For each of the issues to be discussed at CSCL 1999, we have primed the discussion with one or two representative quotes from the "critical literature" (see the bibliography page on this site). We invite you to send in your response to this issue. You need not, of course, respond directly to the particular quotes that we have chosen if there are other issues that you feel are more important or interesting; and you are welcome to send something in even if you don't necessarily plan to attend the CSCL conference. We will act as moderators for the discussion and update this site regularly prior to the conference.
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4. That computers encourage a style (or styles) of thought that, in one way or another, represent a negative shift in human culture. This might be (e.g.) a loss of literacy or attention span, an overemphasis on rules or formality, a loss of appreciation for complexity, or a loss of contact with real-world phenomena and objects. |
"The schools' enthusiasm for these [computer] activities is not universally shared by specialists in childhood development. The doubters' greatest concern is for the very young -- preschool through third grade, when a child is most impressionable.
[T]hey consider it important to give children a broad base -- emotionally, intellectually, and in the five senses -- before introducing something as technical and one-dimensional as a computer.... The importance of a broad base for a child may be most apparent when it's missing. In Endangered Minds, Jane Healy wrote of an English teacher who could readily tell which of her students' essays were conceived on a computer. "They don't link ideas," the teacher says. "They just write one thing, and then they write another one, and they don't seem to see or develop the relationships between them." The problem, Healy argued, is that the pizzazz of computerized schoolwork may hide these analytical gaps, which "won't become apparent until [the student] can't organize herself around a homework assignment or a job that requires initiative. More commonplace activities, such as figuring out how to nail two boards together, organizing a game ... may actually form a better basis for real-world intelligence."
-- From Todd Oppenheimer, "The Computer Delusion", Atlantic Monthly, July 1997
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