COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION: GOOD OR BAD?
Writing for ôIBM News,ö Bill Luse, Vice President of Personal Computing for IBM in Michigan, bemoans the fact that while most schools have computers, these tend to be isolated in special computer classes or libraries. Luse feels that this does not begin to go far enough and that what is needed is for all students in all schools to be able to access computers whenever they need help to learn, to look up information, to work at the pace most personally comfortable for them, and so forth. Luse claims that computer technology must increasingly become more fully integrated into the educational system. However, the question can be asked: Is computer technology good or bad for education? Are computers of such benefit to education that they should be totally integrated into the system?
According to Chamberlain (2000), the answer is both ôyesö and ôno.ö There are several advantages to computers in education. First, students are provided with an opportunity to learn a technology increasingly important to and increasingly required in society. Second, whether for good or ill, computer technology is more and more becoming the basic medium of education for many students and educators need to deal with this. However, there can also be host of problems associated with the use of computers in education. These problems center around access, censorship, privacy, commercialization, information glut and unpredictable and unintended consequences in terms of changing the nature of schools and even the educational system.
Regarding changing the school and/or the system, these changes can also be good or bad depending on a variety of factors. Petricic (2002) provides an example of the transformative nature of the educational system with a full and complete integration of computer technology by examining two private schools. In one school, outcomes appear positive. While maintaining costs at a manageab...