Re: [UC] computers bad for learning?

[BGAndersen]

That's a no-brainer. Children should not be allowed to use computers until they master the basic skills of the three R's on their own. Age 10 at the earliest.

On page 48 of last week's Newsweek their was an interesting note about the new SAT. The hardest part for many of the students - penmanship.

When i was a senior in high school, we were using an electron microscope and a mass spectrometer to conduct some qualitative analysis on a piece of molybdenum steel. The reason we had these machines to use was because they had been donated to the school. They were now obsolete because the new machines had computers that could perform most of the functions without the opertaor having to perform any calculations.

One of my classmates asked the teacher, "If they know have machines that can do the work without us having to do any calculations, isn't this a waste of time?" The teacher responded, "Any fool, can be taught to operate a machine. You're being taught how to solve the problem yourself."


In a message dated 3/21/05 11:59:05 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

Here's an interesting twist on the new push for more computers in the
classroom.

<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/03/21/nteach21.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/03/21/ixportal.html>

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Pupils make more progress in 3Rs 'without aid of computers'
By John Clare, Education Editor
(Filed: 21/03/2005)

The less pupils use computers at school and at home, the better they do
in international tests of literacy and maths, the largest study of its
kind says today.

The findings raise questions over the Government's decision, announced
by Gordon Brown in the Budget last week, to spend another �1.5 billion
on school computers, in addition to the �2.5 billion it has already spent.

Mr Brown said: "The teaching and educational revolution is no longer
blackboards and chalk, it is computers and electronic whiteboards."

However, the study, published by the Royal Economic Society, said:
"Despite numerous claims by politicians and software vendors to the
contrary, the evidence so far suggests that computer use in schools does
not seem to contribute substantially to students' learning of basic
skills such as maths or reading."

Indeed, the more pupils used computers, the worse they performed, said
Thomas Fuchs and Ludger Wossmann of Munich University.

Their report also noted that being able to use a computer at work - one
of the justifications for devoting so much teaching time to ICT
(information and communications technology) - had no greater impact on
employability or wage levels than being able to use a telephone or a pencil.

The researchers analysed the achievements and home backgrounds of
100,000 15-year-olds in 31 countries taking part in the Pisa (Programme
for International Student Assessment) study in 2000 for the Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Pisa, to the British and many other governments' satisfaction, claimed
that the more pupils used computers the better they did. It even
suggested those with more than one computer at home were a year ahead of
those who had none.

The study found this conclusion "highly misleading" because computer
availability at home is linked to other family-background
characteristics, in the same way computer availability at school is
strongly linked to availability of other resources.

Once those influences were eliminated, the relationship between use of
computers and performance in maths and literacy tests was reduced to
zero, showing how "careless interpretations can lead to patently false
conclusions".

The more access pupils had to computers at home, the lower they scored
in tests, partly because they diverted attention from homework.

Pupils tended to do worse in schools generously equipped with computers,
apparently because computerised instruction replaced more effective
forms of teaching.

The Government says computers are the key to "personalised learning" and
computers should be "embedded" in the teaching of every subject.

Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, has said: "We must move the
thinking about ICT from being an add-on to being an integral part of the
way we teach and learn."