Computers Can Hurt Kids' Education
Home computers were supposed to be a lifeline for poor children. Remember the One Laptop Per Child project? The idea behind that program, and the millions of dollars that have been pumped into computer equipment for disadvantaged kids here in the States, is that access to a computer at home would help poor kids catch up academically to their more affluent peers.
Turns out, that’s not the case. In fact, having a home computer can hurt academic achievement. But only for low-income students. Exactly the kids who were supposed to be helped by having one.
There’s an obvious logic there. Think about what your kids do with their computers. Research interesting academic subjects? Bone up on their math skills? Read the classics on the Gutenberg Project? Yeah, right. They play games. They chat with their friends. They do all the unproductive, time-wasting crap we do with our computers. But more of it.
For kids from low-income households, the distraction factors apparently outweigh the benefits of having home computer access.
Low-income kids in a North Carolina study saw their math and reading test scores drop after broadband Internet service arrived in their neighborhoods. In Romania, families receiving government vouchers for a home computer had kids performance in math, English, and Romanian slide after getting the machines. In Texas, kids who participated in the state’s “technology immersion” program lost writing skills.
The only thing kids in these various studies got better at was computer skills.
Which they’ll need for sure. But the promise of computers as an educational tool for achievement in traditional academic areas like reading, writing and arithmetic seems to be largely fantastic.
Photo: San Jose Library
Go to any trial school where OLPC has been implemented, student test results have gone up dramatically, enthusiasm by teachers and pupils has gone hugely up, truancy has gone down.
The way to implement technology in the class room has to be like this:
1. Every child needs to get the same hardware and own it, take the school-in-the-box home after classes.
2. All curriculums need to be digitized, contents for learning need to be available to the kids at one click distance. If there is no interesting educational contents available to the children on the Internet and locally as apps or programs, then off course the kids will chat and play unrelated video games instead. There is absolutely no reason the chatting and video-chatting (online worldwide communications and collaboration mechanisms) and gaming (interactive programs) can be about the educational curriculum. And the curriculum needs to be upgraded to the 21st century.
3. The 19th century school system does not work for most of the children and teachers. While computers and the Internet are the only hope we have to provide a full and equal access to knowledge, to learning and to opportunities in this world to every child.
Great horny toads, all these magic bullet are duds.
Wait a minute–is it up to *gasp* parents to make sure their kids focus on school?! Ay carumba.
Well, I guess we just need to cut off their access now don’t we? When will people understand that there are no simple solutions? The answers when it comes to the poor and disadvantaged seem to be
a) throw money at the problem and cross fingers that it resolves itself and when it doesn’t (which typically it does not)
b) Eff them, they’re society’s dregs
In the meantime, effective programs and schools either can’t get funding or get shuttered.
eLearning and distance learning are the future, and the future is here. Students of Lower SES backgrounds (or lower income students) are natives of technology and regardless of their lack of monetary wealth. Many, if not most of them have smart phones, and many have iPads and home computers. My wife and I both teach in the “hood” and students used to laugh at me before I had an iPhone…and they still laugh at my wife, who currently uses a flip phone.
Offering self-paced, eLearning solutions, places the responsibility of learning back on the student (and the parents) and lowers cost for teachers and staff, as they become facilitators or coaches (cost less as they dont have to be content experts). All of the eLearning content can be standardized and distributed by the state on computers that cost less than $200.
Just giving a kid a laptop does nothing…creating the opportunity for self-paced learning using a tool that connects with young learners is a less expensive, and far more effective way to teach than the old lecture style (which does not work with young generations who are bombarded with content in the digital age). Instruction must come in a way that is familiar to students, and the web is a very familiar medium.
I was raised with a computer in my home from DAY ONE. That’s right I’ve NEVER known a time when I didn’t have a computer of some sort, and guess what, I had an above reading level, my math was high (my spelling was never good but I have brain damage from a fall that makes any kind of pen-to-paper thing not come out well at all) in fact getting a laptop SAVED my writing grade because my teacher could now read my handwriting! I am SICK TO DEATH of people saying that computers are making kids worse at School. Maybe if you parents actually did things like read to you kid, no matter what age, help them with homework, and got them games that had problem solving puzzles and the like (yes it’s old but try Kings Quest or Dr. Brain games by Sierra). Once they’re done homework let them have fun on the computer.