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The Flickering Mind: The False Promise of Technology in the Classroom and How Learning Can Be Saved
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Author: Todd Oppenheimer
List Price: $26.95
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 1400060443
Publisher: Random House (14 October, 2003)
Edition: Hardcover
Sales Rank: 8,958
Average Customer Rating: 4.83 out of 5
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Customer ReviewsRating: 5 out of 5
Devastating the motivational myth
The Flickering Mind devastates the notion that computers in school somehow provide children with an educational boost. In fact, by draining funds from traditional programs and distracting teachers and students from real learning, computers have been an educational drag. Oppenheimer exposes the underpinning of the arguments of pro-computer political leaders and educators as a blind faith that computers can motivate students to learn in a way that teachers cannot. We should be relieved that the computer's motivational power for education has been revealed to be a myth. This motivational myth has not only cost billions but it has obscured the real value of computers for education (at least in elementary grades). Computers excel at quantitative work. People excel at qualitative work. Motivating a student to learn is not a quantitative task, instead it is one of the most challenging of qualitative tasks. Computers cannot motivate students except in the novelty stage (as can any new activity). Motivating the individual student must be left to the humans in closest proximity and thus the responsibility largely falls to the teacher. Leaders looking for the next quick fix for education's woes should not throw the computers out and swing the pendulum back 50 years. Unfortunately there is little in The Flickering Mind which argues against such a backlash. Oppenheimer's conclusions that we should give teachers more responsibility, pay them more and step back from standardized testing as the primary measure of learning effectiveness are easy to agree with. I disagree, however, that the computer is just another teaching tool in the same category as the overhead projector. While it is not the motivator that many have believed in, the computer has more potential than a fixed-function machine because of its adaptability and interconnectivity. This potential has been overlooked because the idea of the computer as the magic motivator has drawn all the attention. A paradigm-shift in thinking is needed to illuminate the real opportunity that the computer and the Internet hold for primary grade education which I call "paperless teaching."
Rating: 5 out of 5
Most Important Book
All educators, legislators and parents should read this book. If everyone would read it and pay attention we really could improve American education.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Comprehensive book about K-12 education
This is an excellent book which should go alongside Larry Cuban's "Oversold and Underused" on the reading list of anyone seeking a balanced perspective on why technology in K-12 classrooms often doesn't get used the way many imagine it might. "Edutopia" by the George Lucas Educational Foundation provides plenty of success stories, but Todd Oppenheimer reveals why most teachers struggle to make use of computers and other technologies. He addresses technology in K-12 at all levels, from federal policies down to the nuts and bolts of what can go wrong in the classroom. Chapter 1, Education's History of Technopia, and chapter 6, Computer Literacy: Limping Towards Tomorrow's Jobs, are both excellent and were highlights of the book for me. The numerous classroom examples from all around the U.S. are nicely presented and help make the book very readable most of the time. I did find the 60 pages devoted to Renaissance Learning and Accelerated Reader to be a little outside the bounds of what I would normally associate with technology in education. Although the chapter was a detailed and interesting examination of the world of educational research, I don't think it had much to do with educational technology. The chapter on Waldorf schools was fascinating and balanced and doesn't deserve the kind of reaction some people have offered (their comments seem to have disappeared from the reviews anyway).
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