VULFSVI@kellyservices.com
Tue, 4 Aug 1998 16:43:49 -0700
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From: VULFSVI@kellyservices.com Date: Tue, 4 Aug 1998 16:43:49 -0700 Subject: Re: [ifets]:introduction and formal discussion
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I want to thank the moderators for stirring up a potential hornet's nest
and then leaving the mess for us to clean up.
With reference to very young children and computers, I will mention a post
I just received today from another listserve, the American Education
Research Association (AERA). I think this post is similar to the some of
my concerns.
>Dear Colleagues,
>Although there is a growing acknowledgment that children are at
>risk for various forms of maltreatment (including physical abuse,
>sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect), greater attention
>needs to be directed toward the role of educators in addressing
>victimized children and creating school environments that are
>protective and responsive. This may be accomplished through the
>training of educators and the creation of educational settings
>that champion the rights of children to be treated as persons
>with dignity.
>In order to promote research into the evolving area of child
>maltreatment and the promotion of children's rights, etc.
>Michael and Ilene Berson
>Michael J. Berson, Ph.D.
>Department of Secondary Education
>College of Education
>University of South Florida
>4202 East Fowler Avenue, EDU 208B
>Tampa, Florida 33620-5650
>Email: berson@tempest.coedu.usf.edu
>Phone: (813) 974-7917
>Fax: (813) 974-3837
>Ilene R. Berson, Ph.D.
>Department of Child and Family Studies
>Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute
>University of South Florida
>13301 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., MHC 2415
>Tampa, FL 33612-3899
_________________________________________________________________
>Gene V Glass glass@asu.edu
>Associate Dean for Research 602-965-9644
>College of Education olam.ed.asu.edu
>Arizona State University Tempe AZ 85287-0211
Peter Lazzara wrote:
>Re the idea of using "computers" with young children. ... At our >campus
preschool, the two computers sit next to a pair of easels which >the
children use to draw and paint and >they seem (to me) to treat the
>computer and its drawing program (pc paint) as just another >place to
>play.
Computers in a preschool campus acting as just another type of easel seems
to be a fairly benign introduction to computers. In fact, some children
who have difficulty with the easel may, in fact, welcome this form of
creativity.
Peter Lazzara wrote:
>I have worked with children of this age using the Logo programming
>language. With four year olds, they "draw" pictures using the "turtle"
(an
>onscreen virtual robot) and direct it by pressing the keys:
>f - forward 5 (pixels) b - back 5 r - right 5 degrees l - left 5
degrees
>etc with other keys allowing color change. It is not clear to me how, (I
have
>no intuition that) at this level of involvement, there will be "damage".
Let me tell you a little story. When my daughter was in the third grade
and had seen very little television, her teacher read The Hobbit (Tolkein)
to the children. I thought it would be fun to see the video together since
she had heard the story. My daughter and I watched about a third of the
video, found it very unsatisfying and unanimously agreed to stop watching
it. About two to three weeks later at the dinner table, totally
unsolicited, my daughter said, "You know daddy, when I heard The Hobbit in
class I had pictures in my head about what all the characters looked like.
After I watched the video, I lost all of those pictures."
This clearly tells me one thing. Some aspects of learning are delicate.
Because this is so I must be responsible with technological intermediation
of the very young. Parenthetically, my daughter, who is now 14, recently
told me that she eventually reobtained her pictures.
Programming the computer is a completely different activity than drawing
with the computer and requires different cognitive processes. Clearly you
must have seen a range of aptitudes and performance levels. For some
children, this type of activity may be empowering, for others not. Because
the activity is presumably optional, it seems benign.
I think we are beginning to look at what it is we truly want from our
education systems, particularly for the very young. I truly enjoy
Krishnamurti's definition of education, "The awareness of vastness." I see
education, of necessity, as a balance between the finite and the infinite.
William Blake wrote:
If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to
man as it is: infinite. For man, has closed himself up, till he sees
all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.
(Yes, I just happened to have this quote handy.) If we want our education
systems to be more more training oriented, then ITS offer strong
possibilities. If we want something else, then ITS must find their
rightful place.
In summation, I want to reiterate that I would prefer to stay away from ITS
for the very young until we know more. I frankly think that is an area we
do not need to go. There are many opportunities for ITS. I also would
like to echo the sentiments of the moderators and ask the opinions of those
involved directly in primary and secondary education if this is where we
should focus. Is there a real need for ITS there. One last point, I don't
think we have distinguished clearly whether ITS is truly a tool for
education, training or some hybrid. I would submit that training should be
our focus.
Vilnis Vulfs
Senior Instructional Designer
Kelly Services
vilnis_vulfs@kellyservices.com
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