Do students benefit from whiz-bang gadgetry?

Colin Dunstan · 09-11-2005, 05:29 AM

Considering that nowadays most students use laptops to write their papers, and use Google to find the content of their papers, it's seems an important question to ask: Do students really need all that technology? Quoting AP:

Quote:

"The biggest problem that students have is that technology often ends up being a distraction," says Robin Raskin, the founder and former editor of FamilyPC magazine. "In an information society the smart person will be the one who can shut out all the distractions."

Raskin cites an example of a student who searches the Web for information on the French Revolution — and comes up with french toast, french music or french kissing. "A child can spend half the night searching for an answer to one question," Raskin said.

If you are or were a parent, how much of today's technology would you make available to your kids going to high-school?

Pride Of Lions · 09-11-2005, 01:31 PM

I'm not a parent, so if/when I have kids it might be 15-20 years from now before they go to high school. I'm completely unable to imagine the evolution of technology landscape over that time. I just hope I'm techy enough to check their homework and help them if I'm able. Maybe we just shutdown internet access for a period of the night while they do their homework "analog style" (with the reading of books and such.)

I'll post then and we'll all laugh about how naive is am now.
POL9A

Laurens · 09-11-2005, 03:09 PM

If I had children I would enforce a strict limit on their time spent behind the computer. I'm not convinced that computers can aid much in learning to begin with. It's much more important for young people to develop social skills and become critical thinkers. These kind of things cannot be taught through technology.

drc54 · 09-12-2005, 01:02 AM

One grown up kids, one teenager. Have been around computers since my first home PS/2 model 30 (a 286 box, and that's not PlayStation. IBM always wanted to be different, so they called their PC Personal System). Well, since English is not their first language, they weren't really addicted beyond pac man and digger. Connection was on a 22.8Kbs dial-up using an external US Robotics modem.

One thing for sure, they befriended the computer. So today doing it's easy for them to do their homework, getting information for school project, collaboration with team member on school report, and sending their work for evaluation. It's an indispensible tool. But yes, for the younger kids today, I'd be nervous to let them have the same freedom like my kids have now. I was fortunate to have the technology aged (matured) at the same time as my children.

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09-11-2005, 01:31 PM	#2
Pride Of Lions just kinda geeky Posts: 381 Karma: 30 Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Oakland, California Device: iPhone	I'm not a parent, so if/when I have kids it might be 15-20 years from now before they go to high school. I'm completely unable to imagine the evolution of technology landscape over that time. I just hope I'm techy enough to check their homework and help them if I'm able. Maybe we just shutdown internet access for a period of the night while they do their homework "analog style" (with the reading of books and such.) I'll post then and we'll all laugh about how naive is am now. POL9A

09-11-2005, 03:09 PM	#3
Laurens Jah Blessed Posts: 1,295 Karma: 1373 Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: The Netherlands Device: iPod Touch	If I had children I would enforce a strict limit on their time spent behind the computer. I'm not convinced that computers can aid much in learning to begin with. It's much more important for young people to develop social skills and become critical thinkers. These kind of things cannot be taught through technology.

09-12-2005, 01:02 AM	#4
drc54 Enthusiast Posts: 41 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Singapore Device: Palm m515, now TX	One grown up kids, one teenager. Have been around computers since my first home PS/2 model 30 (a 286 box, and that's not PlayStation. IBM always wanted to be different, so they called their PC Personal System). Well, since English is not their first language, they weren't really addicted beyond pac man and digger. Connection was on a 22.8Kbs dial-up using an external US Robotics modem. One thing for sure, they befriended the computer. So today doing it's easy for them to do their homework, getting information for school project, collaboration with team member on school report, and sending their work for evaluation. It's an indispensible tool. But yes, for the younger kids today, I'd be nervous to let them have the same freedom like my kids have now. I was fortunate to have the technology aged (matured) at the same time as my children.

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