In NY Times Op Ed, developmental psychologist Susan Pinker goes against the conventional White House wisdom about the importance of Internet connectivity for schoolchildren and instead argues that students can have too much tech. Pinker writes. "But mounting evidence shows that showering students, especially those from struggling families, with networked devices will not shrink the class divide in education. If anything, it will widen it." Tech can help the progress of children, Pinker acknowledges, but proper use is the rub. As a cautionary tale, Pinker cites a study by Duke economists that tracked the academic progress of nearly one million disadvantaged middle-school students against the dates they were given networked computers. The news was not good, the economists wrote that students between 5th and 8th who gain access to a home computer end up getting lower grades in school.
For some people, there seems to be a more is better view when it comes to technology in education. For many others, it is not so. This does not mean seeing technology as a bad and banning it or rolling back the reality of our times. The Internet is awesome. It is also full of nonsense and distractions and children need more hand holding on the net than in the wildest mall or park or street crossing. Apps
…show more content…
But technology cannot replace people. In the article, they show how most students are negatively affected by too much reliance on technology. This will result in less interaction and less conversation of students to their teacher. For some kids, the only place someone actually talks to them to ask what they understood or explains things to them or inquires about their opinions is school. Replacing teacher interaction with screen time takes that interaction possibility away from them,