Begin forwarded message:
From: Tom Fairlie <tfairlie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: July 3, 2006 10:28:04 AM EDT
To: David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
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 dwarlick@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To manage your subscription, go to
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-
people/