--- Forwarded Message from Michael Bush <[log in to unmask]> --- >Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 17:58:23 -0700 >From: Michael Bush <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: RE: #5352.2 Sharing Resources - Computers in Classrooms (!)m >In-reply-to: <[log in to unmask]> >To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum <[log in to unmask]> >Importance: Normal ------------------ I have not read Stoll's new book _ High-Tech Heretic: Why Computers Don't Belong in the Classroom and Other Reflections by a Computer Contrarian_, although I guess that I will now. I started his previous piece _Silicon Snake Oil_, but got disgusted with his one-sided presentation of his pre-conceived notions. Ed's posting prompted me to look for references to Stoll's latest work and I came up with http://www.familyhaven.com/parenting/hightechheretic.html. Reading this interview leads me to conclude that this effort is like the previous one that I mentioned. Sure Stoll is bright, and, based on his words I read in that interview, he also asks some interesting questions, but his thought is more sensationalism than substance. He takes an extreme position, sprinkles it with some points for reflection and valid concerns, and then over-extrapolates in the best form worthy of Luddites of any era. Stoll's counterparts of the 15th or 16th centuries questioned the value of widely available books and even Socrates doubted the intellectual value of the invention of writing. Memory reigned supreme, and its loss was feared. Indeed it did suffer as writing and books spread among humanity, so I suppose, according to Stoll's parallel reasoning, that we would have been better off to have kept books out of schools as well. Cheers, Mike Michael Bush Associate Professor of French and Instructional Psychology and Technology [log in to unmask] http://moliere.byu.edu/digital/