http://slashdot.org/features/9804211015223.shtml
Editorial:Computers and Education
Contributed by CmdrTaco on Thursday May 21, @10:15
from the stuff-to-read dept.
Mike Hughes has written an editorial on Computers and
L-12 Education. Mike is a High School Student, and
experiencing the problems first hand. He talks about
the restrictions placed on the computers by his school,
the social issues related to technology and
education. It's a difficult issue, and one that I bet
most of us can relate to. Read what he has to say, we
won't solve this, but we sure can't make things worse
*grin*.
The following is an editorial by Slashdot Reader Mike
Hughes
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Computer Education
The problem with typical K-12 computer education today
by Mike Hughes
Lately, the Clinton Administration has been expressing
support for wiring up every class room (or at least
every school) to the internet. This sounds great at
first, but one must look deeper into what's involved,
and how the schools are currently handling the
situations presented.
The internet, as the government paints it, will allow
every student to collaborate online and in realtime with
other students across the country, and even the
world. If they need help with homework, just go
online. If they need to do research, they can find it
online! This is the image that the public gets. This is
the wrong image.
As a high school student myself, I have experienced the
public education system first hand, as I'm sure the vast
majority of the general population has. What sets my
generation apart from the previous, though, is the
penetration of computer technology into the classrooms
of America. The way that the schools handle computer
technology is very discouraging.
At the school that I attend (and I assume this school
can be representative of the typical american high
school in terms of attitude towards technology and use
of it) the main internet connection is a fractional T1
line, which I suspect is being run at the rate of 256
kilobits per second. The school will eventually be
wired with ethernet subnets, and a yet-to-be-determined
backbone technology which uses a fiber optic medium to
transmit data. All departments will eventually have
state-of-the-art computers. However, as I said, this is
an average school. Schools out there have everything
from full capacity T1 lines to 14.4 kbps dialup lines to
America Online.
There's just one problem at my high school. They
discourage all conversation using their computers. This
includes electronic mail, internet chat, and
world-wide-web based mail services such as hotmail.
Furthermore, the internet connection provided is
woefully inadequate. Remember, there's going to be a
whole school doing multimedia-intensive work on the
internet, collaborating with peers and teachers online
through the great internet. A fractional T1 would barely
be enough to handle one computer, let alone
dozens. Currently, the whole district (over a dozen
schools) shares a single full capacity T1.
Of course, these are all technological problems. They
can be solved. In fact, I'm sure that most schools of
the future will have at least full-fledged T1 or higher
links to the internet. It's all about funding. You see,
providing all this great technology does no good if it's
done in quantity and not in quality. It does no good for
a student to wait 30 minutes to download some
research. He needs it now. He needs it quick. He could
probably go to the library and look up some information
in an encyclopedia faster than it would take to download
the pages and pages of graphical information that would
serve him correctly.
Another problem is the actual information they're
teaching to kids, and the attitude kids have on
technology. This too is dissapointing. K-12 children
spend years and years learning how to play games and
operate word processers. This isn't computer
literacy. There isn't an interest there. Kids just
aren't interested, since the information they learn is
either already in their heads, or is too mundane to
bother learning. Any child can figure out how to use a
word processor on their own in a few minutes. It doesn't
require a full semester of instruction.
The attitude the average child has towards technology
today is very grim. Kids with computational interests
are discouraged and frowned upon. "Nerds" and "Geeks".
Outcasts. Loners. Why? Because the schools haven't done
a good enough job of making the technology
interesting. It may be fun to call ourselves the
community of nerds, but trust me, It's no laughing
matter when a child is being ridiculed and shunned in
school because of this. The truth is, the only thing
kids look forward to in computer class every day is
playing video games. I saw it day after day in grade
school and middle school. Less of it happens in high
school, but it's still there.
One of the problems is that the schools are too busy
baby sitting kids and telling them what they can and
cant do in front of the computer. They're constantly
monitored. They're told they can't chat. Or write
email. Or go to this site, or that one. Internet filters
are put up which scan by keyword.
"http://www.hotmail.com" isn't accessible, since it
contains the keyword "hot", which could lead to sexual
oriented material. Signs are posted that warn the kids
not to do anything frowned upon by the faculty.
As you can probably tell, this isn't the environment
that kids learn in. They hate it. There's too many
rules. There's no freedom. Therefore, they slowly drift
away from the computer, putting it off as "boring" or
"for nerds and loners". They don't have the initiative
to do what they want.
As a result, most kids today are kept in a bubble that
prevents them from learning more about the technology
that drive their lives.
Schools need the funding and the expertise to implement
technologies that will help the kids learn, not limit
what they already know. Of course, nobody likes the idea
of more taxes either, but the future is really in our
hands. Write your congressman or senator and take a
stand. They need to know where the money they raised is
going. Children need freedom to do what they
want. That's the most important thing about education.
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Originally sighted by Geoff Duke ...
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