

How America made its children crazy - jackfoxy
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/NA31Dj01.html

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Turing_Machine
"Now we know that computers don't help children learn"

I should have stopped reading there. We "know" nothing of the sort, and indeed
this is an absurd claim on its face. I learn stuff using Google every day that
would've taken hours of library research or hundreds of dollars worth of books
in the past, if the information were even available. Now, sure, there have
been plenty of ill-advised and poorly-implemented school technology programs,
but that's not an indictment of "computers" per se. If you gave kids books
without teaching them how to read, they wouldn't learn much, but that wouldn't
be the book's fault.

"in the mainstream view of the academic psychologists, the brain is another
pancreas, except that its function is to secrete thoughts as opposed to
insulin"

Total crap.

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GiraffeNecktie
There's a difference between acquiring information (googling) and learning how
to learn (how to apply oneself diligently and creatively)

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Turing_Machine
Ah, but he said "learn", not "learn how to learn". Also, I would argue that
learning how to use computers is a vital component of learning how to learn,
not only for acquiring information, but for making sense of the information
once you have it (think models, spreadsheets, graphs, databases, outlining
tools...).

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GiraffeNecktie
The original article is about learning how to learn. You don't need a computer
to learn how to learn and computers can actually be counterproductive. Young
children need to manipulate their bodies and objects in real 3D space. Doing
the same thing on a computer is not helpful.

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pm90
I think you are being a bit too harsh here. Sure, we can't use computers to
completely replace reality, but they can be very useful when used wisely.

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Tim-Boss
I closed this webpage as soon as a stupid minute long video advert for
"airwick" started playing and I found the buttons to pause or mute didn't
work!

Overzealous intrusive adverts really turn me off...

(Yes I know should be using adblock plus etc., on friends computer right now!)

