Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ethics-l
Date:         Mon, 9 Nov 1992 09:34:33 EDT
From:         Wolfgang Pelz <R1PELZ@AKRONVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Children and Computers,
              7 Nov 1992 21:17:00 EST from <WHMurray@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL>

I agree with Mr. Murray that we will probably eventually get it right.
I also find the new technology exciting and am just as excited when
someone else gets "turned on" by the new technology and uses it to
better himself (or herself).  Many people have learned more about history
from watching movies and miniseries than would ever have picked up a book
about the same topics.  A computer has even more potential as a learning
tool.

My concern is more with what is being learned than how it is learned.
Mr. Murray mentions having to learn how to extract a square root, a skill
that he has no occasion to use.  I can appreciate his point; it is unusual
for someone to need this skill today.

On the other hand I see college students who wish to major in a technical
area (e.g. engineering) and can't handle fractions.  How often have you met
a clerk at the cash register who cannot make change properly?  How many
people have you met who can't calculate a 15% tip (even approximately)?
These people are in positions where they need to use skills that they don't
have available to them.

There are skills that are needed in today's world that somehow are not
being learned (presumably they are being taught).  The computer can make
the learning process more palatable (dare I say, fun) but the tool is not
a substitute for the knowledge.  We require a balance that has not yet
been obtained.

Here is an example from my own experience.  My mother wished to
purchase a new car and pay cash for it.  The salesman tried to convince her
that she would be better off keeping the money in savings and to take out
a loan for the purchase.  He even had some documentation and tables to show
that at the end of the loan period she would have more money than if she
paid cash originally!  Although she didn't know how to work the numbers
herself, she had enough sense to figure that something wasn't right.  I was
able to fill in the missing piece - the numbers that the salesman presented
included the assumption that there would be sufficient income (other than
the interest from the savings) to pay the loan installments.  Nowhere in
his paperwork was this mentioned.  Including this assumption into the
numbers changed the picture dramatically.

Should my mother have been able to generate the numbers?  Not really,.
especially not right on the spot. Should she have been able to notice
something not quite right? Definitely.  Without this sense she would have
been taken for quite a bit of money.

How do we teach such common sense?
Only by getting the student to think about the process, not just plug
in the numbers and turn the crank.  If we substitute hours of SuperMario
for hours of mechanical math problems, we haven't gained anything.

My examples have been mathematics-related, but the same problem
arises in other areas.  The subject of history is notorious for memorization
of facts in place of understanding historical trends and movements.

Wolfgang Pelz
The University of Akron
r1pelz@vm1.cc.uakron.edu
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU