Article Assessment:The Overdominance of Computers

Lowell W. Monke has a great appreciation for the importance of instilling technological skills in students. However, he holds strong opinions about when and where these skills should be taught. Many times throughout this article, Monke stresses the importance of teaching young children good people skills before teaching them computer skills. He Notes values such as hope, loyalty, commitment, and tradition which we cannot teach students with a spreadsheet. In addition, Monke states that students need to see how their actions can affect their own lives, as well as the lives of others and feel the direct results of those actions before turning to the virtual world where results are virtually non-existent. The author also discusses the importance of allowing students to develop at their own natural pace without applying external technical fixes.
Some important points Monke makes:

• Preparing young people (for the virtual/digital world) involves first strengthening their inner resources like self-discipline, moral judgement, and empathy
• Students need authentic experiences
• Nearly everything a child does today, chatting, texting, etc., uses technology which distances that child from direct contact with the living world
• It is crucial for schools to help develop children's distinctly human capacities
• Teachers should question how heavy use of computers helps young children with the following needs: loving relationships with adults, outdoor activity, unstructured playtime, the arts, hands-on work, and conversation with adults and other children
• Technical skills should be taught at the end of high school in order teach students with current technology
• Students should understand hardware and software, instead of never knowing what is inside of all those "black boxes"

I finally feel some bit of synthesis with an article from Educational Leadership! I totally agree with Mr. Monke. I have definately come around to an understanding about how important technology is in the world today. I know that students, as well as I, need to be able to use this technology. However, I have always felt that there was a time and place for it. It just makes sense to teach a child to be the best human they can be, to live in the real world and be who they are before allowing them to go out there to the Internet (digital not-realness that is capitalized like it is a real place or something...) and live a fantasy life. This really is happening. Take for instance a beautiful, smart, and talented young girl. She is overweight and fifteen. She has been contacting older men on the Internet. She can be as skinny as she wants, as old as she wants... in the Internet world. But what happens when she runs away to meet one of those men? This is where we are failing our children. This child was not confident enough in her own self. She was not forced to face reality, was not taught important life skills. Now she is lost for a while.

As a teacher, I will be looking out for this behavior. But it is so hard because as a high shcool teacher, I am at the end of the line. Students will already be in the habit of going to that not-real place...