--- Forwarded Message from Ed Dente <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 14:37:01 -0500 (EST)
>From: Ed Dente <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Computers in Classrooms
>To: LLTI <[log in to unmask]>

Has anyone read Clifford Stoll's new book, "High-Tech Heretic: Why
Computers Don't Belong in the Classroom and Other Reflections by a
Computer Contrarian"?  From someone w/ a less solid high tech
background than Stoll I might think it was probably a standard
neo-Luddite rant, but Stoll has the credentials, as they say.
To quote a review in <<The Standard>>:

 "Stoll is a very smart guy who brings his skeptical
                    intelligence to bear on some critical questions. This
is a man who
                    cares passionately about learning and its
transmission, and he can't
                    figure out how diverting students with computer
exercises fosters
                    understanding. He cites horrifying instances of
schools shortchanging
                    true pedagogy for machinery they're not properly
equipped to use,
                    and demolishes the arguments one by one for computers
in schools."
(I think that's a fair-use quotation - it's a pretty long review).

Now, the fact that someone can cite "horrifying instances of schools
shortchanging true pedagogy for machinery they're not properly equipped to
use" is hardly a stunning revelation, but I wondered if he had
anything new and of substance to say. I'll ask my library to get
it, if they haven't already ordered it, but I wondered if anyone
had read it yet.
Cheers,
Ed Dente

"If you want to call me that, smile."
          -Gary Cooper, <<The Virginian>>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edmund N. Dente
Director, Language Media Center    Ph: 617-627-3036
Tufts University                   [log in to unmask]
Medford, MA 02155