I run into many students who don’t believe they need to learn basic arithmetic because they have a calculator. A lot of teachers seem to feel the same way. The problem is that a calculator only helps you have accurate wrong answers. It doesn’t help you convert the issues of real life, such as a home mortgage, into knowledge that will help you make decisions if you do not have the basic principles in your mind. If you don’t know that 2,500 % is a ridiculous answer when it should be 4% then no technology in the world will help you.
Calculators simply cover up the lack of basic skills in arithmetic. Computers do the same. We are seeing lessons that do everything for the student and allow them to hide behind bells and whistles to look creative. Some teachers use them because they are pressured. Some teachers like them because they are easy and the computer does all the work. Some teachers like them because they don’t know any better.
But are the computers really teaching the students how to write and do math?
Soon we will not need teachers, just computer techies.
Computers are limited by the skill of the programer. A dictionary is limited by the skill of the seeker. This was clear to me when I tried to find the spelling of onomatopoeia on a computer’s spell check. After several frustrating minutes on the computer dictionary, I found it in the paper dictionary in about 15 seconds. Why? Because I am smarter than a computer. So are you. I know the principles of finding a word I can’t spell. No computer programer can think up all the possibilities and computers can only do what the programer puts in.
They may assemble I-pods but they will never design a better one.
homo unius libri
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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.