The Overdominance of Computers Lowell W. Monke
II. Overview of Article
This article was from a point of view that feels that technology is being used at such a young age that kids are becoming dependant upon it without learning other very important developmental steps such as morals, relationship skills, outdoor activities, the arts, time unstructured play, and conversations with adults. The author feels that technology is being placed in classrooms without any valuable skills being emphasized or learned by students. Computers are aiding in the students development and replacing the other very important things. The author doesn't think that computers are helping any longer, rather he thinks they are hindering education and should be utilized at a more developed stage in the education process such as high school, where the students can utilize computers as a trade and gain the necessary skills to use them. The overall point is that computers are debilitating rather than enabling when they aren't used as an aide in teaching other, more valuable human skills.
III. Bulleted Reference Points:
- Essentials in the early years
- Moral preparation
- Authentic experience
- Technology users work in the abstract
- Great power and poor preparation
- Are computers helping achievement?
- Machine dominated lives
- Computers in high school
- 67% of nursery school students used computers in 2003
- The cost of failing to compensate
IV. Reflection and significance to me
I find the author's point of view interesting. What I see in classrooms is not an over use of technology but rather, an under use of technology. I see a select group of students benefiting and focusing on the use of technology in their daily lives, yet this is an economic discrepancy. I think what the real problem is, is that there aren't good teacher to student ratios in the classroom to give them the adult interaction and conversations that they would truly benefit from. Perhaps, if the budget to increase technology in the schools were applied to increasing teachers in teh schools, then I can reason that eliminating technology at a young age would be wise.
I see the world depending on technology and functioning in the ways of technology. I don't see this as a problem derived in the schools, it's only mimicked by the schools for the purpose of participating in the economy. The quality of simple human interactions is minimized by cell phones, i pods, and general overpopulation. Human relationships are devalued and unnecessary when you can have friends on-line, play video games, or watch TV.
When kids learn to depend on technology at a young age, the outcome is similar to the essential school experiences as listed in Monke's article. The fault, as I see it, is not of integrating technology in the classroom at a young age. That may be a small fraction of an addition to the overarching problem of western society devaluing human relationships and replacing them with things that money can buy such as technology. This happens because it produces a very large profit for several people.
