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Can Students Have Too Much Tech?

Posted by Soulskill on from the maybe-4th-graders-don't-need-weaponized-roombas dept.

theodp writes: In a NY Times Op Ed, developmental psychologist Susan Pinker goes against the conventional White House wisdom about the importance of Internet connectivity for schoolchildren and instead argues that students can have too much tech. "More technology in the classroom has long been a policy-making panacea," Pinker writes. "But mounting evidence shows that showering students, especially those from struggling families, with networked devices will not shrink the class divide in education. If anything, it will widen it." Tech can help the progress of children, Pinker acknowledges, but proper use is the rub. As a cautionary tale, Pinker cites a study by Duke economists that tracked the academic progress of nearly one million disadvantaged middle-school students against the dates they were given networked computers. The news was not good. "Students who gain access to a home computer between the 5th and 8th grades tend to witness a persistent decline in reading and math scores," the economists wrote, adding that license to surf the Internet was also linked to lower grades in younger children.

4 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. This is not new. by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 5, Informative

    Every serious (read "non-vendor-sponsored") study for the last 20 years has shown that computers in school hinder education.

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    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    1. Re:This is not new. by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 3, Informative

      Instead of that, better off teaching them how to apply flow charting to making real-life decisions. At least it teaches them a logical approach to breaking down many everyday problems.

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      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  2. Re:This pays credence to my rant about tech by Ambassador+Kosh · · Score: 4, Informative

    At the college level though I see a different kind of problem. Many of the people from 3rd world countries I have encountered do VERY well at rote memorization tasks and can often solve engineering problems that are almost exactly what they have done before but when you step outside of that they quickly run into problems. I find that american and canadian engineers are more likely to rely on a computer to solve the hard math part but they are much better at figuring out how to define the problem and what should be done to solve it.

    I am not sure why but most european countries still seem to do rote memorization for many disciplines and base all grades on a single 2 hour exam. It is all pretty silly. Maybe some day education won't be confused with memorization.

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    Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD! :)
  3. Re:Its not that there's too much tech... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 3, Informative

    Buying stuff is easy.

    Teaching is hard.

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    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!