Los Altos School That Doesn't Use Computers

[eureka1]

The Waldorf philosophy has had its day. Bet you won't find Chinese kids saddled with such an archaic approach.

[kdog]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

Easy: Something called Google. (Don't need to know anything anymore - the laptop or phone knows it for me).

Google supplants your critical thinking, does it?

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by kdog

Google supplants your critical thinking, does it?

It does for kids who haven't had the chance to learn to think critically. Ask them yourself, and you will find a pointed reliance on it, as opposed to learning and committing knowledge to memory.



In another dept.:
Even if we are to ask our schools to simply be employment factories, it is increasingly sought after by employers that applicants demonstrate an appreciable level of creativity. They can build robots, if that is all they are after.

[kdog]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

It does for kids who haven't had the chance to learn to think critically. Ask them yourself, and you will find a pointed reliance on it, as opposed to learning and committing knowledge to memory.

You mean like the "pointed reliance" of using a dictionary, an encyclopedia, or a text book? How is google or using a computer in general for that matter any different? You're thinking that faster access to a wider variety of information is somehow going to make kids not remember what they learned? And what does that have to do with critical thinking anyway? You're equating critical thinking with rote memorization? Critical thinking involves evaluating information and deciding for yourself what you believe to be true. Frankly having access to a wider variety of viewpoints on a topic as you would on the internet would be an aid to critical thinking as opposed to say the family encyclopedia like we used to do back in the day which is only one viewpoint.

Not that any of that is particularly relevant. What I asked is how computers IN THE CLASSROOM supplant critical thinking. Please describe an actual usage of a computer in the classroom that's detrimental to critical thinking. All you did is give an extremely vague and broad-brush sweeping generalization which seems to be prevalent in this thread. I'm betting that nobody who's against computers in the classroom has the foggiest notion of how they're actually used. In my kid's 5th grade class, they have a computer lab once a week with specific assignments. One of them was to build a spreadsheet. Another one was to write a book. So maybe you can help me out here and tell me how that supplants their critical thinking?

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by kdog

In my kid's 5th grade class, they have a computer lab once a week with specific assignments. One of them was to build a spreadsheet. Another one was to write a book.

Different deal. I was referring to open-ended internet use, not limited use and specific assignments that hardly need the web, and I already suggested 4th/5th graders ought to be able to have some computer time anyway.

[oldtrader]

I have watched my grand kids, and watched them do homework. First graders that have to read a book (small children's book) every day as homework. They select the book to bring home from those available. Much further than the old Dick and Jane books we learned with. Doing basic Algebra by the 3rd grade instead of waiting for high school. Doing science experiments in the 4th grade, equal to some that were taught years ago in high school. Researching on the Internet, to find how to put together a science project, and doing it. Given assignments, that they have to research in the library, and on the Internet, then write a report in the 4th grade. These reports will include pictures, and basic graphs as appropriate. No school has a library that will let them research as deep as they need to for that report. Kids are being stretched, to research, and prepare exhibits and reports that are far above anything their parents and especially grandparents were doing. By the 4th grade, these reports are being done on a computer, with no handwritten ones accepted.

In math, the kids are taught the principals of how to do the math then taught how to do it with calculators. Each kid is required to have a scientific calculator by the 3rd or 4th grade. They are taught to use scientific calculators, and are above what the former youth in high school ever accomplished by the 5th grade.

I watched a 4th grade grandson, that first using a scientific calculator to figure his angles, lengths, etc., create by hand a fairly complicated graph on graph paper. This was homework. Then he created it with his own computer to see if he was accurate with the first one. He was. He turned them both in and got an A. His computer is not a new one, but an old hand me down that his father upgraded for him with used parts that is adequate for what he needs. Thirty years ago, a student his age would have had no idea of what he was doing and how to make this type of graph.

In high schools here in Montana, they are starting to make sure each kid in High School has the use of a computer at home with printer (if not see they get one provided), and have an Internet connection which is provided if the kids families cannot afford it.

When they hit high school, the kids that have learned math by doing knitting, and tossing balls around a circle to learn, are going to be far behind those that are using what is available today. That is not learning critical thinking but how to play. They are being trained for the world of the mid 20th century, not the 21st century.

[kdog]

^^ Great post, Oldtrader. I couldn't agree more. Kids today are getting a better education than we ever had, computers and all.