How Computers Are Used In Schools

from the not-well dept

Here's a review of Larry Cuban's book Oversold and Underused about how computers are being used in the classroom. As you can tell from the title of the book, he's not that impressed. He points out that, like radio, film and television before it, people have tons of expectations about how technology is going to be used in education - and it's almost never fulfilled. Most students do computer learning at home, and not in a school setting. Most teachers don't even know how to properly use a computer in an educational setting. He suggests that most of the push to use technology in schools is for the wrong reasons - and it's not going to help by forcing teachers to go to more seminars on how to use computers. The problems in many of our schools, he argues, has little to do with technology knowledge. I can see both sides of the argument on this one - and I agree that technology is often misused in schools - but that doesn't mean we should forget about them completely. The trick is not to become enamored with the idea of "technology in schools" simply for the sake of the technology - but rather to figure out what the problems with our current educational system are. Then, in looking for solutions be aware of the technology options that are out there, as possible solutions.