[Olpc-open] The computer is the best educational tool ever invented, IMHO! :-)

[Yoshiki Ohshima]

  I have been working in a group that is trying to bring computers to
kids and do think that computer can be a great tool if it is used
right way.  (Bruner's quote would be appropriate for our project,
too.)  However:

> Computers are just another educational tool, such as
> books, movies, pen and paper, chalk and blackboard,
> etc. I have found computers to be quite possibly the
> best educational tool ever invented. (And I've been
> teaching for decades, in various schools, in various
> countries.)  And they are EXCELLENT tools for
> learning, practicing reading/writing, etc.  It is a
> CREATIVE tool.

  Only with good software, yes?  And you are not answering tall897's
question either.  Can you, for example, show the proof that learning
and practicing reading/writing with a computer is better than without
a computer?

> And your dismissal of the digital
> divide speaks volumes of typical look down your nose
> at others attitude.  You did not answer my questions: 
> Do you, your colleagues, your children, etc., have
> access to and use computers?  Did you not understand
> the questions?

  That is a wrong question to ask.  Not all pediatricians have kids,
not all carpenters live in the house they design.  The counter is that
"people who know only one way often generalize it too much."  So,
attacking the lack of "direct experience" would never results in a
fruitful conversation.

> Such a lack of compassion for children who have
> virtually no access to education, now being given the
> opportunity to have a 'school in a box', also speaks
> volumes of your ignorance of children, education, etc.
> and your arrogance as a Ph.D making pronouncements
> based on typical ivory tower, lack of real world
> experience, publish or perish (garbage) thinking, etc.

  That kind of statements in turn make you look ignorance and
arrogant.  Don't judge a person as a whole from a few emails.

  I have to say that the tone of "anti-intellectual" attitude.  (For
that matter, it would be nice if tall897 writes with his/her real
identity so that his/her ideas are more defensible...)

-- Yoshiki