Computers in Schools

I just want to start this by saying that I have thought the use of technology, particularly technology with screens, in school has been part of the reason that we are finding education in the United States to be going down hill.

Let me clarify.  I do not think that computers are a bad thing, that they should be done away with.  But I do believe the idea that a program on a computer can teach a child to read or write better than a human teacher there in the room with them is crazy.  It appears that I am not the only one to think this way.  In fact some of the world's top computer scientists send their children to a school without computers.  This is the Waldorf School, located in, yes, Silicon Valley, the home of some of the greatest computing advancements of all time.  Alan Eagle, who works in executive communications at Google, is quoted at saying, "If I worked at Miramax and made good, artsy, rated R movies, I wouldn't want my kids to see them until they were 17."  He says this to make the point that everything has a time and a place, computing technology included.  I am inclined to agree with him.  School systems are trying to integrate computers earlier and earlier in education and I really don't think they are seeing the results that they were hoping for.

Technology is a wonderful thing and should be taken advantage of, it should not be used as a crutch, which is what we are making it by creating a dependence on it among rising students in the United States.  Call me old fashioned, but I believe a key step in getting US education back on track is to take computers out of early education.  They are not really needed, and mold kids with shorter attention spans and less cognitive thinking skills.

I have experience the difference that this makes first hand.  This past summer I was working running some camps in Alabama and in North Carolina.  Though the kids in Alabama come from a very poor area and have not had the opportunities that many of the kids in North Carolina have had, they were much better to have at camp.  I was talking about this with another staff member (who happens to be graduating with a degree in education this year) and we decided that the fact that these kids were not able to play video games all the time and did not need constant input as a result were what made the difference.  The kids in Alabama we could give a basketball and they would be happy to play all afternoon (not that we did that, since it was a camp to work on sports skills and not a babysitting service), but the kids in North Carolina had significantly shorter attention spans.  As soon as they completed an activity, whether they were good at it or not, they were ready to move on to the next thing.  Which meant many a late night searching for filler games for the next day.

Having this experience only solidified my thoughts about computers and similar technology being used in school.  Especially those for early education.

"A Master of One's Own Stuff"

Recently one of my assignments was to read "Shop Class as Soul Craft".  While reading this book I realized just how much we as a society are dependent upon our technology and yet we don't fully understand most of the technology that we use.  In fact, I would say that we very rarely understand the technology that we take for granted.

My printer has been refusing to pick up paper recently and I was getting very frustrated with it.  I had tried everything that the printer's software said to do.  I probably cleaned that machine four times.  Finally I gave up and turned the thing around to open it up and try to figure out what it is that was wrong with my printer.  This makes it sound like a great adventure, which I guess in away it was, even though there wasn't anything seriously wrong with printer.

This experience just kind of struck home with what we have been reading, because I was worried that if I got into the printer then I wouldn't be able to fix it, or if I had to take it very much apart I wouldn't be able o put it back together.

Taking this from Matthew Crawford, the author of "Shop Class as Soul Craft" I have found that I agree with his idea that everyone should learn a trade.  As I say that, I must clarify that I am not a master of any trade myself, I am simply advocating that it is a good idea to have a skill in a field that deals with the concrete rather than the abstract.

Are we so dependent on oil?

Renmatix is a company that has recognized, like many of us, that our dependence on oil is not good for us economically, nor is it good for the environment.  In order to try and fix this, they are opening a research center in Pennsylvania to complete the development of a process they have found that turns agricultural waste into fuel for automobile fuel and other useful chemicals.

This process breaks down the chemicals in the waste, some of these chemicals are useful in the development of fuels such as cellulose.  To extract these chemicals Renmatix is simply using water at extremely high pressures and temperatures.  This process does the equivalent of the work that some microorganisms are capable of in converting the waste into ethanol.  This process is much more sound economically than using corn to produce ethanol because it prevents having to reallocate supplies from the production of food.

If this process is proven to be more effective and more efficient than producing gasoline or other forms of fuel then it would greatly decrease the amount of harmful chemicals released in the air and will put to good use some of the waste that currently has no other use.