Retaliation to the Skeptic's View.

by Lorenzo Gonzalez

First of all, IN NO WAY ARE WE REPLACING OUR TEACHERS WITH COMPUTERS. It is not even a consideration, a dream, hardly even a possibility. Yet the author of "Computers In Our Schools, A Skeptic's View" says, in comparison of computers and teachers, "I will always place my bets on good teachers!" So would the good teachers! Teachers don't want computers because the computers are good teachers! They want computers as teaching tools. She also suggests the possibility that "computers in elementary education will result in children losing the ability to initiate, to communicate and to produce, unless prompted by a machine"! Elementary teachers are well aware of their role in the development of communication and relationship skills of young children.

Does the author of "A Skeptic's View" suggest that computers be removed from classrooms? Or does she want the use of computers in classrooms to be simply reviewed, revised, limited? Actually, a recommendation is never made. Perhaps she ISN'T AWARE of exactly how computers are used in classrooms. For one thing, she states that "a growing number of computer science professionals suggest that early training may well be a handicap, requiring young adults to unlearn "primitive" technology." Elementary students are not trained to use worksheets, are they? How about filmstrips, videos, or even guest speakers? No. And the same goes for computers, especially at the elementary level. Computers in the classroom are used simply as learning tools. They are not there for their own sake, so to speak. Young students are not taught computer languages, specific interface usage, etc.! These are the things that might be considered "primitive" technology, or subject to change. But young students don't receive so called "computer training"! Training is for business colleges and animal circuses.

The children play games like Oregon Trail , a simulation of a cross country journey in pioneer times. It teaches planning and decision making skills as the player chooses various supplies, travel strategies, etc. Or they might tryWhere in the World is Carmen SanDiego, a detective game that teaches geography, disguised as clues in the hunt for the criminal. I don't know anyone who would call this educational play "computer training". Why on earth would our "Parents and teachers... believe that children will learn about operating the computers of tomorrow by operating the computers of today..."? This is absurd. The author of "...A Skeptic's View" goes on to say that "much of the technology will loose (sic) its present form long before today's elementary school students enter the workforce." Since when were elementary teachers in the business of training the workforce? Elementary kids don't learn to operate cash registers, or drive trucks, do they? But they do learn to count change, and read road signs! Our young students are accustomed to the technology that so many adults still find intimidating.

The skeptic blames "short attention spans, declining oral and written expression, troubled social relationships, poor listening skills" on the need for a "quick fix" of visual novelty" then lumps computers together with video games and television as "all visual electronic media". Thus, by a relationship she never really explains, blames computers as partially causal to all these ills. Computers are not television, and television is not used in elementary education. In so many homes, televisions are given the horrible responsibility of entertaining the children. This is not the case in the classroom, with either television or computer.

Computers are a huge part of everyday life. Elementary teachers are in the business of preparing children for exactly that - Everyday Life, where we need to read, process numbers, communicate with other people, make decisions, and use computers, in one way or another. Computers run our cars, our VCRs, our microwave ovens, elevators, libraries, cash registers, businesses, banks (used an ATM lately?) airplanes, hotels, stereo systems - this newspaper is published using computer, and this article was submitted on computer diskette. (editors note: All of these technologies are under 20 years old and are already assimilated into our everyday life. Children should not be disadvantaged by (denying them) not given the opportunity to become comfortable with the everyday tools of our society.)

Computers are not magical devices. They can not write for you, as the Skeptic suggests when she says, "...words are easily punched into a keyboard. Out they come, letter perfect." This statement is absurd, and could only come from a non-computer user. She says "...writing the words requires a process including physical manipulation of a pencil or pen, a sense of shape, form and spacing of letters..." and so on. This does not describe true writing. This describes drawing letters on paper. Writing is the composition of words, sentences, paragraphs, in order to communicate an idea. Computers do not have ideas. No more than pencils have ideas. Beside which, elementary children, unless they have a specific digital manipulation handicap, are not taught to write using the computer. And "Even the most sophisticated "mouse"" was never meant to emulate the "distinctly different... pen-in-hand". The mouse is not a writing device. It is a pointing device, used to point at things on the screen.

The Skeptic also says "How rewarding, personally and educationally, when a child creates a beautiful essay with the guidance not of a machine, but of another human being!" I can think of not a single instance when any machine has actively assisted a child with the composition of an essay. Truly rewarding is when a child creates a beautiful essay without guidance, human or otherwise. (editor's note: Is it? Think about this--maybe the wonderful part about a student doing something they are wonderfully proud of is mastering their tools/resources to express themselves. If this is so than a computer can aid in the composition of an essay because of 'cut' and 'paste'. Frankly, a computer is a better tool for writing a composition than is a pencil.)

Computers in the classrooms help children adjust to the presence of computers in our lives. Have you ever noticed that children use computers faster and more readily than their technophobe parents? How many children can program the same VCR that baffles their parents? And how many adults have to go back to school to learn computer skills that they need on the job - the same computer skills the next generation have grown up with?