Comment the voice of experience (Score 1) 378
When I was working as a high school computer teacher, I wanted to impart my students with the same, deeper, understanding of computers and how they work as I had. I thought a computer lab environment was the ideal environment in which to do this. I could instruct the students from the board and they could follow along on screen. In a college or tech school environment, where the students are there because they actually want to learn, this kind of setup might work. But in a younger group, which is more interested in goofing off, it was a disaster. For one thing, most of the students there had been exposed to computers all their lives. Most already had several web-based email accounts and were active on web-based bulletin boards and chat areas. They weren't about to sit and listen as I tried to explain such things as how operating systems and the Internet actually work. They already knew everything they thought they needed to know about computers, and they weren't about to let an older, uncool, person tell them any different.
Most geeks in my age group are probably a lot like me. We discovered computers at an early age and immediately started programming. I know when I was first learning on an Apple IIc my first lesson was how to write programs in BASIC. These days, programming skills are more important than ever, yet they seem to have been deemphasized in favor of general computer savvy-ness. Computers and the Internet have become basically just another version of television. Sure, there's lots of educational stuff out there, but who wants to pay attention to that when you can download N'Sync's latest hit or find out about Britney Spears new hairdo. Of course there were a few students who actually interested in learning, potential future geeks, but these were the exception.
My solution was to separate the students from the computers. Just like in driver's ed, no teacher is going to be stupid enough to place a student behind the wheel of a car on the first day. They spend at least a month just going over the rules of the road. I wanted a separate computer classroom, away from the lab area, where we could go over computer concepts and then go to the actual computer area to reinforce them. The same, I think, should be done for every subject. Computers are great educational tools, but only when they're used correctly and not relied upon too much.
Unfortunately, the board of the school where I was working didn't share my vision (this was a private school, and they were more interested in attracting potential students than giving a good education to the ones they already had). Their concept of computer education was to have a group of students sitting around working diligently on whatever so they could bring prospective parents in and say "and this is the computer room". It was the look of the thing they were most interested in, and I think that's where the interest lies.
They also wanted me to start teaching computers to a younger age group, junior high age. I told them if I was going to teach foundations of computer science to 7th graders it would look a lot like math. They weren't too keen on the idea, or my idea for a Computer Fair where students would be able to show off their creations for a chance at winning a medal. For those reasons and the general disagreement I was causing, I was dismissed before I could implement any of my changes.
So there you have it, the true motivation behind the drive to put computers into schools, not as an aid to education, but to gain popularity for the school. In dealing with parents and board members, most are concerned that children who aren't exposed to computers at the earliest age possible won't be able to get a job in the future. But mere exposure to computers isn't enough to impart the kind of understanding that true programmers have, and it's programmers which are becoming more and more important as computers become more prevalent.
