Conclusions About Technology Use, Part I: Cons

I've made my way through all of the required reading under the category "Articles Opposed", and I have to admit that my opinion falls, perhaps marginally, on this side of the tech divide. I simply do not believe technology will save our educational system, or transform students (or our body politic in general) into "global citizens" who are information savvy, and highly literate. To achieve these goals (info savvy/literacy) learners must want to develop holistically, and not just technologically.

Here are the main points that caught my attention in the reading. I've included the URLs (which Dr. Luck provided us initially) for easy reference:

Conclusions about tech use: Cons--

source URL: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/01/03/the-frontier-of-classroom-technology/a-misguided-use-of-money

1) Reforming education in the U.S. often includes seeking new technology to improve teaching and learning. Instead of buying the latest gadgets, however, our schools would do better to provide students with critical technological awareness, achievable at little cost.
2) We rarely consider the negative implications for acquiring the newest “smart” board or providing tablets for every student.
3) Ironically, we buy into the consumerism inherent in technology (Gadget 2.0 pales against Gadget 3.0) without taking full account of the tremendous financial investments diverted to technology.
4) Technology is a tool to assist learning. School closets and storage facilities across the U.S., though, are filled with cables, monitors and hardware costing millions of dollars that are now useless.
5) Reading a young adult novel on a Kindle or an iPad, or in paperback form, proves irrelevant if children do not want to read or struggle to comprehend the text.
6) Schools should not be blinded by the latest trends and the inflated costs of new technologies.
7) ...we should empower teachers...

source URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/technology/technology-in-schools-faces-questions-on-value.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

1) In a nutshell: schools are spending billions on technology, even as they cut budgets and lay off teachers, with little proof that this approach is improving basic learning.
2) Silicon Valley titans and White House appointees — say digital devices let students learn at their own pace, teach skills needed in a modern economy and hold the attention of a generation weaned on gadgets.
3) Many studies have found that technology has helped individual classrooms, schools or districts. For instance, researchers found that writing scores improved for eighth-graders in Maine after they were all issued laptops in 2002. The same researchers, from the University of Southern Maine, found that math performance picked up among seventh- and eighth-graders after teachers in the state were trained in using the laptops to teach.
4) ...how to draw broader inferences from such case studies, which can have serious limitations. For instance, in the Maine math study, it is hard to separate the effect of the laptops from the effect of the teacher training.
5) And often the smaller studies produce conflicting results. Some classroom studies show that math scores rise among students using instructional software, while others show that scores actually fall.
6) “Rather than being a cure-all or silver bullet, one-to-one laptop programs may simply amplify what’s already occurring — for better or worse,” wrote Bryan Goodwin, spokesman for Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning , a nonpartisan group that did the study..."
7) Larry Cuban, an education professor emeritus at Stanford University, said the research did not justify big investments by districts.
8) "...computers play an important role in helping students get their ideas down more easily, edit their work so they can see instant improvement, and share it with the class."
9) But the research, what little there is of it, does not establish a clear link between computer-inspired engagement and learning, said Randy Yerrick, associate dean of educational technology at the University of Buffalo.
10) There are times in Kyrene when the technology seems to allow students to disengage from learning: They are left at computers to perform a task but wind up playing around, suggesting, as some researchers have found, that computers can distract and not instruct.

source URL: http://www.freakonomics.com/2010/03/22/computers-help-children-learn-computer-skills-but-what-else/?scp=1&sq=computer%2520education&st=cse
1) "Children who won a voucher had significantly lower school grades in Math, English and Romanian but significantly higher scores in a test of computer skills..."

source URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/technology/at-waldorf-school-in-silicon-valley-technology-can-wait.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all
1) But the contrarian point of view can be found at the epicenter of the tech economy, where some parents and educators have a message: computers and schools don’t mix.
2) Those who endorse this approach say computers inhibit creative thinking, movement, human interaction and attention spans.
3) “If I worked at Miramax and made good, artsy, rated R movies, I wouldn’t want my kids to see them until they were 17.”
4) Some education experts say that the push to equip classrooms with computers is unwarranted because studies do not clearly show that this leads to better test scores or other measurable gains.
5) Absent clear evidence, the debate comes down to subjectivity, parental choice and a difference of opinion over a single world: engagement.
6) Advocates for equipping schools with technology say computers can hold students’ attention and, in fact, that young people who have been weaned on electronic devices will not tune in without them.
7) “If schools have access to the tools and can afford them, but are not using the tools, they are cheating our children,” Ms. Flynn said.
8) Paul Thomas, a former teacher and an associate professor of education at Furman University, who has written 12 books about public educational methods, disagreed, saying that “a spare approach to technology in the classroom will always benefit learning.”
9) ...“Teaching is a human experience,” he said. “Technology is a distraction when we need literacy, numeracy and critical thinking.”
10) And where advocates for stocking classrooms with technology say children need computer time to compete in the modern world, Waldorf parents counter: what’s the rush, given how easy it is to pick up those skills?
11)...“It’s supereasy. It’s like learning to use toothpaste,” Mr. Eagle said. “At Google and all these places, we make technology as brain-dead easy to use as possible. There’s no reason why kids can’t figure it out when they get older.”
12) “Besides, if you learn to write on paper, you can still write if water spills on the computer or the power goes out.”