Pupils 'do worse with computers'

[0iD]

A recent(ish) article I stumbled apon in the Guardian onine.

Pupils 'do worse with computers'
March 21 2005
Section: News

Academics will today argue that the growing use of computers in secondary school classrooms and for homework could be leading to worsening performance in literacy, science and maths.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/scho...442480,00.html

Interested in your take on the mattter.

[Alex]

Wouldn't really suprise me that much, people don't need to do maths when they have a computer to do it for them, and no-one really seems to read books anymore. I don't think its directly related to computers, its just the whole lifestyle of sitting in front of the TV/computer instead of getting out, or reading, or anything like that.

/$0.02

[muddyfox470]

I'd have to agree,

The tendancy is for alot of pupils to use spell checkers on their work, use calculators and source answers on line using a search engine instead of doing some proper slogging to get the work done! I have known quite a few people who copy and paste bitsof articles and say it's their own work, but 9 times out of 10 the teacher realises, as it is so obvious.

Like what is the point of these websites that give you pre-made american coursework, that is a load of crap and is meaningless, i cannot remember the websites name, but that surely is not encouraging work.

We shall just have to wait for these people to mature, and see how they fail at their jobs, as to be honest they will be less creative, and less original, they won't be able to think for themselves or use their initiative

Ian

[ANZAC_ELITE]

I am in several minds as to my response to this thread: Is not the enviroment changing? will this not be the the norm in future times? are we feeling the evolution strain? I mean, by what ideals do we judge ?

Sitting happy at home with our cuppa sure it seems wrong, but is life in 30 years going to require what we think is important or are the kids of today adapting (as man has through the ages) to an ever changing world ?

Are we the last generation to die or the first to live forever?

[DavidM]

Blooming kids - I still read at least an hour a day...

[Stoo]

l33t speak is the root of all evil..

[iMc]

Of course people do worse, they don't have to learn stuff. Computers make things easier for a lot of people... which makes them good. I think curriculums are going to have to change and adapt in the (near) future to accomodate new technology.

Why should people have to know how to do algebra in their heads if a small piece of eqiupment can do it quicker and more reliably for them. I thought that was the whole point of technology advancing... to make mundane and difficult tasks quicker and easier.

There will always be a place for learning the basics, literacy and numeracy etc...

EDIT: When I say curriculums need to change I mean that their should be new ways of people being able to use current and future technology without limiting creativity.

Using a spell checker isn't a bad thing, providing people have a decent understanding of language in the first place, but copy and pasting entire pieces of other peoples work is just plain wrong.

[Twigman]

well yeah children are using calculators more...but does it matter? once they get a job the employer is hardly going to say "now do this without a calculator in your head...we like our employees to make mental arithmetic mistakes that can cost us millions..."

[Kumagoro]

spell checking has made me lazier for sure and i cant spell to save my life now.

[mike_w]

well yeah children are using calculators more...but does it matter? once they get a job the employer is hardly going to say "now do this without a calculator in your head...we like our employees to make mental arithmetic mistakes that can cost us millions..."

True - but in my year, many students, who are potentially in their final year of school, have difficulty adding up because they can just use a calculator. Fine if they are doing Maths work anyway since they'll probably have a calculator, but I would not want to have a calculator just to do some quick addition.

I personally think computers in schools are a bad idea, or at least in their current form. Firstly, there are plenty of other places in schools that could have more money spent e.g. as highlighted recently, school dinners.

Note: The following two points are from my personal experience, so the situation may be different in other schools.

Secondly, I.T. lessons tend to be a waste of time - most of the time is spend doing boring tasks that we could do a long time ago, and ultimately learning very little.

Finally, I rarely find I.T. useful when used in other subjects. Although word processing, spreadsheets, etc. have their uses, which I take advantage of, often a lesson other I.T. in a computer room ends up being typing the topic into Google and printing off a couple of pages i.e. a wasted lesson.

If those points can be addressed i.e. I.T. becomes a useful lesson, while not taking resources, from other areas, I would be perfectly happy to have I.T. as a part of the curriculum.

Sorry for going off topic a little, but those are my views on I.T. in schools at the moment.

[Auran]

Why should people have to know how to do algebra in their heads if a small piece of eqiupment can do it quicker and more reliably for them. I thought that was the whole point of technology advancing... to make mundane and difficult tasks quicker and easier.

If no-one learns it then who will know how to check or even program computers in the future. It also teaches you how to learn, which is far more important. The wider the range of mental skills you teach someone when they are young, the easier they will find it to pick up new ones when they are older.

[Swafe]

Gotta agree to be fair - sure it has its benefits, but they dont learn anything on a computer other than how to use word at school, they dont learn anything that will benefit them in other areas, such as science or maths.

If IT teachers did more then maybe - but as I recall from my schooling days, our teacher used to sit in his little room on his laptop drinking whiskey all day while letting us run rampage, which the odd kid managing to get round the porn filters, then everyone huddling round his computer, shortly to return to theirs and tap the address in. If teachers cut off the internet during Access or Word lessons, and was vigilant that they didnt do anything other than that, then they would probably learn some useful stuff and do well in I.T, cos back in the day, noone bothered

[Pirate Pete]

i have to admit i did last term use an essay of the internet as the basis for one of my essays last year

but i only got a poor 8/10 for it

the next week i wrote one myself and got 9+/10

crime doesnt pay kids

[Dave2986]

The worst function of ms word is the auto correct IMO

Most kids cant touch type so they dont look at the screen when they type, so if they misspell something, they have no idea.

Should be disabled in every school along with the internet during lessions like said

[Twigman]

Auto summarise is amazing.
Find some long boring paper on the subject you need and hit that button