Uber Columnist John Dvorak speaks out on the computer in classroom craze.
Per PCMag.com
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2459679,00.asp (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2459679,00.asp)
By John C. Dvorak
June 18, 2014
Teachers teach and computers compute. Get gadgets out of the classrooms and watch things improve.
Tech firms are looking forward to selling more machines for the classroom, where student can struggle by themselves on what amounts to a "teaching machine" that essentially does not teach. Teaching machines have never worked in the past, and they will never work in the future.
Yes, in some situations with a certain kind of motivated student, the teaching machine can teach the student. But generally this is the same sort of student who can learn by his or herself using books and asking questions once in a while. The machine hinders the process.
Teaching machines have been around for some time and stemmed from the ideas of controversial behaviorist BF Skinner. He developed something called programmed learning, which quickly morphed into teaching machines that culminated in the Control Data PLATO computers, or Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations.
While it was invented by the University of Illinois and first appeared in 1960, PLATO was licensed by Control Data Corporation and implemented across the country. There were still useable PLATO terminals around until 2006.
I was lucky enough to take two courses using these devices. The user sat behind a big oblong green CRT, and the devices had a dedicated classroom that was near the mainframe, often in a basement. I cannot recall the courses I took, but there was some fun element to the devices. It was extremely crude by today's standards, but futuristic in the 1960s and 1970s.
Their effectiveness was questionable, although the things seemed miraculous. And I'm sure when computers first appeared in actual classrooms in the 1980s a similar awe was inspired.
When tech enters the classroom, the usual result is money squandered. This was obviously the case with PLATO and it is quite apparent today with daffy educators suckered into going all-in with PCs and tablets.
A recent initiative for education called Common Core (promoted heavily by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as some high-paid consultants, and a major textbook publisher) hopes to change the way teachers teach with an emphasis on computers.
Common Core has become quite controversial over the past year for all sorts of practical and political reasons, not the least of which is the abnegation of previous learning methodologies and the overt exclusion and discouragement of parental assistance. This is mostly because most parents do math differently than how Common Core proponents want to teach it.
I would advise readers to do their own research on Common Core. Suffice it to say that one element of Common Core seems to be adding more and more computers into the educational mix. Computerized studies. Computerized testing. Lots of computers.
This, to me, means a return to the inefficient and awkward teaching machine style of education. It is no wonder why test scores are not up to par.
I'll make this assertion once and only once. The only thing a computer does in the classroom is distract from studies. Of course, if you are studying how to use a computer or how to do a great Web search, then the computer is a perfect tool. But that should be where it ends. Teachers should be the focal point for teaching, not computers.
There is something weird and pathetic about a teacher who goes from student to student to help them individually on the computer. This is not teaching, this is IT support.
Computers are great, I agree. But teachers teach and computers compute. Get gadgets out of the classrooms and watch things improve.
Dvorak is considered a hack in tech writing. No one takes anything he says seriously.
Quote from: peestandingup on June 29, 2014, 09:29:26 PM
Dvorak is considered a hack in tech writing. No one takes anything he says seriously.
Meaning what he writes has no value or because you always disagree with him?
He is well published globally, someone must take him seriously.
Using computers and tablets in the classroom prepares students for a changing world where using such devices is a requirement. It's time to prepare students for these kinds of emerging job markets, not keep them in the dark ages.
Ironically, I was just speaking with someone yesterday and the subject of being smart came up. I remarked that I have learned more from the internet, technology and my own research than I did in all my years of school. People are different, some people learn better by having someone else push knowledge to them and others (like me) learn much more by pulling information from various sources, in their own timing and choosing.
Think about the military job of "intelligence"... those men and women are utilizing technology and other resources to obtain information, and they go after it in many different ways. They don't just sit in a room and wait for someone else to come in and tell them everything they need to know. They are successful because they have a task of obtaining specific knowledge and they use many different methods to achieve those tasks.
Just my $0.02...
Quote from: spuwho on June 29, 2014, 11:08:02 PM
Quote from: peestandingup on June 29, 2014, 09:29:26 PM
Dvorak is considered a hack in tech writing. No one takes anything he says seriously.
Meaning what he writes has no value or because you always disagree with him?
He is well published globally, someone must take him seriously.
No, because I'm smart enough to never read what he writes to agree/disagree with him either way. But I know enough about him through the years when other blogs pick up his ramblings, his outrageous "predictions" (which are NEVER right, he once said Apple should discontinue the iPhone FYI), and whatever else he feels like bitching about. He's like Andy Rooney & Nostradamus rolled into one.
And the National Enquirer is global. Should I take it serious too?
Meaning if what he wrote had little value, publications wouldn't print him.
He expresses some of the misperceptions in the use of technology in everyday life. Some of them are rants, some are predictions, some are sarcastic. And yep that means he can be wrong sometimes.
I don't always agree with him (otherwise why read it?) But he does make you think every so often.
In this case he is asking about the appropriate use of tech in the classroom.
Computers are no longer a luxury or a novelty, they are everyday basic science that is intimately intertwined in our daily lives. To not teach it, or at least offer it in abundance throughout all levels of schooling, would be a silly oversight that would certainly draw unending and deserved criticism.
Also, of course, no one is firing our teachers - teachers teach and computers compute. Teacher and machine should be willing partners in an effective educational system.
That being said, Common Core is another matter - I'm still trying to understand it. Maybe another thread for this one...
What an asinine article. No, students should not be handed a laptop, and left alone. They need taught to be functional and knowledgeable with technology, removing them would only help to make the US educational system more of a joke.
Human teachers will become less and less necessary, especially as students get older and can use technology to learn.
