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Todd Oppenheimer...
 Todd
Oppenheimer is an author and journalist living in San Francisco. He
has also worked as a calligrapher, portrait sculptor and a
professional actor in New York City. Articles by Mr. Oppenheimer have
appeared in The Washington Post, Columbia Journalism Review,
and Mother Jones. He published The Flickering Mind in
2003. This book expanded on his 1997 Atlantic Monthly cover story,
The Computer Delusion, which won a National Magazine Award.
His book,
The Flickering
Mind critiques much of the
research literature on educational technology; he also writes about
his visits and interviews with schools around the nation reputed to be
models of technology-integration success. Oppenheimer's main point is
that the large amount of resources being devoted to technology
procurement, support, and training has not yielded proportionally
tangible results, and that those resources would be better used for
other purposes, such as reducing class size, hiring tutors, and
repairing school facilities. Oppenheimer points out that the research
results of technology’s impact on standardized testing are
inconclusive.
I agree with some of his assertions and also
think it takes a certain kind of courage to present ideas which
counter public opinion. When he published The Computer Delusion
in 1997 there was little public dissent on the role or cost of
educational technology. He, like Jane Healy, asks
probing questions of students using technology and gets shallow answers. His critique helps me to focus on learning goals and
not on the bells and whistles or “gee-whiz” factor of technology.
Oppenheimer is one of the most
cogent critics of technology; by reading his work I can think about
both sides of the issues and work to counter the arguments...
·
“America's
students...are an increasingly distracted lot. Their ability to
reason, to listen, to feel empathy, is quite literally flickering.
Computers did not cause all these problems but they are quietly
accelerating them” (from the book jacket).
·
Oppenheimer argues for a
return to what he calls the “enlightened basics.” He advocates for
better funded schools, smaller class size, highly engaging teachers,
and a focus on important skills.
·
Oppenheimer accepts
research showing, “Students with learning disabilities have, on the
whole, made strides on computers much more consistently than has the
general school population,” (p. 42) but he points out these students
have the most room for improvement, and might have done just as well
from non-technology interventions such as flash-cards, oral exercises,
or tutors (p. 32).
·
Oppenheimer critiques
the digital divide but turns the paradigm around by quoting Stephen
Kindel (editor of Forbes Magazine in 1984) saying, “In the end it is
the poor who will be chained to the computer; the rich will get
teachers” (p. 78).
·
He critiques the use of
technology in graphic arts and notes how students will delete great
portions or their work without hesitation and how new work is
generated by the computer program not the student, bypassing the
effort of the artistic process. In comparing graphic-arts computer
programs to the effort required to sketch something by hand, he sees
the quality of the effort diminished in the way the students use the
computer programs. He notes that crayons are just as instructive as
the computer program KidPix (p. 88).
·
He mentions the work of
Professor Thomas L. Russell, author of the “No Significant Difference”
web site:
http://www.nosignificantdifference.org/ which collects research
studies supporting the idea that online learning shows no significant
difference over face-to-face learning (p. 105).
·
Oppenheimer notes the
financially detrimental aspects of technology TCO (total cost of
ownership) and “upgrade frenzy,” as school districts struggle to keep
up with the pace of technological change (p. 113), and get locked into
expensive cycles of equipment upgrades once they make an initial
investment in something.
·
He criticizes the boring
and repetitive nature of “drill & kill” software, (p. 117) and makes
reference to an ILS technology initiative undertaken in West Virginia
which has been referred to repeatedly in the research literature. He
tells an anecdote about a child who liked it at first, but quickly
became bored and would rather read a book (p. 119).
·
He cites a small scale
study of Reader Rabbit that noted a significant drop in students’
ability to answer open-ended questions after using the software for
seven months (p. 203) He notes a 2000 report by a group called the
Alliance for Childhood that recommended a moratorium on computing in
the elementary grades (p. 203).
·
Oppenheimer is a
proponent of professionalizing the career of teaching and affording
teachers more respect. He says, “For decades, we have taken people
whom we hold responsible for the intellectual and moral development of
our children, put them in chaotic, overcrowded institutions, robbed
them of creative freedom and new opportunities for their own learning,
imposed an ever-changing stream of rules and performance requirements
that leave them exhausted and hopeless, and pay them about $40,000 a
year for their trouble-- far less, proportionately speaking, then
teachers earn in most other industrialized societies”
(p. 396).
·
Oppenheimer asserts that
students learn mostly from teachers, not from computers or other
classroom materials (p. 398). “Teacher to student interaction whether
from teaching, tutoring, or mentoring which leads to ‘mastery
learning’ is a recipe for success (p. 399). At its core, education is
a people process (p. 395). Inspiring educational moments usually
revolve around a great teacher (p. 396).”
·
In discussing the
positive and negative aspects of technology Oppenheimer says,
“Maturity is based, in part, on the ability to handle conflicting
information” (pp. 402-403).
·
Oppenheimer is not
suggesting the computers should not be part of education, just that
their implementation should be more limited and carefully controlled.
In the younger grades (k-2) Oppenheimer suggests not to use computers
except for students with learning disabilities. He suggests that
student in high school (by 10th or 11th grade)
should become familiar with using computers. He says that the danger
of computers is that they “become a shortcut around the carefully
layered intellectual work-with books and test tubes and pencil and
paper-that are education’s fundamental building blocks…Most of their
time in computerized classes must go to managing technical hassles the
schools can’t afford to fix, and watching for cheating, instant
messaging tricks, and illicit material” (Flickering Mind Blog, 2003).
“Technology is used too intensely in the younger grades and not
intensely enough--in the proper areas--in the upper grades” (p. 393).
Technology tools are effective when they are used “only as needed,
when students are at the right age for them, and when they are kept in
their place” (p. 394).
·
In reference to NCLB,
Oppenheimer says, “[the] requirement than any new school initiative
be proven worthwhile by ‘scientifically based research’ has been an
open invitation to charlatans in both industry and academia” (The
flickering mind blog, 2003).
·
Oppenheimer discusses
the philosophy of Waldorf education and says, “Waldorf teachers
believe that one of their primary jobs is to help youngsters develop a
strong will… students must learn that the rewards they reap from an
experience require a commensurate amount of effort-mental,
physical, even emotional. …Technology ‘promises an experience by which
we don't have to do anything to make it happen.’” (p. 376)
·
Oppenheimer’s
recommendations for improving education include:
o
High expectations tied
to sophisticated, creative inquiries in the real world.
o
A national collection of
teachers, well trained but also sufficiently well-paid to attract the
world's best and brightest.
o
An educational culture
that is first and foremost about people--and that trusts people,
rather than numbers, to be the primary judge of a youngster’s progress
(p. 408).
·
“As the world grows
increasingly technological, and increasingly strained by social
inequities and human suffering of all kinds, we are going to need a
different kind of employee in the technology industries. We’ll need
people who are as sensitive to the culture’s humanistic needs as they
are to its electronic possibilities” (p. 395).
·
Oppenheimer concludes
his book by saying (in reference to technology), “Like all of us, I
suppose, schools have to fall for the latest thing, make blunders, and
learn from there. …William Blake wrote, ‘You never know what is enough
unless you know what is more than enough’ ” (p. 412).
References
Milkin Institute global conference speaker’s biography (n.d.).
Retrieved October 10, 2004 from the
Milkin Institute web site:
Oppenheimer, T. (2003). The Flickering Mind. New York: Random
House
The flickering mind blog. (2003).
Retrieved 11/2/04 from
Booknoise.net
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