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Technology Critic Takes On Computers in Schools
Doing David Noble one better is computer scientist Clifford Stoll.
Stoll rejects the idea that students need to use computers intensively and
at an early age to become computer literate. In fact, he says, the computer
skills needed by adults in the modern world are relatively few and easily
learned. A high school graduate should be able to use a word-processing
program, be familiar with spreadsheets and data bases, and be comfortable
sending e-mail and browsing the Web. Stoll says these are skills that are
easily mastered in a few weeks and hardly require a battery of computers in
every classroom from kindergarten through 12th grade.
In fact, Stoll says that giving a prominent place to technology in the
classroom could end up doing a lot of real harm to students. For one thing,
he says, time on the computer inevitably means time taken away from real
interaction with teachers and other students. It also means reduced time for
things that children do master more easily than grown-ups, like foreign
languages and musical instruments.
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/cyber/education/05education.html
And here's a well-referenced Atlantic Monthly article from 1997 also arguing
against computers and technology in the classroom.
There is no good evidence that most uses of computers significantly improve
teaching and learning, yet school districts are cutting programs -- music,
art, physical education -- that enrich children's lives to make room for
this dubious nostrum, and the Clinton Administration has embraced the goal
of "computers in every classroom" with credulous and costly enthusiasm
by Todd Oppenheimer
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97jul/computer.htm