Todd Oppenheimer’s article “The Computer Delusion” paints a bleak picture of the current state of education and calls into question many of the decisions regarding technology that are being made by educators and administrators, as well as much of the research upon which those decisions are founded. Oppenheimer exposes the pervasive and unquestioning support of computers in the classroom by everyone from teachers up through President Clinton as a case of the “emperor’s new clothes” – blind acceptance, with no one brave enough to stand up and say, “Wait a minute…”

Having grown up in the 60’s, I can totally relate to Clifford Stoll’s comment that “computers in classrooms are the filmstrips of the 1990’s.” The same could be said for DVD’s. This is the worst of what technology has to offer – an opportunity for everyone to dumb down for an hour. I have seen this happen in our own community. When my daughter was in fourth grade, the entire class read “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” Three years later, when my son was in fourth grade, his class listened to the book on tape (and did not even have to follow along in the book). Reading was not required.

I am not quite as pessimistic as Todd Oppenheimer. Personally I am old-school. I may always prefer to turn the pages of a book to reading the words on a glowing screen. And I believe that actually baking a cake will teach a child much more than watching it done on You Tube. In this regard, I felt validated by Oppenheimer’s views. On the other hand, I like to think that technology is still evolving as an educational tool and will eventually find a valuable place in the classroom. After all, the internet is unparalleled as a research tool, and digitized encyclopedias are more current, more ecologically sound, and offer much quicker navigation than their paper counterparts.

“The Computer Delusion” points out how easy it is for teachers and administrators to be seduced by all of the technology being thrown at them by both the public and private sectors. Unfortunately, beyond a ban on federal spending on technology, the author does not offer any real solutions. I suggest that this is the time for teachers to make sure that they have a clearly developed educational philosophy, including a philosophy on technology use, and that they revisit that philosophy regularly, to insure that they are continuing to resist buying into the hype.