TECHNOLOGY & EDUCATION DIGEST
Digest No. 98-11 -- Dec. 16, 1998
A Moderated Mailing List
Steve Wildstrom (steve_wildstrom@businessweek.com), Moderator

Return to Technology & Education

Megan Murray (Megan_Murray@terc.edu) writes:

Are you interested in educational computer software? Are you looking for games that contain significant mathematics? that require mathematical and strategic thinking? that will engage boys as well as girls? that are fun?

The NSF-funded project, Through the Glass Wall: Computer Software for Mathematical Empowerment is announcing a rerelease of its website. Visit:

http://www.terc.edu/mathequity/gw/html/gwhome.html

for information about this research project, which has spent two years looking at how girls and boys play mathematical computer games in order to consider and describe what makes a good mathematical and equitable computer game.

Also available: descriptions of over 50 games, reviews, sample dialogue of children playing interacting with games, and suggested web links and print resources.

Topics include:

* gender and technology, mathematics, and play
* technology in the education and in the classroom
* technology and popular culture, "games for girls"
* advice on choosing software, links to reviewers and sellers
Thoughts on the site and its content are appreciated!

Gary Beach (gary_beach@cio.com) wrote:

>> Why? Because pedofiles under age alias' pose as teens in chat rooms, lure kids to meet and sometimes nasty things happen. <<

Wow! Hey! Yeah, another great benefit of internet technology for the kids!! I could not have have put it better myself. Silicon Snake Oil, indeed!

Kevin

[Courtesy of Gwen Solomon and the Well Connected Educator]

Compaq Co Announces the 1998-1999 Compaq Teaching With Computer Technology Grant Program

K-12 teachers in each state, in the District of Columbia and in Department of Defense Schools who can demonstrate successful use of computer technology in their classrooms are eligible to win a Compaq computer for their classrooms. There will be more than 100 winners - two in each state, DC, and Department of Defense schools overseas.

The program offers applicants whose classroom projects rely on computer technology the chance to win a Compaq computer for their classrooms. They submit an application online to share information about their projects. The deadline for submitting applications is February 15th, 1999.

The applications are available only via the web at Compaq's education site: http://www.compaq.com/education/k12

Previous winners are listed there too. Look for Success Stories. Many winning project descriptions are available at The Well Connected Educator's Compaq Collection: http://www.gsh.org/wce/compaq/states.htm

Compaq, through the second year of its successful Teaching With Computer Technology Grant Program, wants to highlight and promote innovative, exemplary classroom uses of computer-based technologies and online resources; recognize and support teachers who act as role models in implementing computer-based technology in their classrooms, and provide concrete ideas that other teachers can replicate to integrate computer-based technology in their classrooms.

Gwen Solomon, Director
The Well Connected Educator
21882 Herencia
Mission Viejo, CA 92692
949-206-9571 voice
949-206-9572 fax
gwen@gsn.org
http://www.gsh.org/wce

The AOL Foundation is accepting proposals from teams involving K-12 public schools, and/or other non-profit educational entities throughout the United States, to apply for an Interactive Education Grant. Teams may involve teachers, administrators, parents, and/or other community representatives. The grants of up to $7,500 are for the development and implementation of innovative uses of interactive technology to enhance educational outcomes for K-12 students.

In some instances, grants will be supplemented by in-kind support such as free AOL accounts, computer donations and other types of assistance. Grant recipients will also participate in an online network to share experiences, report outcomes, and seek ideas and guidance.

For more information contact the Foundation at 22000 AOL Way, Dulles, VA 20166, call 703-265-1342, e-mail aolgrants@aol.com, or visit www.aolfoundation.org. The deadline for proposals is February 1, 1999.

Will Fitzhugh (fitzhugh@tcr.org) writes:

Reprinted from the Newsletter of the New England History Teachers Association for Fall 1998, Will Fitzhugh, Editor

"Should Schools Be Wired To The Internet? No--Learn First, Surf Later" - David Gelernter, Professor of Computer Science, Yale

Quack medicine comes in two varieties: "irrelevant but harmless" and "toxic." The Administration's plan to wire American classrooms for Internet service is toxic quackery. Four-fifths of U.S. schools have Internet access already; instead of wiring the rest, we ought to lay down a startling new educational directive: First learn reading and writing, history and arithmetic. Then play Frisbee, go fishing or surf the Internet. Lessons first, fun second.

I've used the Internet nearly every day since September 1982. It's a great way to gather information, communicate and shop. And in one sense, the Internet is good for the American mind. Up through the early `90s, everyday written communication seemed to be dying out. Thanks to e-mail and fax machines, writing has come back. In this respect, the Internet could be a fine teaching tool--a way to share good, scarce writing teachers. One teacher could manage a whole district of students if they were all connected electronically.

But the push to net-connect every school is an educational disaster in the making. Our schools are in crisis. Statistics prove what I see every day as a parent and a college educator. My wife and I have a constant struggle to get our young boys to master the basic skills they need and our schools hate to teach. As a college teacher, I see the sorry outcome: students who can't write worth a damn, who lack basic math and language skills. Our schools are scared to tell students to sit down and shut up and learn; drill it, memorize it, because you must master it whether it's fun or not. Children pay the price for our educational cowardice.

I've never met one parent or teacher or student or principal or even a computer salesman who claimed that insufficient data is the root of the problem. With an Internet connection, you can gather the latest stuff from all over, but too many American high school students have never read one Mark Twain novel or Shakespeare play or Wordsworth poem, or a serious history of the U.S.; they are bad at science, useless at mathematics, hopeless at writing--but if they could only connect to the latest websites in Passaic and Peru, we'd see improvement? The Internet, said President Clinton in February, "could make it possible for every child with access to a computer to stretch a hand across a keyboard to reach every book ever written, every painting ever painted, every symphony ever composed." Pardon me, Mr. President, but this is demented.

Most American children don't know what a symphony is. If we suddenly figured out how to teach each child one movement of one symphony, that would be a miracle.

And our skill-free children are overwhelmed by information even without the Internet. The glossy magazines and hundred-odd cable channels, the videotapes and computer CDs in most libraries and many homes--they need more information? It's as if the Administration were announcing that every child must have the fanciest scuba gear on the market--but these kids don't know how to swim, and fitting them out with scuba gear isn't just useless, it's irresponsible; they'll drown.

And it gets worse. Our children's attention spans are too short already, but the Web is a propaganda machine for short attention spans. The instant you get bored, click the mouse, and you're someplace else. Our children already prefer pictures to words, glitz to substance, fancy packaging to serious content. But the Web propagandizes relentlessly for glitz and pictures, for video and stylish packaging. And while it's full of first-rate information, it's also full of lies, garbage and pornography so revolting you can't even describe it. There is no quality control on the Internet.

Still, imagine a well-run, serious school with an Internet hookup in the library for occasional use by students under supervision who are working on research projects; would that be so bad? No. Though it ranks around 944th on my list of important school improvements, it's not bad. But in reality, too many schools will use the Internet the same way they use computers themselves: to entertain children at minimal cost to teachers. If children are turned loose to surf, then Internet in the schools won't be a minor educational improvement, it will be a major disaster. Another one. Just what we need.

David Gelernter teaches Computer Science at Yale. His most recent book is Drawing Life: Surviving the Unabomber.

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