[edi581] Clifford Stoll Article
- From: Julie McGraw <jamcgraw5@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: edi581@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2003 10:48:32 -0800 (PST)
After reading Clifford Stoll?s article I have to say I agree with some of
the things he said. I believe some of his ideas are a bit off the wall
too!
Of course I think it is ridiculous that he believes that students up to 12
years old only need to know word processing, spreadsheets, databases and
e-mail. I also disagree with the generalization that schools are doing
away with music, art, and libraries for computer labs. I have visited
many schools in America and around the world and have never seen this
before. I do not believe that the libraries of the future will be
electronic, and that we won?t have books.
I believe that computers are only one of many resources that our students
have access to, not the only one. I do agree with Mr. Stoll that
children, especially young ones need more interaction with other children
or teachers and less time spent on a computer. Children already spend too
much time in front of the television and not enough time ?playing?,
exploring or learning about their environment hands on.
Some schools do tend to spend too much money on computers. For example
the school I taught at in Hong Kong. It is a small primary international
school with students age 3-10. The school had only been open for 6 months
when I first arrived in Hong Kong and it had a lot of money to throw
around. Our financial director decided we needed top of the line
technology and bought 20 imac?s (we only had 8 classrooms) for the
classrooms and about 40 laptops. He installed airports in each room of
the school (which never worked) but failed to hire anyone (well anyone
that was knowledgeable) to teach us how to use any of this technology! We
had so many problems the first few months and we didn?t even end up using
the computers until halfway through the year. We pushed and pushed to get
training and he kept promising it. Basically we never got it! So we
struggled through two years with these computers, having to teach
ourselves and I?m sure we didn?t even tap into the potential that these
computers offered. The point is, that money never should have been wasted
on the technology if the training wasn?t available.
Julie McGraw
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