generiCtrenD.com - computerS iN schoolS

COMPUTERS IN SCHOOLS

Why is there such a push to put computers in grade schools? Every time I see a tv news story about such and such school receiving new computers there's a shot of the new computer center where the young school kids are playing solitaire. Solitaire. How many thousands of dollars were used to buy an electronic deck of cards. Solitaire? That's great.

How about buying some books? There's a ton of schools that don't have current books or enough books for all the students to take home. How about some new facilities or new resources?

How about something that really benefits students. If you going to buy the computers, then at least use them.

There's only one way computers should be brought into a school: WITH A CERTIFIED COMPUTER INSTRUCTOR. Fifty year old bitter teachers who still use carbon paper don't count. Applications and systems should be taught to the students. And not Microsoft Office. That annoying paperclip or cheerful dog could teach you those programs. And while we're at it, let the children choose what they want to learn.

Like the internet?
Teach the student web authoring, server applications, and the like.
Interested in the construction/design/engineering field?
Teach them a drafting program or 3-D Design program.
Radio, music, tv, movies sound like fun?
How about some audio or video production software?

And all this software should be free. Software companies will give it away for free to schools--just like cigarette companies. Get them hooked young and they'll be hooked for life. In the eyes of the software developer the more people that know a program the better: more people to buy and use it and more people to tell others how good it is. Makes sense to me at least.

And it seems that all a school needs to pick up a computer is 8,000 soup can labels or the like. So the computers should be pretty much free if there's someone at the school with some inititiave.

Let's review:
Free software. Check
Free computers. Check
Certified computer instructor that isn't bitter or old. They're out there. Instead of hiring the molesting gym teacher, hire a certified computer instructor instead.

Instead most computers seem to be at best used as expensive typewriters. Take my high school for example. The school had a computer lab which was pretty much off limits except to type out and print final copies of essays. Essays which had to be hand written before we set foot in the lab. There's no sense in using the computers as a creative tool here! Oh no. And everything had to be typed in about 30 minutes. Why?

Besides the school being filled with lazy, non-computer knowing teachers and administrators they also treated the students a bunch of dangerous animals. Maybe if students were there for more than half an hour they would smash the computers. SMASH SMASH! COMPUTER GO BOOM! Of course this is not to mention that a typed paper was easier to read than a handwritten copy. So in the end the computers were only there to make the teacher's lives easier.

And lets not forget the valuable computer skills I picked up in Junior High school.Buy three wagon tonges and all the oxen you can afford. Good ol' Oregon Trail. Yeah, that's terrific. After all, what would have been the point in learning any sort of computer programming language or software applications?

So let's continue to get these oh-so valuable computers in the schools. Nevermind the fact that no one knows how to run them. And forget that no one has a clue about how to integrate them into a traditional learning environment. So lets keep the books that talk about Ronald Reagan second term in office in the future tense and the maps that have USSR on them. Who needs updated teaching materials when you can have computers.

Hey kid you can move that four of hearts up.