According to an article in the Idaho Statesman, some rural schools formed a Distance Learning consortium to help them meet state requirements that students must take online courses before graduating from high school.
Imagine their surprise when they were informed that their plan won’t satisfy the mandate for students at the school where the online teacher works. Even if they stick the kids in a different room from the teacher.
Can we start this thing over?
(Because my goal is to keep these posts short and relevant, I won’t go into my tirade—and it’s a doozy—about how young children don’t NEED to learn by computer just to keep them up-to-date with technology. They are exposed to computers every day of their lives, even if they don’t have one at home. (Anybody who has a TV knows about the marvels of computers, and all the wonders you can do with them.) The Baby Boomers learned how to use them just fine, thank you very much, despite not being exposed to them from birth onward. So get over yourselves, all you folks who think that kids won’t be able to eat, breathe, learn to read, or function in the workplace without being handed a mouse and a keyboard on their first birthday.)
November 26, 2011
Update: In October the Statesman published an article about employees at Google, Apple, Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard who send their kids to a school that doesn't even allow computers until the 8th grade, and then only for limited use. According to this article:
Regarding the need to learn to use computers, Alan Eagle, who holds a computer science degree from Dartmouth and works in executive communications at Google, says, “It’s supereasy. It’s like learning to use toothpaste. At Google and all these places, we make technology as brain-dead easy to use as possible. There’s no reason why kids can’t figure it out when they get older.”
’Nuff said.
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