesson is mostly lost on the student. Anecdote: When I was in college, my Composition 101 teacher required us to type out our papers on mimeograph paper and he wouldn't accept any errors whatsoever. That meant many long nights with a razor blade, scraping the ink off of the stencil. In retrospect, a very good way to be a careful speller and typist. Anyhow, the last problem I have is with the cost. While class sizes go up and up (a friend of mine had her daughter in a kindergarten class that was just shy of 30 kids), the schools make more and more budget room for their IT department. School districts are cutting art and music classes everywhere, while they dedicate funds toward CPU upgrades and network support staff. I am an engineer by trade and the computerization of schools seemed, to me, like a no-brainer 20 years ago. I also used to agree that teaching basic computer skills is a career-enabler. However, the more I think about this the more I believe that we, as a country, have fallen into a typical capitalist trap-- i.e., that we've taken the advice of the IT industry (who is selling a product) rather than our teachers. I know there's a lot of anecdotes out there about how savvy the current generation of kids is about technology. However, I believe that this is almost entirely a function of their personal life (home PC, cell phone, etc.) rather than their education. I can safely say that the engineering graduates I've worked with since the 1980s to the present aren't getting any brighter. Recent graduates that I've talked to in other fields (business, liberal arts) seem to confirm this; they didn't care much about the technical side of their education and learned most of what they need on their own by using email, building websites, installing Linux on the family's old PC, etc. In the end, I think that we, as a nation, have been sold a bill of goods by the PC and networking industries. Our school districts have probably spent over a billion dollars upgrading their institutions with computing technology that is probably 10-100x more than what they need, and probably half as useful as what they want. Now, taxpayers are starting to vote down important referenda that might reduce class size or pay teachers more because they can't afford to. Very sad, when you consider the money that *could* have been applied here if they didn't instead need more PCs just to email around notes for our kids' Friday take-home folders. Please, I'd love to hear others' thoughts. Tom Fairlie ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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