Schooliblit

Monday, December 1, 2003

Computers Are Not the Answer; What's the Question?
Despite great promise technology is dumbing down the classroom. Interesting One From SFGate.com that says This past year, as San Francisco school officials were dealing with budget cuts by laying off teachers and librarians and closing school libraries, spending on city schools was increasing in another area: classroom computers. Throughout the country, computer technology is dumbing down the academic experience, corrupting schools' financial integrity, cheating the poor, fooling people about the job skills youngsters need for the future and furthering the illusions of state and federal education policy. [LISNews.com]
Another interesting quote from this article:

One of the most common selling points for computers in schools, even in first and second grades, is to prepare youngsters for tomorrow's increasingly high-tech jobs. Strangely, this may be the computer evangels' greatest hoax. When business leaders talk about what they need from new recruits, they hardly mention computer skills, which they find they can teach employees relatively easily on their own. Employers are most interested in what are sometimes called "soft" skills: a deep knowledge base and the ability to listen and communicate; to think critically and imaginatively; to read, write and figure, and other capabilities that schools are increasingly neglecting.

Of course, the article was written by Todd Oppenheimer, the author of The Flickering Mind: The False Promise of Technology in the Classroom and How Learning Can Be Saved, who seems to be following in the footsteps of Clifford Stoll. We need people like this to suggest that maybe the emperor has no clothes.
5:30:10 PM

[comment []];[]

Reading Young People's Literature
We're All Reading Children's Books. This Telegraph article speaks to the new phenomenon of large numbers of adults reading children's and young adult books. They offer up two theories of why adults are doing this. First is the sad theory that it is "further proof of an intellectually degraded culture in which magical quest literature is the new rock'n'roll." Yikes! But the second theory hits closer to the truth, "that some adults are rejecting the arid pastures of clever-clever, look-at-me contemporary adult fiction". I have read books for children and teens for years. I enjoy the clean writing style, the unpretentious language, and the strong narrative line.... [Kids Lit]
I really like reading YA literature too. My excuse has always been that I have to read it so that I can talk to students about what they might like, but now that I'm going to be leaving my school library postion, I guess I'll have to think of another excuse.
6:48:34 AM

[comment []];[]