7/27/05
THE PROBLEM
WITH COMPUTER-BASED CURRICULUM
According
to Governing magazine's Source Book 2005, Nebraska ranks fourth
and fifth in the country in two important measurements of expenditures on
computers in school. (See www.governing.com,
though the Source Book isn't
available online.)
Nebraska's
numbers:
2.7
students per instructional computer, ranked 4th
2.9
students per Internet-connected computer, ranked 5th
(Figures
from Education Week, 2004)
Lest you
think this is something of which to be proud, think again. There's not a shred
of evidence that computers make kids smarter, and in fact, the stark truth is
that the more computerized K-12 education gets and the more money we spend per
pupil on stuff like technology, the less literate and numerate our kids are
becoming.
Computers
in the K-12 classroom are swiftly transforming education into a materialistic,
control-freak, stimulus-response, knee-jerk, anti-knowledge environment.
Computerization maximizes how much money it takes to equip a classroom, and
minimizes the influence of the teacher and locally-selected curriculum, not to
mention locally-elected school boards, locally-paid educators and
administrators, and even that last bastion of local control, moms and dads.
Why?
Because computer content, especially the Internet, is swiftly becoming king in
K-12. Nothing, and nobody, get between the heart and mind of the student, and
the computerized curriculum. And that's very, very bad.
Read why in
today's column:
The Problem With Computer-Based Curriculum
Q.
Is it a good thing that schools are using technology, particularly computers,
so much in classroom lessons these days?
Not according to teachers like Cliff Stoll, an
astrophysicist and author. He wrote in a recent L. A. Times op-ed that computers in the classroom are titanic
wastes of money, and ineffective and even counterproductive learning tools.
He wrote, "The computer changes the ecology of the
classroom. Attention is diverted away from the teacher and toward the magic
screen. Electronic media are emphasized at the expense of the written word.
Books feel boring compared with their online competitors. As a result, school
libraries have morphed into media centers, where Internet feeds and DVDs push
aside books and magazines. Increasingly, schools teach the easy stuff: how to
change fonts, surf the Web or make a PowerPoint show."
He says that a broad knowledge base, general academics, and
human relations skills are much more important for a constructive, happy adult
life than computer skills, especially since kids are already O.D.'ed on
electronics as it is.
He's among a growing chorus of skeptics who say that
computers are a toy, not a legitimate instrument of learning.
"Having judged several science fairs," Stoll wrote, "I
notice plenty of projects with professional graphics yet devoid of creativity
and individual initiative. Instead of downloaded images from an orbiting
observatory, I'd prefer to see a student's hand-drawn observations of the moons
of Jupiter as observed through her backyard telescope."
He added, "What was once an exciting novelty in education
has become a distraction from learning. It's because our future is
intertwined with technology that schools should unplug their computers and
develop the fundamental qualities and human skills needed to manage our
increasingly techno-centric society."
Concerns go beyond the inferiority of computers compared to
teachers, the inaccuracies and quagmires of Internet research, and the
detrimental effects on human relationships of what Stoll calls "disembodied
network interactions."
A whole other issue, and a disturbing one, is the specter of
government control over computer-delivered curriculum and assessment --
excluding parents, teachers, legislators and taxpayers -- and setting the stage
for massive and easy brainwashing of children, an entire generation at a time.
Homework: Hear the warnings of Texas education
activist Donna Garner on a radio talk show in this audio (note: more than 30
minutes): http://www.thewhatsupradioprogram.com/audio/050726DG.mp3
Footnote to
Tuesday's "laptop lament" over the plan by the Omaha Public Schools to spend $259,545
for 220 laptops for fourth-graders in low-income schools this fall. That
figures to $1,180 apiece. Meanwhile, a nimble Go Big Ed reader sent me an ad
for another laptop, an Inspiron 1200, for $499 – far less than half the price.
It has a CD burner, a DVD drive, a 30 gigabyte hard drive, a 15-inch screen,
and so on. Now, I know OPS will have to spend money on training and ongoing
operations to support those laptops. But . . . jiminy Christmas. Do they not
teach the concept of "comparison shopping" in teachers' college?
