Author Says Technology Brings False Promises to Schools

This article is based on an interview with Todd Oppenheimer, author of The Flickering Mind: The False Promise of Technology in the Classroom and How Learning Can Be Saved. He talks about how the current emphasis on technology use in schools is draining resources from other subjects and prevents the students from deveolping critical and creative thinking skills. It talks about how computers are shifting learning values from quality to quantity and this is causing students to look at the quantity of information instead of how to think about the information. In this authors opinion the key to technology is to use it as a supplement and not a replacement for traditional studies. I totally agree with this statement, I think computers need to be used as a resource only. He states that children need to learn the fundamentals of play and creativity from people and real situations not from simulated images. I also found it interesting that software companies don't have to "jump" the same bureaucratic hurdles that textbook companies do. I think that should be changed.