Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds -- and What We Can Do About It - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Jane M. Healy, Ph.D. is a teacher and educational psychologist who has worked with young people of all ages, from pre-school to graduate school. She has been a classroom teacher, reading and learning specialist, school administrator, and clinician. She is currently a lecturer and consultant, and the author of three books about how children do (and don’t) learn, Your Child’s Growing Mind, Endangered Minds, and Failure to Connect. She and her work have been featured in national media such as CNN and NPR. She has twice been named “Educator of the Year” by Delta Kappa Gamma, the professional honor society of women educators.  Jane and her husband claim they have learned most of what they know from raising three sons and enjoying six grandchildren.

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Chapter One: Blundering Into the Future: Hype and Hope

"Computing is not about computers any more. It is about living."

Nicholas Negroponte

"Computers? The more the better. I want my kids to be prepared for the real world out there."

Suburban father, Atlanta, Georgia

"Technology! I feel as if we're being swept down this enormous river -- we don't know where we're going, or why, but we're caught in the current. I think we should stop and take a look before it's too late."

Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Long Island, New York

Technology shapes the growing mind. The younger the mind, the more malleable it is. The younger the technology, the more unproven it is. We enthusiastically expose our youngsters to new digital teachers and playmates, but we also express concern about the development of their brains, bodies, and spirits. Shouldn't we consider carefully the potential -- and irrevocable -- effects of this new electronic interface with childhood?

Today's children are the subjects of a vast and optimistic experiment. It is well financed and enthusiastically supported by major corporations, the public at large, and government officials around the world. If it is successful, our youngsters' minds and lives will be enriched, society will benefit, and education will be permanently changed for the better. But there is no proof -- or even convincing evidence -- that it will work.

The experiment, of course, involves getting kids "on computers" at school and at home in hopes that technology will improve the quality of learning and prepare our young for the future. But will it? Are the new technologies a magic bullet aimed straight at success and power? Or are we simply grasping at a technocentric "quick fix" for a multitude of problems we have failed to address?

In preparing to write this book I spent hundreds of hours in classrooms, labs, and homes, watching kids using new technologies, picking the brains of leaders in the field, and researching both off- and on-line. As a longtime enthusiast for and user of educational computing, I found this journey sometimes shocking, often disheartening, and occasionally inspiring. While some very exciting and potentially valuable things are happening between children and computers, we are currently spending far too much money with too little thought. It is past time to pause, reflect, and ask some probing questions.

This book will present a firsthand survey of the educational computing scene, raising core issues that should be addressed before we commit to computer- assisted education. We will consider technology use in light of brain development, stages and styles of learning, emotional-social development, and successful educational practice in school and at home. We will examine questions such as:

• When and how should children start using computers, and should they have them at home?
  
• How can parents and teachers support children's learning with technology?
  
• What kind of software applications and educational technology uses are best at different ages?
  
• Which ones may be harmful, and why?
  
• How do we balance education and entertainment?
  
• How should we deal with health concerns related to computer use?
  
• Will computers make human beings smarter -- or will they erode important forms of thought? How will interacting with artificial brains influence our ideas about what constitutes "intelligence"?
  
• What effect will technologies have on children's creativity and their emotional, personal, and social development?
  
• Will, or should, emerging technologies change our concept of education?
  
• If schools are adopting computer technology, which priorities are most important?
  

And...the most important question of all: How can we best help the young prepare for a changing and unpredictable future?

Belief vs. Fact

"In sum, if computers make a difference, it has yet to show up in achievement."

Samuel G. Sava, Executive Director, National Association of Elementary School Principals, in a 1997 speech

"The research is set up in a way to find benefits that aren't really there. Most knowledgeable people agree that most of the research isn't valid....Essentially, it's just worthless."

Edward Miller, Former Editor, Harvard Education Letter

Exaggerated Hopes and Unmet Promises

Why do we so desperately need to believe in computers? After surveying current attitudes for the nonprofit organization Learning in the Real World, William Ruckeyser told me, "The nearest thing I can draw a parallel to is a theological discussion. There's so much an element of faith here that demanding evidence is almost a sign of heresy." Witness the federal government's initiative to wire all schools for telecommunications by the year 2000, under the simplistic assumption that connecting kids to "information" will somehow make them more able to read and use it intelligently. Meanwhile, library and sometimes even school budgets are cut across the nation.

Eighty percent of people who plan to buy a personal computer soon will cite children's education as the main reason. Ninety percent of voters in the United States are convinced that schools with computers can do a better job of education, and 61 percent would support a federal tax increase to speed the introduction of technology into the schools. In 1995 the American Association of School Administrators published the results of a survey that asked parents, teachers, leaders from various fields, and members of the general public what skills would be important for students graduating in the twenty-first century. "Computer skills and media technology" ranked third in a list of sixteen possibilities, outvoted only by "basic skills" (reading, writing, and math) and "good work habits." Computer skills were deemed more important than "values" (e.g., honesty, tolerance) by every group but the leaders. "Good citizenship" and "curiosity and love of learning" were considerably farther down the list, and such topics as "knowledge of history and geography" and "classic works (e.g., Shakespeare, Plato)" were near the bottom (highly valued by only 29 and 21 percent of business leaders, respectively).

An atmosphere of hysteria surrounds the rush to connect even preschoolers to electronic brains. Of the ten bestselling children's CD-ROM titles sold in 1996, four are marketed for children beginning at age three. Computer programs are advertised for children as young as eighteen months. In the United States, computer users under the age of six owned an average of six software titles in 1996, a number increasing every year. Parents and educators in Europe and Japan are astonished as well as amused by this push toward electronic precocity.

It is less amusing to realize that research to be cited throughout this book demonstrates how computer "learning" for young children is far less brain-building than even such simple activities as spontaneous play or playing board games with an adult or older child. "Connecting" alone has yet to demonstrate academic value, and some of the most popular "educational" software may even be damaging to creativity, attention, and motivation. In 1995, a seminar of knowledgeable academics concluded that computers have no place at all in the lives of young children. In 1997, Samuel Sava, head of the National Association of Elementary School Principals, told school leaders that computers have done little to improve student achievement and questioned the nation's spending up to $20 billion a year to fill schools with computers.

Even for older children and teens, research has yet to confirm substantial benefits from most computer-related learning products at school or at home. Analyzing home...