Opus 2015-449: Computer Myths in Education: Myth 2

Myth 2.  Computers are fun.

Games are fun.  Fun is fun.  Computers can do those very well but that does not mean they can teach.  If computers were as much fun as claimed then you would not need to buy a steady string of new games to play on them.  Ultimately the fun runs out and the work begins.  When we had our first fling with computer education we had a program that was supposed to teach reading skills.  It has some fun graphics and animated cartoon characters.  For the first day the kids were focused and alert.  The problem began the second day.  No computer guru came in over night and loaded new graphics and characters.  By the second day the students had already learned what the responses would be and were tuning out. 

Over a period of time I was able to watch my students’ reading scores decline.  As the old saying goes, “Fool me once shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.”  The students are not going to be tricked into learning more than once.  Then the game for them is to keep from learning.  They usually win.

Big cardboard boxes are fun too, but no serious person has proposed that we equip class rooms with them, at least to teach English and math skills.  Actually that might be better than computers.  They would at least encourage thinking “outside the box.”  Sorry.

To be continued...

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