[edi581] High Tech Heritic
- From: "Frank Cafarella" <fcafarella@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: edi581@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 03 Aug 2004 15:10:11 -0400
Hi. I just wrote a really long email that my mail program erased when I
tried
to send it. Dough! So here goes again!
In "High Tech Heritic," Clifford Stoll argues that American schools have
bigger fish to fry than putting computers in classrooms - lack of
discipline, poor study skills, and and unwillingness to learn, for
example. I beleive that Stoll has a good point - technology and computers
should not be the focus of school districts with these problems. However,
does every school distric have these problems to the extent that it robs
kids of a chance to get a great education on a daily basis? Personally, I
am offended when people assume that all "American schools" (to quote
Stoll) suffer from these problems. As a kid, I went to an urban school,
and these problems never impacted my ability to learn. And believe me, I
was no genius. As a teacher now in a suburban school, I can honestly say
that these problems do not prevent learning from happening in the majority
of classrooms in my school. So, if a school does not suffer from the
problmes that Stoll describes, why shouldn't alot of money be spent on
technology? Although Stoll praises some aspects of technology, he laments
that computers are being used in many schools to replace music and art
programs, as well as libraries. However, why does it have to be a
my-way-or-the-highway type of issue? Why can't computers be used to
improve music, art, or libraries, rather than replacing them? THEY CAN.
Like any educational tool, what is important is how you use it. If
computers are being used to rob kids the amazing experience of playing an
instrument, painting a picture, or holding a book, then teachnology is
being used in an unwise fashion. However, why does it have to be this
way? Why does it have to be technology or no technology? Computers can
be used to make music, art, and libraries more fun and interesting. (By
the way, I hope this Stoll guy isn't a teacher....learning shouldn't be
fun? I think that he is out of touch with today's kids and modern
classrooms) I think that a good example of how technology can be used to
improve a learning situation is webquests. In these lessons, students use
computers to discover now infromation, as well as interact in groups to
solve problems utilizing this new information. High-tech, thoughtful, and
engaging. I think that Stoll's black-and-white world view is too
simplistic. Classrooms and education in general is much more complex than
Stoll gives them credit.
Frank Cafarella
"Only through education can equality of opportunity be anything more than
a phrase."-John Dewey [1916]
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Class website: http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/taylor/suny/
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