[YL] Child Advocates Challenge Current Ed Tech Standards

[George Gundrey]

Just passing this on.

Child Advocates Challenge Current Ed Tech Standards

New report says government and high-tech industry foist expensive and 
unproven technology on schools, hurting children and undermining real 
technology literacy

Sept. 30, 2004—The high-tech, screen-centered life style of today’s 
children—at home and at school—is a health hazard and the polar opposite of 
the education they need to take part in making ethical choices in a 
high-tech democracy, according to a new report released today by the 
Alliance for Childhood.

Tech Tonic: Towards a New Literacy of Technology challenges education 
standards and industry assertions that all teachers and children, from 
preschool up, should use computers in the classroom to develop technology 
literacy. That expensive agenda ignores evidence that high-tech classrooms 
have done little if anything to improve student achievement, the report says.

The report strongly criticizes the extensive financial and political 
connections between education officials and school technology vendors. It 
urges citizens to wake up to the increasing influence of corporations in 
policymaking for public education.

“The lack of evidence or an expert consensus that computers will improve 
student achievement—despite years of efforts by high-tech companies and 
government agencies to demonstrate otherwise—is itself compelling evidence 
of the need for change,” Tech Tonic states. “It’s time to scrap
national, 
state, and local policies that require all students and all teachers to use 
computers in every grade, and that eliminate even the possibility of 
alternatives.”

At the same time, the Alliance suggests, high-tech childhood is making 
children sick—promoting a sedentary life at a time when childhood obesity 
is at epidemic levels. The full text of the report is available at the 
Alliance’s web site: www.allianceforchildhood.org.
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George Gundrey, Senior Program Manager
Community Technology Center Program
CompuMentor
435 Brannan Street, Suite 100, San Francisco, CA 94107
Voice: 415.633.9310
Fax: 415.512.9629
Email: ggundrey at compumentor.org

http://www.compumentor.org
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