I totally agree that we desperately need well-trained teachers and libraries, but also concede that we probably won’t see teachers trained, or libraries built and stocked for some time (if ever). Given this harsh reality, we must exploit the existing technologies that are in the hands of people. In answer to the question: Is a mobile phone in the hands of an impoverished student better or worse than no book at all? – my answer is absolutely yes.
If we are concerned with shallow concepts of knowledge and culture, schools should organize arenas that discuss and prepare children to live in a world where newcomers and experts might all have a say about what counts as knowledge, yet there might still be common and agreed criteria to judge the truth and validity of statements. The grounds on which we are building a public culture is something that deserves deep and detailed consideration, that goes beyond individual tastes and dislikes –the logic that is privileged by mass media. Honestly, do we envisage this discussion happening on prime-time TV? Schools are still the best shot we have to produce a massive and thorough conversation on knowledge and culture.
Carr’s book is a reversal of the usual assumption that up-to-date technology makes its users ‘smarter’ and more sophisticated than people who rely on outdated forms of technology like books or other traditional technologies. But his argument is not free of the deep cultural prejudices that underpin simple oppositions between book culture, orality, and electronic textuality. In particular, by giving book culture the monopoly on ‘deep thinking’ Carr’s work certainly lacks a broader understanding of how communication and thought takes place in ‘continua’ of orality and literacy as well as through visual communication.
Of course computers and the Internet have an important role to play in education, not least because computer skills are increasingly important to economic opportunity and achievement. But it is a mistake to assume that modern technology is an educational panacea, particularly when it comes to helping poor kids close gaps in learning and achievement. Investing precious dollars in teachers, books, and classrooms—in the traditional foundations of education—may well produce greater returns than investing them in computer hardware and software.
Is Google making us stupid? Two years ago, Nick Carr made this controversial assertion in a magazine article; now, he has extended the argument in his new book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. Mr. Carr presents considerable evidence that the networked, interactive nature of digital technologies scatters our attention and limits our ability to think deeply. Even more, he points to emerging evidence that access to computers leads to poor educational attainment. Concerned about the decline of books, he writes, “We need to be concerned about the digital divide, to be sure. But perhaps we should also be thinking about the Gutenberg divide.”
In both the Romania and North Carolina studies, either researchers or readers of the reports have drawn the conclusion that children will not focus on school work if given unfiltered and undirected access to computers and Internet access. Yet Professor Sugata Mitra, famous for his “Hole in the Wall” experiment – where a computer was […]
Two recent studies on the effect of home computer access on students’ academic achievement have recently gotten a lot of attention after being discussed by David Brooks and Randall Stross in the New York Times. In Romania, children of families that won a voucher to purchase a computer had lower school grades in Math, English, […]
The recent New York Times article Computers at Home: Educational Hope vs. Teenage Reality brings into question the benefits of computer and Internet usage at home to improve education. Is this the home ICT usage reality? The article cites two studies that indicate that when computers and Internet access are provided to students for household […]
I propose that the ICT4D community should reduce its emphasis on the creation of innovative devices and focus more on the creation of effective educational media for existing low-cost devices. Market forces are making computers far more affordable, but are not producing quality educational media suitable for education in developing contexts. This lack of digital […]
Back when infoDev at the World Bank complied a Quick guide to low-cost computing devices and initiatives for the developing world, the educational community was a buzz about the promise of netbooks.
Now, several years on, how as the field changed? What new tools are available for teachers to improve their curriculum delivery? For students to master it? And for administrators to understand better the links, if any, between ICT investments and educational outcomes?
