Several months ago, I sent out a note to several friends in education about the Duke research study which reported that having a home computer does not automatically raise test scores and in some cases can lower test scores of low-income students. Mike Cassidy, Mercury News, had a column on the topic and includes a link to the original Duke study and adds information about a second study by Columbia which also reports lower test scores. At least the second study points out the importance of parental monitoring and supervision. Cassidy's column can be found at: http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_15634370
The two reports and links to download copies of the two reports are:
Scaling the Digital Divide - Home Computer Technology and Student Achievement
http://www.caldercenter.org/upload/CALDERWorkingPaper_48.pdf
Home Computer Use and the Development of Human Capital
http://www.columbia.edu/~cp2124/papers/computer.pdf
On the same Monday morning, I also found a hint on where the students may be spending their computer time when they're not supervised. Social networking and blogs have shown a 43% increase in the last year and now take up 22.7% of online time according to a Nielsen Company study. Americans spend 10.2% of their online time on games! See: http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2010/08/nielsen-social-networking-and-gaming-up-email-uncertain.ars
On a personal level, I've still resisted the urge to return to the Facebook-type social networks because of serious security issues previously reported by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Data mining used on social networks can be a trap for the uninformed, careless and unwary. Furthermore, I'm still not sure old Infantry officers are supposed to "twitter" about anything. It certainly sounds undignified for grown men and women.
I once used Facebook to follow a friend from Tallahassee Community College while she was on a 6-month trip to China and wondered how many members of the Chinese and other intelligence services were looking over her "electronic shoulder" as messages were transmitted back and forth to the States. Later I dropped the service entirely when unmoderated comments and posts from other users started tasting as stale as World War II surplus tea bags. Scott D. Harris refers to Facebook and other social networks as a "time suck." Personally, I would also add several other dimensions, but maybe that's just me and I could be wrong.
The need for even more student, teacher and parent training:
Fortunately, Cassidy and the two research papers and other reports may actually help us make a case that educators still need to push for more student, teacher and parental training about computers and improved levels of follow-up and student supervision. For that reason, I was particularly pleased to learn that Van Buren (AR) School District invited Ian Jukes to speak to district teachers about how technology is in a period of disruptive change and how their students will live and work in an era when the future is even less predictable than most adults now comprehend. The district even took an extra step - hosting an evening session for parents and interested community members!
At one point during Jukes' presentation, he pointed out the disconnect between the need for schools to teach basic skills measured by state standards and student test scores and the growing importance of teaching higher level skills to prepare our students to work and succeed in a world of ever more rapid change. Most of the evidence leads to the belief that our students will live in a far more dangerous and changing world. Communities and their schools can no longer afford to prepare our kids to live and work in 1955. Jukes concluded his evening presentation with a quote from Erik Hoffer, "In times of radical change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves perfectly equipped for a world that no longer exists.”
Of course, Jukes uses the Internet and technology to share his message with people who want to learn more. He suggested the audience check out the 21st Century Fluency Project at: http://www.fluency21.com for additional information. Be sure to check out some of the articles on the blog. (Access to some materials may require completion of a free registration.) And yes, I've put Jukes' blog with its multiple authors on my daily scan list.
Yet I still harbor a concern. From my perspective of almost 40 years of training and teaching, computers are like table saws. They are both valuable tools. We already know how to make table saws much safer with saw blades that instantly drop down out of the way if they sense a cut into skin. Unfortunately, we usually don't purchase the safer table saws because of their higher price. At this same point, we don't yet know how to secure Facebook or even our own home computers or business and financial networks. We still need more actual research asking how long-term exposure to computers, smart phones and networks changes how children and adults think, learn and react as they are swept away in the flood of information on the Internet.
I appreciate the access to new information that's already available at my very fingertips. But in my own middle-world, somewhere between the 1940's and the mid-21st century, most table saws and computers can still cause severe damage if used carelessly, thoughtlessly, or without properly trained teachers, parents and other adults to help supervise and keep things safe.
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