[LM_NET] SHARE: Essay on downsides of computer use in education

[Louise Gorvett <Louise.Gorvett@WCDSB.CA>]

Hello LM_NETters,

 

I thought I'd share a recent essay on computer use in classrooms from
the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) website.  The author writes
a regular column on education, and his most recent topic is computers in
the classroom.  While he's not saying anything I haven't seen numerous
times in postings on LM_NET, I think his pro-"traditional"
library/research skills point is well-made, and it's nice to hear it
from someone who is not a librarian!

 

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/10/02/f-vp-smol.html

 

He ends the essay with the following...

"So who is to blame for these lost skills?

I am. More specifically, it is my generation of teachers that has put
too much faith in computers and the web and did not consider the skills
that would be compromised because of how these tools would be used over
time.

Of course, I do not think that computers and information technology
should be purged entirely from education.

They always should have a place as an occasional tool that could help
students expand and apply the skills that they should be developing with
pen and paper and the non-virtual library.

And they probably have a larger role in helping those students whose
disabilities demand the use of computers or who go to school in very
small communities, like native reserves, without many other resources.

But what does need to be purged forever is our assumption that this
digital generation of young people is somehow more intelligent and has a
more secure and prosperous future simply by virtue of the fact that they
are "so into computers."

Get real!

 

 

 

Lou Murray Gorvett

Library Technician/Site Administrator

Canadian Martyrs Elementary School

Waterloo Catholic District School Board

Kitchener, Ontario, CANADA

louise.gorvett@wcdsb.ca <mailto:louise.gorvett@wcdsb.edu.on.ca> 

 

 


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