(The English Press, June 1995)
Article sent by Cristina Hoppenthal
The class room is in semi-darkness, illuminated only by computer screens. In front of each computer, sits a child manipulating a cursor to create shapes as part of a routine maths lesson. The screens show symbols, video images and texts, all designed to national curriculum standards. The computers speak directly to the pupils through headphones, electronically encouraging, correcting or congratulating them. Patrolling the classroom as a “facilitator”, the new name to describe a teacher.
This scene is fictional, but not as futuristic as it might sound. Some predict that it could be common by 2020. Much of this technology already exists, and politicians want to maintain the momentum of what educators describe as “the education superhighway”. But is the superhighway, despite good intentions, a dead end? Though no one doubts that our children’s survival in the computer jungle of the 21st century will depend on how conversant they are with computer speak, not everyone feels optimistic about the future in which computers take the place of blackboards. […]
Suspicions about dependency on computer learning are increasing. On one hand, there are those who argue that the computer revolution will promote a new way of learning which will help
Some worry about their dehumanizing effect as, although computer learning allows a high degree of personal interaction between students, in the end the most important interaction is done with a data base.
Mark Sealey, editor of the English magazine Educational Computing and Technology, states his stance about computer learning. “The most important skills are the high order skills”, he says. “Most of the knowledge will be available electronically so that students will not have to waste time memorizing it. After all, it is not knowing the number of wives Henry VIII had that is important, but asking why he had so many.”
12 comments:
In a school where I teach, I was given permission to use a huge auditorium where I made use of the DVD to pass images on a TV. The experience was fantastic. I dealt with 'Climate Change' as topic and the students notably evidenced a change in their attitude as regards class participation. The headmaster also suggested me that next time I could use a classroom with 22 computers, proposal which I obviously accepted since the mayority of state schools lack in these technological tools. I think it is absolutely necessary to apply these new strategies to the classroom. However, I noticed that such PC activities demand a lot of extra work on the side of the teacher like powerpoint presentations, diagrams and so. Although I acknowledge that computers are a valuable tool for teachers and students, the extra work and time it demands to prepare such activities is not in absolute compensated for in the economical sense. My question might be naive: But, Is being discussed any economical compensation by law for the teacher that demostrate his/her abilities with new technologies in the class?
Nowadays, we are illiterate if we don’t know how to use a computer. But I agree with the idea that we have to use the computer as a tool. Although the computer can do everything for us, we have to study. This is the key to a better future.
It is important to get used to technology as regards education because it helps to enrich our knowledge.In my opinion,computers and balackboards are useful and make an appropiate combination.
I think that literacy is a broad concept and to be literate implies being able to read and write. By contrast, to be illiterate implies being unable to read and write. In addition to this, with the advenment of computers people have had to learn these skills by means of computers as well. Supposing that Jonathan Swift or Defoe, by far two literate gentleman, travel from the past to our present and find themselves that they cannot operate computers. Can one call these extraordinary writters 'illiterate' just because they cannot operate a PC? Honestly, I don't believe so. I guess there should be another concept or word to signify the person unable to cope with a PC. Probably, the right concept could be an 'illiterate of tecnological devices'
It would be an amazing experience for our students and for us as teachers the use of computers with an educational purpose.
But, as we know, in most of Argentinian schools there is no computers, or there are one computer for each 5 students at least. Perhaps by 2020 we will work without blackboard, sending information and corrections by the net. In fact I am asking myself about the vincular relation between the teacher and the students: will be more or less distant as it is nowadays? what about this idea of putting the head, heart and hands in the practice of teaching?
I think that computers are necessary for education, although we need to be careful if we want to use them with our students. We have to teach them how they should find useful information. However, we don't have to leave aside the blackboard. It is an important tool in many schools if they still don't have computers.
There's no doubt that computers are a valuable tool for teachers in the classroom and that being unable to operate them, in a society relying on new technologies, would imply being a sort of postmodern illiterate. However, I doubt about the idea that computers could replace blackboards at school. There's anything more interactive, cheaper and costless than a blackboard. Besides, On blackboards there's face to face interaccion, while on PC it's not known sometimes who the hell is one talking to. People present themselves as anonymous or with pseudo-namesa and this is a significant diference. Sometimes I think that the net is really a strange world. For some people computers create distances with its virtualism, deslocalizing people not only in time but in place. By contrast, blackboards join people in a real, non-virtual context and the contact established between them is more real, more human. Bye
as many of you, i also think that technology (yesterday a pen, a note book; today a computer)can indeed enhance educational processes. in the world in which we live and work, not being able to use technological tools becomes a stumbling block for almost everyone. not doubt about it. however, in our case, -and as many of you have already pointed out- it seems that instead of worring about the positive or negative effects that the use of computers in the class room may have, we should worry about the consequences of not having any!
i remember the desapointment i felt when i first learned that the high school students i was working with didn't have "informatica". i still wonder how can such a thing happen? if so many people have computers at home, how can schools lack them?
finaly, i don't know exactly why but i wouldn't like to see a classroom without a blackboard (taking it as an emblem of the "real stuff")
interpesonal skills are also important...
Yes Ronnie, I'm totally agree with you. When I was reading your comment I meditated for a while on the phrase 'an emblem of the real stuff' referring to blackboards. It's an ambiguous word 'stuff', it means a worthless object or an object in misuse. By the way, I'm wondering if there are people thinking blackboards as objects in misuse. It sounds cold, at least to me. Like you as well, I wouldn't like to see the classrooms without blackboards. Cristina describes in her article how would it be the backgroud of such a classrooms, dark classrooms where only the screens of computers can be seen, static children playing video games, the teacher seen by the society as a mere facilitator. Frankly speaking, Cristina's article was extraordinary. Well seeya.
I think that we have to incorporate new technologies as the computer in the classroom. It is a great tool and it can make the class more dynamic. Also because we use the in our everyday life, so why not using them in the class? See you!
I think that we have to incorporate new technologies as the computer in the classroom. It is a great tool and it can make the class more dynamic. Also because we use the in our everyday life, so why not using them in the class? See you!
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