The Child and the Machine: How Computers Put Our Children's Education at Risk

In Los Angeles, the Kittridge Street Elementary School eliminated its music program to hire a technology coordinator. A Virginia school turned its art room into a computer laboratory. In the United States, a record $6.5 billion was spent on educational technology for the 1998-99 school year, while funding for music, arts and other specialty areas continues to shrink. Stubbornly, nearly every measure of our children's educational performance refuses to rise.

Throughout the country, parents and educators ask themselves, "Can this trend be good for our children?"

The authors of The Child and the Machine say the answer, conclusively, is no. Computers don't help most children learn; in fact, in many cases their use is damaging. They argue:

* There is no evidence that the use of computers improves reading or writing skills. Disturbingly, studies show the reverse is more likely.
* The "new emerging technology" currently in classrooms is used poorly, because many teachers have not been effectively trained.
* The indirect costs to children, in the form of reduced art, music, and physical education, stunt their natural development.
* The real dollar costs are far higher than people realize-and far higher than many school boards will admit. In case after case, computer upgrade and training costs are underestimated by many thousands of dollars.
* The rush to use computers with young children too often ignores the real risks of eye strain, repetitive strain injury, and other physical injuries, with potentially tragic results.

Drawing from hundreds of school visits, studies, and expert interviews, The Child and the Machine paints a compelling picture of how our uncritical rush to use computers in schools has led to one of the most expensive and least helpful revolutions in the history of American education.

Armstrong and Casement thoughtfully consider the use of computers to teach children. They explore theories of how children learn and their application to the hottest trend in education, computer literacy. The pressures of accountability and burgeoning technology drive the interest in computerizing schools, but Armstrong and Casement see computers as being in danger of becoming, like TV, a threat to educational development. They cite research critical of computer learning, which maintains that computers deprive children of sensory experience and may actually hurt academic performance. They note that most studies on how computers affect learning are inconclusive. The amount of benefit that students derive from computers depends on their state of developmental readiness and the adequacy of their teachers' training. Armstrong and Casement examine integrated learning systems, schools with heavy reliance on computer learning, and software packages for children as young as eight months, but their bottom line is that money spent on computers would be better spent on more teachers to reduce the student-teacher ratio. Vanessa Bush
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