Money is not zero-sum, just because some CEO gets a lot of money doesn't mean I get less.
This is not true. The money supply is limited, and without this limitation it becomes worthless (this is exactly what happens when currencies experience runaway inflation). When one person has more of it, others have less.
Consider this from a slightly different angle. Money does not have intrinsic value. It derives value from the possibility of exchanging it for goods and services. The amount of goods and services available is clearly limited. A rich CEO spending millions on a private jet *does* have an effect on others; all of the labor and resources used to build this jet are not available for producing other goods that might be of use to other people.
I was in Professor Soloway's software engineering class last semester, so I know quite a bit about his research/views on PDAs in education. From what I understand, he has two primary arguments:
1) Technology - computers in particular - can and should be used to increase the quality of education children are receiving.
It is by no means a substitute for skilled and creative teachers, curriculum, etc. (duh) However, the responsibility of the schools is to prepare students to function effectively in the world. With the world moving rapidly towards ubiquitous computing (how many people work at a desk without a computer these days?), children need to be exposed to them in schools as well. This ensures that even students from lower income families will have such exposure, and that the kids might actually do something with the technology other than playing games.
2) PDAs are more suited to the needs of an educational environment than full scale desktop or laptop computers.
There are good reasons for this. The big one is price. In order for computers to become an everyday part of the curriculum, every student must have easy access to one at any given time. For the price of one desktop machine, you can get 10 PDAs. Whether they are provided by the school or the student (or some combination) is irrelevent as long as they are easily accessible to the students. Size and portability are another big plus for PDAs. They are small enough that they can be incorporated into normal classrooms (not just special purpose labs). They can also be carried to other classes or home for homework assignments. The pencil has been one of the most successful educational hits of all time, but it's due for an upgrade.
The major problems are hardware limitations and the lack of good, innovative educational software for portable platforms. Hardware (processing power, memory, I/O functionality) will improve with time, and even the current versions are capable of doing some amazing things. Soloway is part of a large group of researchers (www.hice.org) who are trying to solve the software problem.
PDAs can do a lot of things we already do without tech: take notes, keep schedules and assignments, flashcards, books, cheating, dictionaries, calculators, etc. But that isn't really the point. What can technology do for us that we couldn't do before? That is the interesting question. Interactive maps, evolutionary simulations, digital dissections, production-rule based programming systems, interactive testing, statistics demonstrations. . . there are exciting possibilities for just about any age group and subject. This stuff isn't ready for prime time yet, but someone needs to develop it so that in five years it will be.
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Money is not zero-sum, just because some CEO gets a lot of money doesn't mean I get less.
This is not true. The money supply is limited, and without this limitation it becomes worthless (this is exactly what happens when currencies experience runaway inflation). When one person has more of it, others have less.
Consider this from a slightly different angle. Money does not have intrinsic value. It derives value from the possibility of exchanging it for goods and services. The amount of goods and services available is clearly limited. A rich CEO spending millions on a private jet *does* have an effect on others; all of the labor and resources used to build this jet are not available for producing other goods that might be of use to other people.
I was in Professor Soloway's software engineering class last semester, so I know quite a bit about his research/views on PDAs in education. From what I understand, he has two primary arguments:
1) Technology - computers in particular - can and should be used to increase the quality of education children are receiving.
It is by no means a substitute for skilled and creative teachers, curriculum, etc. (duh) However, the responsibility of the schools is to prepare students to function effectively in the world. With the world moving rapidly towards ubiquitous computing (how many people work at a desk without a computer these days?), children need to be exposed to them in schools as well. This ensures that even students from lower income families will have such exposure, and that the kids might actually do something with the technology other than playing games.
2) PDAs are more suited to the needs of an educational environment than full scale desktop or laptop computers.
There are good reasons for this. The big one is price. In order for computers to become an everyday part of the curriculum, every student must have easy access to one at any given time. For the price of one desktop machine, you can get 10 PDAs. Whether they are provided by the school or the student (or some combination) is irrelevent as long as they are easily accessible to the students. Size and portability are another big plus for PDAs. They are small enough that they can be incorporated into normal classrooms (not just special purpose labs). They can also be carried to other classes or home for homework assignments. The pencil has been one of the most successful educational hits of all time, but it's due for an upgrade.
The major problems are hardware limitations and the lack of good, innovative educational software for portable platforms. Hardware (processing power, memory, I/O functionality) will improve with time, and even the current versions are capable of doing some amazing things. Soloway is part of a large group of researchers (www.hice.org) who are trying to solve the software problem.
PDAs can do a lot of things we already do without tech: take notes, keep schedules and assignments, flashcards, books, cheating, dictionaries, calculators, etc. But that isn't really the point. What can technology do for us that we couldn't do before? That is the interesting question. Interactive maps, evolutionary simulations, digital dissections, production-rule based programming systems, interactive testing, statistics demonstrations. . . there are exciting possibilities for just about any age group and subject. This stuff isn't ready for prime time yet, but someone needs to develop it so that in five years it will be.