Experts Speak Out Against Computers for Youngsters - this short article relies on studies dating back several years to make the point that computers damage the social and intellectual development of children. I disagree. Computers used as a tool to achieve intended tasks are very effective. When they are used as an end in themselves (i.e. many administrators have brought computers into schools simply because "everyone's doing it", without a real idea of how they will be used to contribute to learning), they aren't effective.
Posted by gsiemens at January 19, 2004 07:17 PMMy child received a computer while she was in utero because I participated in a Mother experiment for Senior Engineering Women within Digital Equipment Corporation. She has had one all her life. When in 2nd grade she was labeled as dysletic - in the US it is a learning disability while everywhere else worldwide we can discuss evolution intelligently - it was the computer that we used to teach her to read - it was the way she learned to keep up with the others in her classroom doing traditional boring drone learning.
She is now an adult and well rounded both physically and personally. There is no difference from this current educator resistance and the resistance to other technologies in the last century.
Posted by: Reesa Abrams at January 21, 2004 10:34 PM