Computers Not Working In Education

salimfadhley writes "BBC Radio 4's current affairs program 'Analysis' is reporting [realaudio] [txt transcript] on emerging evidence that computers have harmed, rather than helped educational progress. There is still much debate among even the most enthusiastic supporters of schools technology about how computers should best be used. Despite record investment in computers in the USA and UK, recent studies (not the ones funded by educational software companies) have shown a significant drop in core subjects (Math, English) in schools that place strong emphasis on Information Technology. Evidence also suggests that whilst information technology has great potential in the classroom, teachers have not yet found better use for computers than as a big library. Very few schools have been able to use the new technology for cultural exchange, or to build practical educational networks with other schools. Teachers do not know whether computers should be seen as an exciting but peripheral educational 'accessory', or if computers can actually be used to solve the most pressing problems of literacy and numeracy - the sorts of things that get kids through exams." The Economist had a similar article a month or two back, about Israeli schools that had similar results, along with an interesting comparison between how people see computers now, and how people in the early 20th century saw film strips in the classroom.

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[Resseguie]

Here is more information along the same lines. It's an interview with Cliff Stoll (author of Cuckoo's Egg and Silicon Snake Oil.

http://www.familyhaven.com/parenting/hightechheret ic.html

If you haven't read his book "High Tech Heretic: Why Computers Don't Belong in the Classroom and Other Reflections by a Computer Contrarian" you really should. It's got some great reading and some things we should think about as we design software.

What can we do as software developers to actually make computers useful in the classroom instead of so distracting? Any thoughts from educators out there?

The Economist

[artemis67]

The link is wrong... if you click on it, you are taken to a cybersquatter's page with a butt-ugly picture of Alan Greenspan.

The real link to The Economist is here.

Thoughts from a college IT guy...

[weave]

Hoo boy, have I got a lot to say. But first, let me throw out a disclaimer that I am an IT person in a hier-ed (college) institution and not a trained educator, therefore my opinion doesn't mean squat (some sarcasm, some truth). I'd like to throw out the following observations, points, and opinions on this topic...

• Teachers from all subjects are being expected to integrate technology into their lesson plans. In many cases the students know more about the tech than the instructors. The place I work provides training opportunities for instructors, but many don't seek them out or resist.
• I find limited utility in using computers in teaching some subjects such as English. For example, one shouldn't be teaching how to use a word processor in an English class. It takes away from the core reason for the class. I do realize that people need to type up papers on computers, but that activity should be done in general labs staffed with support people to help students who don't have these skills. However, see below about stressed support staffing problems.
• Grants are usually given for new equipment purchases, not maintenance or infrastructure. In my employer's case, that has meant a large new base of installed systems, which increases the need for tech staff, but since there is no budget for that, tech support suffers. Infrastructure such as networking and back-end servers suffers. And most importantly, the issue of replacement cost is not considered. For example, we currently have 2,000 computers. If you use a 5-year replacement cycle, which I consider not enough, you're looking at having to set aside around a half-million dollars a year to replace equipment. Despite this, we continue to add new labs. Eventually we'll have hallways full of computer ghettos... It's hard to convince people that that fast p4 today will be a dog 5 years from now (or two whenever longhorn or whatever comes out and basically uses a back-end database running on each desktop to store data instead of a file system... ooo, that'll kill a currently fast machine I'm sure...)
• I find teaching vendor-specific programs in a college unwise, for example, programming in Visual Studio or network design using literal examples for a Cisco environment. For example, I wonder about former students who were taught dbase III when that was hot. If they were taught the concepts and theory, they could then adapt, if they were taught just dbase iii, they are now in need of retraining. But that's just a personal opinion.
• Many computer textbooks are horribly rigid and instructors are unable to adapt in some cases. For example, stupid personalized menus in Office apps. After getting way too many complaints like "The print menu disappeared" and trying to tell people to hit the chevron, we hear that the book doesn't say to do that, so we turned off personalized menus in a GPO. Then some instructors using a different book say "The book tells the student to go down to the chevron at the bottom of the menu to expand it, but our system doesn't do that. How can I teach when our system doesn't match the book?" Another example, a textbook that tells students to do create files and dirs on the C: drive, which we have locked down via ACLs. Some instructors actually expect us to toss out desktop security so they don't have to tell students to use Z: instead of where it says C: in the textbook. And speaking of textbooks, a curse to all textbooks that include a CD-ROM that requires software to be installed to use it.
• Computers can be a big distraction in a classroom. For example, students IM'ing each other during a lecture. Some teachers are looking at IT for a solution, which I believe we should offer, but due to staffing shortages, right now everyone is putting out other fires...
• A few years ago, there was a big push to wire every K12 school in the state to the Internet. I remember thinking "Ah, who is going to manage all of this stuff?" One school district in my area has *one* IT person who runs around to about 20 schools. Talk about a job from hell... The schools hardly ever see this IT person, so they often appoint the most computer-literal teacher to handle many of the issues, taking that person away from their main job of teaching.
• One tech I really do like is a single desktop in a classroom with a "smart board", something that allows an instructor to not only manipulate the mouse by touching the board, but also to annotate what's displayed with markers and save the board notes and displays at will to pdf files for later review by students. No desktops at the desks to distract students, cheaper to spread tech to every classroom, and students can practice what they learn later in a lab exercise of some sorts. I have taught evening classes before and I can first-hand testify that a lesson plan that has students repeating what you do on their own desktops drags down the pace tremendously. There is always one or two that claim that their computer isn't doing what you demonstrate and you have to stop, go back to them, and help them catch up.