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Technology In Primary Education, Boon Or Bane?

Posted by timothy on from the lobbing-money-and-calling-it-an-investment dept.

code_rage writes "This article in the San Francisco Chronicle attacks the zealous use of computers in grade school. In a time of teacher layoffs, San Francisco schools are buying 450 new computers with federal and state grants. The effects on education go beyond the initial costs: educational methods are suffering, as children are learning PowerPoint and teachers are becoming unpaid SysAdmins and content censors. This article is a well-written and brief update to Cliff Stoll's book High Tech Heretic: Why Computers Don't Belong in the Classroom." Update: 12/01 00:40 GMT by T : Ooops II-- "Classroom" is now correctly spelled.

7 of 571 comments (clear)

  1. School Computers.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    At my school we have Pentium 4's - but then people started to play games on them (we use Windows 98 either, so nothing stopping people from installing software).

    So they underclocked them so people can't play games any more.

  2. A Quality Edumacation by mcpkaaos · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why Computers Don't Belong in the Classsroom

    ...and why dictionaries do.

    --
    It goes from God, to Jerry, to me.
    1. Re:A Quality Edumacation by BorgHunter · · Score: 2, Funny

      Oh my god, a typo! The world is coming to an end, and anything the submitter wrote is hereby proven false!

      --
      "Excuse me, did you say 'Trekker'? The word is 'Trekkie.' I should know; I created them." -- Gene Roddenberry
    2. Re:A Quality Edumacation by WoTG · · Score: 2, Funny

      Update: 12/01 00:02 GMT by T: Ooops -- one "s" is enough to spell "Classroom."

      Well, you're right, dictionaries can correct some errors...

      Ooops -- one "r" is enough to spell "errors."

  3. Obligatory by Kneht · · Score: 4, Funny
    1. Get grant
    2. Spend $1 million on computers
    3. ??????
    4. Education!

    --
    "Are you on some kind of medication?"
    "No"
    "Well, you should be."

    --Bean

  4. School Board Reasoning by Herkum01 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Homer:"Having kids is great, you can teach them to hate the things you hate, and they practically raise themselves what with the internet and all."

    I think that explains why we need computers and not teachers! Any questions? Look it up on that internet thing and get back to me...

  5. My mother ran a computer lab... by lambadomy · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...at an elementary for quite a few years. While I still don't understand how this was possible, "computer class" mostly consisted of one class at a time coming into the lab to play educational games.

    When the school bought new imacs to replace some of their older macs, instead of going into the lab the machines were claimed by some of the teachers for their classrooms, where they would collect dust.

    At one point one of the teachers asked my mother for some help with her computer, as it wouldn't turn on. My mother went in, and traced the cable for the power strip that was wrapped crazily around the table leg and, in the end, plugged back into itself.

    Even with all this computer spending, there is no reason to believe the students are even using the resources. If the teachers can't use the computers, why assume they can use them as teaching tools? While I can't imagine why you'd need a computer in the classroom (and I had a computer in every classroom since 2nd grade), it seems doubly ridiculous when the teachers can't use them anyway.