Computers Are Just A Tool

Two decades later, some of the magic fairy dust that surrounded the much-hyped computer revolution in education is beginning to wear off. And what is revealed as the air clears? That computers are not magic after all, just tools.

Computers, in fact, can be creative additions to classrooms when used well. But they do little to enhance learning and, evidence suggests, can do harm when used inappropriately.

That is one of the findings of the latest look at computers in education released by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. Manitoba high school teacher Michael Zwaagstra, who wrote the report, recommended his province rethink its emphasis on computer technology in the classroom.

His concern was based largely on a German study that found students with the most access to computers at school and home had lower scores in math, reading and sciences than did students with less computer access. While the study found moderate computer use had a positive effect on students' grades, it concluded that excessive computer use had a negative effect, especially in elementary grades.

Which is not surprising. Spending classroom time doing rote, boring work at a computer instead of more creative and challenging work at their desks is clearly not good for learning.

Over the last several decades, computers have been uncritically hailed by many as the biggest advance in education since reading, writing and arithmetic. Governments have pledged millions to putting more of them in classrooms. Microsoft's Bill Gates even offered to connect every school in Canada to the Internet.

Like any new toy, computers had a sheen that could be blinding when they came into broad use in schools. The growing consensus that they are not magic fixes for education is a good thing: it may cause some educators to rethink how they are using them.

The most computer-literate generation ever, for example, has no need to spend hours every year in computer labs learning basic skills on software that will be obsolete by the time they are in the workforce. Chances are, they are already doing that at home.

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Related Items:

• Computers in the Classroom - Technology Overboard? (Backgrounder)
• Too Many Computers in Schools? (Policy Note)

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The Frontier Centre for Public Policy

is an independent public policy think tank whose mission is "to broaden the debate on our future through public policy research and education and to explore positive changes within our public institutions that support economic growth and opportunity."