This book poses tough questions that should be addressed to ensure that children are protected and correctly guided while using a computer. Dr. Healy expresses concern that too little time has been spent studying the effects of educational technology, which consequently, can cause greater harm than good. Dr. Healy addresses the misconception that computers and educational software is the "key to successful student achievement". After countless hours in classrooms observing and talking to teachers and students, Dr. Healy suggests that perhaps many parents and educators "want to believe that technology is the `magic bullet' that will take care of problems in our education system that previously failed to be addressed" (p. 18). Consequently, she believes too much emphasis is placed on technology, taking away from the development of basic reading, math and problem solving skills.
Students sometimes become so dependent upon technology that they are not exposed to the traditional ways of learning. Because some students might rely on technology in every area of learning, they might never experience what it is like to visit a library or read a printed textbook, especially since so many books can be purchased on audio now. Other disadvantages are that students’ handwriting skills might suffer due to a lack of practice because of their use of the computer to always write reports and essays. Always relying on the computer to find and correct errors while creating documents can result in students having very poor progress in grammar and spelling skills. Because many students also rely on the computer’s calculator, their ability to learn the proper methods of solving math problems might not be as enhanced.
Today, children view school as a “place of danger”, and their main focus is to avoid danger as much as possible (Holt 360). This danger comes in the form of mistakes on tests, quizzes, and homework assignments in which the children earn grades based on what they are able to remember at that time, instead of making a long-term connection between the educational content and the children’s own distinct method of learning. Teachers, despite their best intentions, diminish the children’s will to read when they conform to these “conventional” methods of teaching. These methods have made a game, between the teachers and students, out of learning to read; a game in which the students are to guess what the teachers want to hear and to agree with the conclusions the teachers draw. This gives children the impression that reading is dangerous, because they don’t want to make mistakes and lose the game.
Teachers and professors have little control over what their students are doing on their laptops, thus it is a distraction for them too, as stated also by Elena Choy about the upraised laptop lids and how the teacher wouldn’t have any eye contact with them. Without laptops the teacher can tell immediately whether or not their students are paying attention. However if some of the students are working on laptops it is impossible to teach in front of the class and be assured that they are paying proper attention to the lesson or really into that solitaire game. Additionally, if students are encouraged to use laptops then their handwriting skills will seriously suffer. They say practice makes perfect.
Gatto says that school diminishes creativity; if anything kids discover their hidden creativeness in class while at school. He also says that kids are not able to advance in higher learning. When clearly, kids are able to follow the teacher and be able to get A's while the subjects get more extreme. Gatto says, "teachers tend to blame the kids, as you might expect"(pg. 683) from personal experiences I can say that I have had great relationships with my teachers throughout elementary school and especially High school.
We do not call this behavior challenging because it summons you to a duel or battle but because it is threatening, provocative, and stimulating, all at the same time. Another website was csefel.vanderbuilt.edu/documents/reading_cues.org, and it was just more less the understanding of why challenging behaviors happens with young children. And the last website that I went to was csefel.vanderbilt.edu/resources/family.htm. This website was more for the families to read and get more of a understand and it gave some resources. If I was to have a challenging child in my class then I would was to involve the parents or caregivers and let them be on the same page as I am.
William Skidmore EDU 225 April 21, 2013 Kathleen Sherbon The Integrating of instructional technology into the classroom. While the march of technology steams on it I not as easy as plugging in a computer to improve the academic ability of students, there is a lot of thought that must go into the integration of technology, and not just a mad grab for the internet. While technology is a great wielder of information and communication it is also a trap for procrastination. One can not look at the world of technology as a toy, for doing so limits even the best students and dooms the weakest. By accepting and even embracing technology allows teachers to grow the minds of children.
Many teachers do not like “catching plagiarists and bringing them to academic justice.” As she states, it is not hard to just cite the author that originally had the information you are using (Bojar). Plagiarism is becoming a big problem in the school system. Many students do not understand what needs to be cited and what does not. The school system should teach students the proper way to cite, and they should teach them that copy and pasting is not writing a paper. According Bojar to students at the community college have a hard time juggling classes along with his or her family and a job.
12 Oct. 2011. This website article covers the computer technology available in classrooms today and how it effects the overall learning of the students. It focuses on the average classroom and the average number of computers available in those classrooms and how this provision of technology influences students. It also hints that there may be a lack of attention to student learning styles and a rush to provide classroom computers instead. This article might not be as valid as the other sources I have found.
In some ways school is absolutely bad for children, but there is a lot of things that are positive about schools. Yes, schools could do things differently and maybe in the future they will to make things better, but all in all John Holt’s “School is Bad for Children”, is a bunch of his ideas that have no true meaning. Who even knows if his ideas that he wrote about would even help children? Every child is different and they learn in different ways. They also have different things that interest them, not everyone loves math or science, but in the way the school systems are run everyone has to learn about those subjects.