Arguments in favor of early use

Let us introduce here some arguments for using computers in education, at home and in school, using citations.

T.Oppenheimer, in a recent article criticizing indiscriminate introduction of computers in schools, lists the following popular reasons for “computerizing our nation’s [the USA] schools,” [1]:

1. “Computers improve both teaching and student achievement.”

2. “Computer literacy should be taught as early as possible; otherwise students will be left behind.”

3. “Technology programs leverage support from the business community - badly needed today because schools are increasingly starved for funds.”

4. “To make tomorrow’s work force competitive in an increasingly high-tech world, learning computer skills must be a priority.”

5. “Work with computers - particularly using the Internet - brings students valuable connections with teachers, other schools and students, and a wide network of professionals around the globe. Those connections spice the school day with a sense of real-world relevance, and broaden the educational community.”

Let us now hear a strong fighter for the introduction of computers in education, who gives deeper reasons. We will cite him in chronological order. In his book “Mindstorms” [2], S.Papert writes:

6. “I began to see how children who had learned how to program a computer could use very concrete computer models to think about thinking and to learn about learning and in doing so, enhance their powers as psychologists and as epistemologists.” [p. 23]

7. “I believe that the computer as a writing instrument offers children an opportunity to become more like adults, indeed like advanced professionals, in their relationships to other intellectual products and to themselves.” [p. 31]

8. “Increasingly, the computers of the very near future will be the private property of individuals, and this will gradually return to the individual the power to determine patterns of education. Education will become more of a private act… There will be new opportunities for imagination and originality.” [p. 37]

9. “… the computer may serve as a force to break down the line between the ’two cultures’ [humanities and science]. … So in this book I try to show how the computer presence can bring children in a more humanistic as well as a more humane relationship with mathematics.” [p. 38]

10. “LOGO environments are not [Brazilian] samba schools, but they are useful for imagining what it would be like to have a ‘samba school for mathematics.’ … The computer brings it into the realm of the possible by providing mathematically rich activities which could, in principle, be truly engaging for the novice and the expert, young and old.” [p. 182]

11. “The computer can be seen as an engine that can be harnessed to existing structures in order to solve, in local and incremental measures, the problems that face schools as they exist today.” [p. 186]

12. “Computation can be more than a theoretical science and a practical art: It can also be the material from which to fashion a powerful and personal vision of the world” [p. 210].

In his book “The Children’s Machine” [3], Papert says:

13. Across the world children have entered a passionate and enduring love affair with the computer." [p. ix]

14. “The introduction of computers is not the first challenge to education values”. [p. 5]

15. “The computer graphics and the artificial creature projects give a glimpse of directions of change of School that move toward megachange.” [p. 21]

In his book “The Connected Family” [11] Papert says:

16. “Across the world there is a passionate love affair between children and computers.” [p. 1]

17. “The best uses of computers that I have seen in homes are so much better than what is being done with computers in most schools that I have come to see home computing as a major (perhaps the major) source of pressure for educational reform.” [p. 15]

18. “… one of the big contributions of the computer is the opportunity for children to experience the thrill of chasing after knowledge they really want.” [p. 19]

19. “What will children learn by making a game? They will learn some technical things, for example to program computers. … They will develop some psychological, social and moral kinds of thinking. Most important of all in my view is that children will develop their sense of self and of control. For instance, they will begin to learn what it’s like to control their own intellectual activity.” [p. 47]

20. “… parents should recognize the need to build new kinds of relationships with their children and should see the computer as a vehicle for building, rather than as an obstacle to, family cohesion.” [p. 79.

21. “… using the children’s enthusiasm for computers as a basis for enhancing the family’s learning-culture.” [p. 79] “Computer learning experiences give the family a chance to become more aware of it