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American K-12 schools are spending nearly $5 billion annually for education technology. Reformers believe computerized learning can revolutionize education by 1) having kids teach themselves, 2) improving learning for at-risk children, and 3) training students for information-driven jobs. Yet research shows that academic achievement is plummeting.
Major pitfalls of reading on-screen (http://drcarolehhaynes.com/index.php/resource.html?limitstart=0 )
• Distractions
• Lower comprehension
• Shallow reading
• Lower test scores when class notes are taken on computer versus hand written.
• Lower standardized assessment scores when tests are taken on computers versus paper and pencil
• Social and emotional skills are affected. To remedy this disconnection from sufficient human interaction, school districts are spending more taxpayer money for social and emotional classes for zoned out students.
• Teens and minorities. 11-14 year- olds and black and Hispanic youth with high levels of media usage have lower grades and lower levels of personal contentment.
• Screen addiction. Dr. Nicholas Karadaras, addiction expert, finds it easier to treat heroin and crystal meth addicts than video gamers or Facebook-dependent social media addicts.
• International ramifications. The OECD reports that15-year-olds in 31 nations and regions who used computers frequently at school had both lower reading and math scores on the Program for International Assessment (PISA).
• Broadband programs. Although the federal E-Rate program has spent more than $40 billion of taxpayer money over the past 20 years to expand Broadband programs in schools, a Clemson University study shows that the more E-Rate funding a school received, the worse its students performed.
• Virtual schools. Nearly every study of virtual school performance has found student performance is lagging
Should Teachers Be Replaced by Computers?
If technology improves academic achievement, then why was Steve Jobs a notorious low-tech parent and why do Silicon Valley tech executives and engineers enroll their children in no-tech schools?
Paul Thomas, an associate professor education and author about public educational methods states, “Teaching is a human experience…technology is a distraction when we need literacy, numeracy and critical thinking.”
Why Technology Executives Reject Digital Devices for Their Children’s Education
Google Executive Alan Eagle:, “I fundamentally reject the notion you need technology aids in grammar school…The idea that an app on an iPad can better teach my kids to read or do arithmetic, that's ridiculous.”
Eagle insists that technology is “…super easy. It’s like learning to use toothpaste.” He believes kids can figure out technology when they are older. “At Google and all these places, we make technology as brain dead easy to use as possible.”
Conclusion
Since the primary focus of taxpayer funded public education now is training students for the collectivist workforce rather than providing an academic education so students cann live and participate in a democracy, are taxpayers willing to continue funding technology -- or even to continue funding public education?
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