(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.”
