The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Laptops for all? ‘Stupidest idea’ makes grade
But the governor compares the critics to naysayers who rose up generations ago when schools talked about sending children home with other learning devices. “They said they could throw them at each other, or dump them in mud puddles and destroy them,” King said. “They were talking about books.”
I have been and continue to be opposed to widespread use of computers in the classroom for a variety of reasons. But this article may answer a lot of my arguments.
For one, there’s no access problem: everyone gets one. For another, I suspect they didn’t cost as much as if each parent had bought their own (Apple would love to get back into education and if I read the story right, some Gates Foundation money funded this: sweet irony). And while it’s early, it seems to be effective at getting kids focused on their work: discipline problems are down, attendance is up. Obviously, some other things have changed to make the equipment useful: the same old “chalk and talk” techniques don’t really leverage a school full of wireless networked laptops, and that aspect of things didn’t get much attention.
For now, I’ll stay with my old position: I still think, given the way coursework is designed and taught, all a computer is really good for is to teach typing or keyboarding as it’s now known.
One of my biggest issues has been that by teaching with a computer, you teach the student about the computer itself: it becomes a distraction. And given the pace of innovation (slow though it is in these monopoly-dominated times), what will a seventh grader learn that will help him ten years later as he enters the job market? Put another way, do you need ten years to learn how to manage files and do basic word processing?
Of course not. And we’re starting to see exciting developments in the interfaces we use (mouse gestures, for example) that make keyboard skills less essential. Funny how the big innovative company makes the only browsers that don’t use this . . . . . .
Mark me down as interested but not convinced.