Text 9102, 48 rader
Skriven 2005-07-02 19:36:21 av Alan Zisman (1:106/2000.0)
   Kommentar till text 9083 av TOM WALKER (1:123/140)
Ärende: Re: Undelete.
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-=> TOM WALKER wrote to ALAN ZISMAN <=-

 AZ> This past spring, an Ohio study was reported in the press (it made the
fron
 AZ>page of our local daily) with a headline "Computers may hurt kids'
grades"..
 AZ>haven't seen the actual study, and can only comment on what was reported in
 AZ>paper. It suggested that (in this middle school in a middle and upper class
 AZ>neighbourhood where the grade 7 and 9 kids all had access to laptops with
 AZ>wireless Internet access), kids who spent less than 3 hrs per day using
 AZ>computers saw an average 0.124 grade point gain in their marks; kids who
spe
 AZ>more than 3 hrs per day using computers had an average drop of 0.078.

 AZ>The study was quoted as saying "When you spend too much time on computers,
t
 AZ>benefit of using technology seems to be cancelled out or even outweighed by
 AZ>detriment that using technology could bring".

 TW> Wow, I have been saying that for Years. And of course getting laughed
 TW> at. the problem that I( way form way far outside was to omany teachers
 TW> sinple using the Computer as a "Baby Sitter" and NOT using it for the
 TW> Tool in Learning it has the "possabibliy" of being. OF ccourse the
 TW> Teache must be soemwhat Computer Literatre. That is a BIG problem here
 TW> in California. We have Tenure locking in totaly imcompetatnt Teachers.

 You're not going to get me to knock my fellow colleagues in California
(especially since I lack any first hand experience there)... certainly, I see
computers being used as baby sitters in schools (and homes) far too often, and
certainly many teachers lack background, training, or interest in using
technology as a tool for their teaching.

 Computer-in-education Jamie MacKenzie (www.fno.org) suggests that school
districts reserve 25% of their technology budget for teacher training... I
don't know of any school district (either in the US or Canada) that is anywhere
close to that mark... instead, money gets spend on hardware or on expensive
proprietary software packages of unproven value.

 The result, not surprisingly, is that the hardware is too often poorly used,
and the expensive software doesn't provide the promised value.

 State (or provincial) and local education departments and boards have to clue
in that well-trained and valued teachers are what makes education work... a
student is far better off in a classroom with a good teacher and poor computers
than with a poor teacher and good computers.
... Inet mail to: alan at zisman dot ca
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