Let Them Eat Data: How Computers Affect Education, Cultural Diversity, and the Prospects of Ecological Sustainability

5. The False Promises of Computer-Based Education

5The False Promises of Computer-Based Education The national media are raising doubts about computers as an antidote to our systemic educational shortcomings. While some in academia had questioned the apparent educational gains of computers , their books were viewed as out of touch with the euphoria created bythe computer industry's heavilyfinanced promotions and by professorswho sawnew career paths for themselves. Reservation from classroom teachers, which mostly took the form of passive resistance , similarly had no influence on school boards or on a computer industry determined to carry out the technological revolution essential to the Age of Information. Todd Oppenheimer's article, "The Computer Delusion," which appeared in the July 1997 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, contained interviews and other anecdotal evidence showing that, in spite of the huge expenditures on computers for classroom use, the hoped-for gains have not been realized . The article presented a picture of educational misuses, false promises, and distorted funding priorities. It even suggested that cutting school subjects and other curricular resources in order to acquire more computers in the classroom "may be educational malpractice." But the national visibility critics are now receiving does not represent a shift in the priorities of politicians, educational decision makers , or a computer industry still determined to exploit the full market potential of public schools and universities. Leading politicians continue to thwart genuine national debate by equating prosperity with computers, including classroom computers. President Clinton, 111 112 Educational Consequences for example, made computers in public school classroomsan essential component to his "bridge to the twenty-first century." The cost of achieving the universal computer competency he envisionedwas estimated between $40 and $100 billion from 1998 to 2003. Other politicians have been equally quick to embrace computers as the panacea for addressing the nation's most intractable problems. The former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, promoted the idea that giving laptops to the poor will alleviate their plight, while Al Gore continues to argue that preparation for the future requires that computersbe givena more centralrole in education. Politicians at all levels of government have embraced the new mythology that equates information with individual empowerment and economic well-being. The computer industry's increasing courtship of politicians has also been an important source of influence. With so many dollars at stake, politicians are not likely to challenge the growing dependency on computer-based technologies—even if they understand the underlying cultural, political, and moral issues involved. Dependence on computers is growingin all areasofpublic school and university activity. Witness the increasing number of public school students "plugged into" computers (ten students for every computer in 1997, compared to twenty-five students sharing one computer 1989). Witness too the increasing reliance on e-mail for student-professor communication, the shift to virtual libraries, and the growing number of courses offered in cyberspace (a trend we shall examine later in more depth). That computers represent the hallmark ofprogress and are thus the cornerstone ofthe educational process isabeliefthat isspreading,like acultural virus,to other parts of the world. The obstacles to making computer-mediated learning the basis of educational reform are more economic than cultural. In North America, proponents of "technology-rich education," as one computer consultant put it, have clearly controlled the discussion of educational reform by promising endless educational False Promises 113 gains and by enforcing in public consciousnessthe belief that classroom computers are the keyto future prosperity. Criticism of computer -mediated learning, on the other hand, focuses typically on the following concerns: (1) computers limit students' imagination; (2) computer advocates overstate the connection between data and thinking; (3) students often have only a superficial understanding of the information they download; (4) computers frequently break down; (5) underfunded schools have less access to computers and thus put already disenfranchised students at further disadvantage; (6) computer-based learning has negative physical side effects that we are just beginning to understand. These criticisms are partly valid, but they do not illuminate the deeper intrinsic limitations of computer-based education. The current criticism lacks a global perspective on the cultural roots of our ecological crisis. With the exception of Langdon Winner (1986), Jerry Mander (1991), and Theodore Roszak, I cannot think of any critic, even among those who should be taken seriously for other reasons, who integrates a cultural-ecological perspective. In TheCult of Information (1994), Theodore Roszak examines how computers reinforce Cartesian thinking, but his comparison is between traditional and contemporary...