News Flash: Computers worse than useless

[Tony]

I suspect we all could have guessed the basic conclusion: That if you give a kid a computer they aren't going to do school work with it. But the discrepancy with lower income families is interesting.


“We found a negative effect on academic achievement,” he said. “I was surprised, but as we presented our findings at various seminars, people in the audience said they weren’t surprised, given their own experiences with their school-age children.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/business/11digi.html

[Dan Baltzell]

Don't forget lack of vitamin d from no sunshine. That may create a compromised immune system, increasing the possibility of epidemics when you stick a bunch of them together in a classroom. It does have increased neural activity, just not in the areas desired by society and parents. If parents take an active position in the childs education all areas are enhanced, but that's not what happens mostly in lower economies, perhaps the parents are stuck on the couch instead.

[Kensey]

All the talk about the "digital divide" has always made me wonder how magical thinking (with the computer standing in for the usual potions or amulets) took over in education.

[grafxgirl]

Last semester in one of my college courses we discussed the digital divide, and the use of technology in schools. The key to using the computer is parents have to be aware of what their kids are doing with it and how long. Of course, if you stick one in a house it should be in a public area, where the parents can monitor what the kids are doing and make sure they are doing their schoolwork with it and not spending countless hours on it playing games and surfing the net. That's how having a computer in th home is going to improve a child's educational scores and not hinder them. Parent supervision!!

The thing that the educational system is realizing is that we are a technological society, and the students need to learn how a computer works, runs, and how to use the programs in order to function in a career oriented world. Like it or not, technological experience is pretty much a must have when it comes to getting a job. Schools and teachers are setting up computer labs in the schools and in the classrooms. Teachers are teaching the students how to use them by incorporating the use of the computers into their lesson plans.

Not only with technology, but with many other subjects in school, teachers are finding that students are more motivated to learn if they supply the students with "the big picture" and let them know up front how they are going to use what they are studying in the real world. When students don't have to question "Why do I need know this stuff?" and understand the legitimacy behind the lessons they gain an interest in learning.