[etni] Fw: re: Researcher: Computers in schools do not improve students' results
- From: "Ask_Etni" <ask@xxxxxxxx>
- To: "ETNI" <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 9 Jan 2010 13:14:28 +0200
----- Original Message -----
From: Eduardo Lina - eduardolina@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Researcher: Computers in schools do not improve students'
results
Shalom!
I liked some sentences I read on the article (thanks for telling me about
it!):
"Without a change in the traditional role of the teacher, there is no
advantage in using technology and computers."
Yes, that's right. However, as a teacher I would not just sit and wait for
The Powers that Be to change that role. I would simply change a few (or
many) of my ways as a teacher, and, yes, using computers (technology) as a
means and not as an end. Incidentally, as a teacher of English I have been
trying to do it for the last few years.
A change in Methodology is needed. Check this clip to see what I mean;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Yp-QIPw_A
The emphasis is not on technology, but on what we teachers can do with it.
Schools waste money on technology if we, teachers, just wait for others to
make a change.
Here's another sentence I liked: "He said as long as education is based on
rote learning and "regurgitation" by the students of what they have been
presented, the computer cannot improve teaching methods."
Of course, again the point is what you can do with the computer (I prefer to
use the word "technology"). Over the last two years I have been teaching
"Madei Hamada" (Information Science) at school. No frontal lessons, lots of
"hands on" work using all the stuff technology can provide and, yes, much
imagination put to work.
There is a syllabus, of course, but much of what counts is what as a teacher
I am willing to try (and learn as I do and from pupils) and apply. I have
not tried to measure whether this has had a huge impact on my students, but
I know there has been much learning which a regular / traditional class
environment would not have allowed.
There's a lot you can teach and learn using Gmail, Google Docs, Blogger,
Ning, and the like as you (and kids) work on , to mention but one example,
their research questions (and learn about how to figure out whether a
source on the Net can be trusted and things like that). Computer Literacy is
one of the many "literacies" we have to "teach" at school. Saying "No" to
technology is not the way we will do part of our job. Do we want to teach
for the nineteenth century?
Finally, the last one: "Facebook and Twitter don't bridge educational gaps.
Beyond the humiliating attitude to teachers, relating to computers as the
most important thing is an illusion. It has no scientific basis."
Well, this one is true. As for the first part, I wouldn't use Facebook and
Twitter in my work at school because kids see them as something that is not
school, meaning they would not want to do schoolwork on them. Yet there are
other tools (social communities) which can help us as much and even more
than Facebook and Twitter. Try them.
We, teachers, are the most important "thing", and there is no doubt about
it. It's not just the attitudes towards computers as more important than
teachers that bother us teachers (incidentally, we don't need Eretz Neederet
to tell us about that, but perhaps other people do). That must be changed,
but I would not just sit and wait for the change to come but make it so, and
not just as a teacher of English (I have tried this, too)…
Finally (but really finally), I have not had the chance to use the smart
board yet, but I would not say "no" to a chance because it might help me in
my work, and it might be fun. There is no need to change everything I do
because of that, but itt would not be a waste of time and money if I had
one. I would settle for a computer and projector, too (in the meantime, that
is, for the time being).
Like Solomon, "I am not against computerization." Are you?
Eduardo Lina
Kugel High School, Holon
www.kugel.org.il
Marlene wrote:
>Moreover, how many school libraries have been closed or downsized because
>of
investment in often white elephant computer/technology!
Laurie wrote:
> Subject: Researcher: Computers in schools do not improve students' results
> Hi All,
> Sharing with you here this article by Or Kashti in today's Ha'aretz.
> http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1141256.html
> It reinforces my own beliefs that good teaching is what counts and neither
> computers nor smart classrooms will raise educational levels. They're good
> tools but the teacher behind the tool is what counts!
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