In a recent New York Times article, a college student exposed a disturbing picture of actual computer use by peers. Some of the author's classmates reportedly spend six or more hours each day playing computer games. Others spend countless hours downloading music files from rapidly proliferating web sites. Still more engage in late night sterile chat with friends across the hall or strangers across the globe. GUEST EDITORIAL: Embracing Technology . . . Cautiously
I see computers in action on a daily basis. We have been conditioned to believe that the sight of a young man or woman at a computer terminal somehow represents merit or rigor. A group of students glued to monitors is not an alarming sight to most parents, teachers, or administrators. Students giggling in a lounge are deemed to be wasting time. I suggest that the giggle may be as or more important as a "learning experience."
Enthusiasm for technology is fueled by the clever marketing of Microsoft and others who directly profit from Information Age myths. Microsoft's latest advertisements link their products to education in a way that feeds the myth. As one example, a recent Microsoft ad shows a class on a field trip to the desert, measuring the diameters of cacti, quantifying the cyclical effects of stored moisture on the plants' dimensions. The collected data are then brought back to school for translation into colorful bar graphs and other presentation formats. It is an appealing notion that the technology is adding significant meaning to the exercise. Although the visual representation may be useful for comparative or analytical purposes, the "added value" is minimal and the investment of time and resources is disproportionate. A hand-drawn graph on chart paper would be equally (or more) accurate, faster and, possibly, more usefully related to reality. The technology makes it prettier and more professionally "finished," but adds nothing to comprehension or skill. Electronic manipulation of information or images is not education; in fact, it may bypass real understanding of the information or the process.
There are, of course, valid and useful educational and vocational uses for technology, just as there are for automobiles and clothing. But the notion that computers educate is as false as the notion that "the clothes make the man (or woman)." The computer industry has taken the planned obsolescence invented by the automobile industry and lifted it to high art. There are benefits to miniaturization and speed, but the returns at this point are diminished to the point of silliness. In some ways, the hype of the computer industry is as useful to education as a Paris fashion show is useful to a shivering child.
Computers are just tools. They are slightly faster and significantly less accurate than dictionaries. They produce neater documents but no original thoughts. They create the illusion of academic motion, but may take children's time away from human interaction and genuine play. True education consists of ideas, passion, and beautiful phrases. Real learning comes from molding clay, playing an instrument, engaging with people, arguing, and experimenting. Computers are merely bits, bytes, and icons -- facile facsimiles of existence. Virtual reality is not reality.
- Steven J. Nelson
(Editor's Note: Steve Nelson is Head of The Calhoun School, New York City. His comments here are excerpted from his column in the Spring 1999 Calhoun Chronicle.)
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