Contributed
Marlene Lewin, a teacher at Balmagie Primary School in St Andrew, helps one of her young students complete an assignment on one of several computers given to the school by the Cable & Wireless Jamaica Foundation and Teens 4 Technology.
Dr Joseph Bonsu-Akoto, Contributor
With calls from politicians and academics to make children in schools computer literate, a lot of organisations are rushing to ensure that children in Third World countries, in particular, are not left out in the computer age.
I agree with the premise that being computer literate in the 21st century is the way forward to compete in today's job market. But one must be careful as to the type of implementation of such schemes. I am opposed to the idea that computers can help advance the knowledge of elementary students. I believe that the traditional method is still the most useful method even in the 21st century for elementary students.
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE
Children need stronger personal bonds with caring adults. Yet powerful technologies are distracting children and adults from each other. Children also need time for active, physical play; hands-on lessons of all kinds, especially in the arts; and direct experience of the natural world. Research shows these are not frills but are essential for healthy child development. Yet many schools have cut already minimal offerings in these areas to shift time and money to expensive, unproven technology. The emphasis on technology is diverting us from the urgent social and educational needs of low-income children. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Sherry Turkle has asked: "Are we using computer technology not because it teaches best but because we have lost the political will to fund education adequately?" Let's examine the claims about computers and children more closely: The question is: Do computers really motivate children to learn faster and better?
Thirty years of research on educational technology has produced just one clear link between computers and children's learning. Drill-and-practise programmes appear to improve scores modestly - though not as cost effectively as one-on-one tutoring - on some standardised tests in narrow skill areas, notes Larry Cuban of Stanford University. Other than that, "there is no clear, commanding body of evidence that students' sustained use of multimedia machines, the Internet, word processing, spreadsheets, and other popular applications has any impact on academic achievement."
What is good for adults and older students is often inappropriate for youngsters. The sheer power of information technologies may actually hamper young children's intellectual growth. Face-to-face conversation with more competent language users, for example, is the one constant factor in studies of how children become expert speakers, readers, and writers. Time for real talk with parents and teachers is critical. Similarly, academic success requires focused attention, listening, and persistence.
The computer - like the TV - can be a mesmerising babysitter. But many children, overwhelmed by the volume of data and flashy special effects of the World Wide Web and much software, have trouble focusing on any one task. And a new study from the American Association of Women Educational Foundation casts doubt on the claim that computers automatically motivate learning. Many girls, it found, are bored by computers. And many boys seem more interested in violence and video games than educational software. Must five-year-olds be trained on computers today to get high-paying jobs of tomorrow?
For a relatively small number of children with certain disabilities, technology offers benefits. But for the majority, computers pose health hazards and potentially serious developmental problems. Of particular concern is the growing incidence of disabling repetitive stress injuries among students who began using computers in childhood. The technology in schools today will be obsolete long before five-year-olds graduate. Creativity and imagination are prerequisites in innovative thinking, which will never be obsolete in the work place.
Yet a heavy diet of ready made computer images and programmed toys appears to stunt imaginative thinking. Teachers report that children in our electronic society are becoming alarmingly deficient in generating their own images and ideas. Do computers really "connect" children to the world? Too often, what computers actually connect children to are trivial games, inappropriate adult material, and aggressive advertising. They can also isolate children, emotionally and physically, from direct experience of the natural world. The 'distance' education they promote is the opposite of what all children, and especially children at risk, need most - close relationships with caring adults.
Research shows that strengthening bonds between teachers, students, and families is a powerful remedy for troubled students and struggling schools.
Overemphasising technology can weaken those bonds. The National Science Board reported in 1998 that prolonged exposure to computing environments may create "indivi-duals incapable of dealing with the messiness of reality, the needs of community building, and the demands of personal commitments."
TRADITIONAL APPROACH
In the early grades, children need live lessons that engage their hands, hearts, bodies, and minds - not computer simulations. Even in high school, where the benefits of computers are more clearly obvious, too few technology classes emphasise the ethics or dangers of online research and communication. Too few help students develop the critical skills to make independent judgements about the potential for the Internet - or any other techno-logy - to have negative as well as positive social consequences. Those who place their faith in technology to solve the problems of education should look more deeply into the needs of children. The renewal of education requires personal attention to students from good teachers and active parents, strongly supported by their communities. It requires commitment to developmentally appropriate education and attention to the full range of children's real low-tech needs - physical, emotional, and social, as well as cognitive.
A lot of people today wonder why our children can't read as much as "the old days". As Senator James M. Jeffords, former chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labour, and Pensions Committee, has noted: "No matter how much technology we apply to the classroom, no matter how drastically our educational system may change during this 21st century, nothing will ever take the place of a good book and a caring adult to share it. The quiet space of a book sets a child's imagination free. And it is this first introduction to reading that will excite a child about learning for the rest of his or her life." We need to continually examine what succeeds and fails, and why. And we should do so before we deploy any technical approach on a grand scale. Computers in children's classrooms are not the solution. This is echoed by Steve Jobs of Apple Computers: "I've come to the conclusion that the problem is not one that technology can hope to solve. What's wrong with education cannot be fixed with technology. No amount of technology will make a dent."
It is encouraging to know that Jamaica's educational system has been set on the right direction. The Government is in the process of creating small classrooms by promising to build more schools. Research has proven that small size (both classrooms and the school itself) is good for the children. What needs to be done next is to eradicate long travelling and class segregation for students. Community schools might be the answer to ease the long travelling. As it is now, most children spend long hours in getting to and from school.
Children are our future. Let's protect their future. In doing so we must remember the song from the "Kindergarten Wall by John McCutcheon: And, remember the seed in the little paper cup: First the roots go down and then the plant grows up."