Common Core State Standards can be reviewed at www.corestandards.com but they do not require computers in the classroom.
See under "myths". There are not even data collection requirements.
What a crappy opinionated article "Common Core seems to be". Give us some cited facts if your are going to make a point.
The reality is school systems are archaic to say the least. States have floundered across the country to solve this. It is only in spite of ourselves that our creative nature has kept us afloat as a nation. But even there we are starting to fall behind. All of these folks who are anti-common core couldn't fix the problem 15 years ago so what makes them think they can fix it now.
I stopped reading after "teaching machines"
Quote from: David on June 30, 2014, 11:23:38 AM
I stopped reading after "teaching machines"
Haha. That term is kinda like "Artificial Intelligence". That one gets me. What?
I don't think teaching should be done with the absence of computing available, I think computers should not be treated as a 100% teaching replacement. That is where I think he reaches the "teaching machine" comment.
I agree with others, I have learned much through the use of the internet than I would have in a textbook, but there are some things that are more difficult to teach merely through seeing it online.
There are nuances to the English language and context derived understandings that would be more difficult to educate through a computer than through a human. Much like how spell checkers can't handle slangs or certain conjugated verbs in sentences.
I am hearing a lot of feedback on Common Core, but I have not read the materials myself, so I can't comment there.
Many teachers don't know how to use computers outside of surfing the internet and getting e-mail. Can we really expect them to used the properly as a tool to help them teach when they haven't received the necessary training.
When I was in high school we were not allowed to have calculators. In chemistry I learned how to use a slide rule which I thought was way cooler than using a scientific calculator. In fact my chemistry teacher had this huge slide ruler above the chalkboard (do they still have chalkboards in classrooms).
I believe you should teach kids how to do things manually first and once they master it show them how to do it with technology. That way if something catastrophic occurs and we loose the use of our technology, they will know how to do it the "Old Fashion" way.
Good god, I sound like my father.
I dont disagree that kids should learn multiple ways of doing things, but technology is here to stay and we should use it. Kids/parents should have the options to learning how to code, and have a chance to be taught proper computing processes and terms. Teaching antiquated and out of date skills will not keep our kids competitive in a work place rapidly being flooded with Indian and Asian workers. There is already a severe shortage of technical workers. Do we want to retard our educational system so we have a sense of nostalgia?
Quote from: Buforddawg on June 30, 2014, 02:54:00 PM
When I was in high school we were not allowed to have calculators. In chemistry I learned how to use a slide rule which I thought was way cooler than using a scientific calculator. In fact my chemistry teacher had this huge slide ruler above the chalkboard (do they still have chalkboards in classrooms).
I believe you should teach kids how to do things manually first and once they master it show them how to do it with technology. That way if something catastrophic occurs and we loose the use of our technology, they will know how to do it the "Old Fashion" way.
Good god, I sound like my father.
Maybe Mr. Vitti has some better options?
Per Computerworld:
School system CIOs are sold on Chromebooks
Computerworld - David Andrade, the CIO of Bridgeport Public Schools in Connecticut, has deployed 11,000 Chromebooks over the past year and plans to add another 5,000 in the next 12 months. It's a major deployment, but not unusual.
Other school systems are doing much the same thing. The Cherry Creeks School District in Greenwood Village, Co. deployed 18,000 last year, and Boston recently announced a deployment of 10,000 Chromebooks.
These rollouts by school systems may be why the Chromebook is surviving, thriving even.
Gartner on Monday said that sales of Chromebooks will reach 5.2 million units worldwide this year, with more than 80% of the demand in the U.S. That's an 80% increase in sales from 2013.
But this demand was driven almost entirely by education last year, which accounted for nearly 85% of Chromebook sales, according to Gartner.
Andrade said the Chromebook was attractive to the school system, especially because of its management, cost and low maintenance. "Adding 11,000 devices would have killed us if they needed a lot of support," said Andrade.
Google has created a centralized management system that allows for rapid changes, with no reimaging, and controls that allow a school system to restrict website and network access.
Although Bridgeport has penciled in a refresh cycle of four years for its Chromebooks, "as long as there is no physical damage, these things can go on forever," said Andrade of the Chromebook. It is using systems from Samsung, Hewlett-Packard and Acer.
Chromebook
Acer Chromebook
Andrade isn't really suggesting forever as an option. But the school system, which owns its Chromebooks instead of leasing them, will keep these thin-client devices in service as long as they are useful. And that may be well past four years.
"The Chrome operating systems doesn't bog down like Windows does over age," he said.
The plan is to give high school students the latest systems first, since they have the need for the most performance. The school system provides Chromebook access to students beginning in the third grade and operates on a policy that charges students for any damage. That typically involves screen breakage because they have either grabbed the screen by its corner or knocked the machine over.
The machines cost from $250 to $300, with screen replacement totalling about half that cost.
This policy of charging students for damage is similar to charging them for lost or damaged textbooks. For now, the Chromebooks remain in the schools, but if students are eventually allowed to take them home insurance programs may be available, said Andrade.
For its part, Google has been trying to do all it can from a software perspective to make education deployment attractive. It offers Google's Apps for Education and its collaboration tools for free. It also recently introduced Google Classroom, which is designed to help teachers keep track of assignments and other classroom management needs.
Gartner analyst Isabelle Durand said education is the big driver because Chromebooks are easy to manage, boot rapidly, and connect immediately to the Internet.
But additional demand could come from consumers.
"Vendors should not ignore the consumer market with their Chromebook offerings, because after education it represents a sizable opportunity," Durand said via email. "There is a good portion of the consumer market that will look for low-cost computing devices that [are] both easy to carry but can also help with productivity tasks besides browsing and checking e-mails."