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Mail 4 U Kiddo: Computers and Kindergarten

by Pauline McKinnon

101 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); English; catalogue #05-2006; ISBN 1-4120-7095-3; US$15.61, C$17.95, EUR12.82, £8.98

Computer mystique holds that computers will improve students' academic skills. Although the ratio of number of students to computer has been steadily declining, students show little or no improvement.

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About the Book      About the Author      Excerpts      Catalogue Information

About the Book

Picture writing was the first invention to codify language and consists of the drawing of objects and acts In places such as airports, modern people use pictographs to indicate restrooms. The invention of the alphabet, where each symbol represents a sound, made possible the existence of written literature

The computer is a powerful tool which takes more, not less, education to use profitably. The illiterate person can’t read even when standing in the middle of the Library of Congress. The student who does not understand the mathematical operation of grouping, the idea of choice of base and place value will still be profoundly ignorant even though he has the best computer money can buy.

Radio was the first star in the age of information. Broadcasts began in 1920 and by 1933 fifty percent of households owned one. The rise of television was even more spectacular. No household had a television in 1945 but by 1954 fifty percent of households in the U.S. owned one. By 1980, the number approached 98 percent.

Personal computers were next. Introduced to the public in 1980, some fifty-one percent of households had one or more in 2000.

Computer literacy is now considered part of the new basics in education . However, data are now beginning to show that the more students use computers, the worse they perform on tests.

Computers have dazzled people and the mystique is fostered by the media blitz, with some of it directed at toddlers and even babies.

One kindergarten teacher wrote , “One of the first lessons my students learn is to use the pencil and write their name.” She was not referring to a pencil and paper but to a mouse and monitor!

Will keyboarding replace one of the 3 Rs?

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About the Author

Pauline McKinnon, born in 1928, received a Bachelor's degree in Pharmacy from the University of Toronto in 1949. She left the field of Pharmacy in 1956 to work at the Kresge Eye Institute of Wayne State University in the biophysics department. Here, she worked on an analogue mechanical computer used to describe eye movements. As electronic computers were introduced at the University, she learned to use these as the mechanical computers, calculators etc. were gradually replaced. In retirement, she has been studying the effects of computer use on different social questions.

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Excerpts

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Catalogue Information

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