"I believe that the motion picture is destined to revolutionize our educational system. In a few years it will supplant largely, if not entirely, the use of textbooks."
Thomas Edison, 1922"I've come to the inevitable conclusion that ...what's wrong with education cannot be fixed with technology. No amount of technology will make a dent... You're not going to solve the problems by putting all knowledge onto CD-ROMS. We can put a Web site in every school- none of this is bad. It's only bad if it lulls us into thinking that we're doing something to solve the problem with education."
Steven Jobs, Apple Computer Founder, 1996"We have to spend time on basic things... I am constantly surprised by the poverty of the writing skills of these extremely smart and insightful students."
Lynda Motiram, High School Social Studies Teacher, Millersville, MD, 2002"Not surprisingly, when college professors and employers were surveyed recently, three fourths of them rated the writing skills of high school graduates as fair or poor. In many cases, students have become so habituated to the Internet that if they don't find what they're looking for online, they assume it doesn't exist- or that it isn't significant."
Todd Oppenheimer, The Flickering Mind, 2003"Almost every time I visited classrooms where the teacher, or someone else, had boasted that great technological learning was going on, the actual exercises staged were nearly empty of intellectual content."
Todd Oppenheimer, The Flickering Mind, 2003, commenting on his experiences in visiting numerous classrooms where computer-based learning was taking place."That's why Net-searching classes tend to collapse into social hour. This yeilds a whole new form of classroom disarray. It's school as a party, sanctified and institutionalized by education's authorities. After a while, as I watched a number of such classes around the country, I began to feel as if I were observing some modern version of the Heisenberg effect: The mere existence of computers in the classroom seems to alter the atmosphere. And more often than not, it encourages everybody in the room to go off task."
Todd Oppenheimer, The Flickering Mind, 2003"...administrators constantly boast about how much time students put in on their computers- coming in on their own at night and on weekends- the truth on this score is another matter. Judging from numerous accounts from students, a good bit of this after-hours work occurred because students weren't attending to their work during class. And that happened because of what they were doing: playing the same games I'd seen in virtually every other heavily computerized classroom.. e-mailing each other. And trying to hide it when the teacher came around."
Todd Oppenheimer, The Flickering Mind, 2003"Even at my technology heavy institution, new students can learn all the computer skills that they need 'in a summer' "
Joseph Weizenbaum, Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at M.I.T"In fact, when we're hiring, computer skills don't even enter into our list of priorities. We're looking for strong character, an ability to speak, write, and comprehend, and a rich education in the history of architecture"
Patrick MacLeamy, Executive VP, Hellmuth Obata & Kassabaum
( the largest architecture firm in the U.S.)"In ten or fifteen years, I fear, employers will increasingly ask whether applicants were computer trained or teacher trained. Those who were computer trained, I believe, will be left out- because they won't be able to make sense of the world"
Tom Snyder, Former Educational Software Developer, in The Flickering Mind"A lot of us feel resentful that technology is being imposed on us", a sociology professor at Moorhead State University in Minnesota once told me. This may account for Stanford professor Larry Cuban's recent finding, when he studied how schools have been using technology since the 1980s, that there was no great accompanying improvement in teaching practices. Jeffrey Fouts, the Seattle Pacific University professor and lead evaluator for the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is more blunt. "In our experience", he told me, "technology in the hands of a weak teacher is a disaster."
Todd Oppenheimer, The Flickering Mind, 2003"Many prospective employers worldwide express more interest in social and emotional intelligence than in technical skills. A recent survey in Switzerland revealed that large firms (eg. engineering companies, banks) wanted employees with the following characteristics: self disipline, initiative, ability to concentrate, communications skills, creativity, team effort, flexibility, honesty, enjoyment of people- the very skills that are in decline. Good grades in secondary school were mentioned far down on the list, and computer expertise did not make it at all."
Jane M. Healy, Ph.D. in Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds and What We Can Do About It, Simon & Schuster"The educational value of today's computers has been vastly oversold to parents, educators, and the general public, primarily by people who benefit financially from adding computers and software to the tradition eductional mix."
Jane M. Healy, Ph.D. in Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds- and What We Can Do About It, Simon & Schuster"Would I myself want a whole lot of technology here at the School? I don't think it's necessary."
Mr Fred Diehl, Calculus Teacher, Lansing Catholic Central, April 29, 2007"People too often consider technology a classroom panacea that will lift students to new heights"
Principal Tom Maloney, Lansing Catholic Central, April 29, 2007