The Child and the Machine: How Computers Put Our Children's Education at Risk [Paperback]

Alison Armstrong (Author), Charles Casement (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2003

The United States spends $6.5 billion on educational technology (1998–99), yet children’s educational performance remains stagnant. The Child and the Machine shows how our rush to use computers has led to the most expensive and least helpful revolution in the history of education.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The number of computers in schools more than doubled during the 1990s, while government and corporate initiatives to wire schools for Net access has been aggressive. But how are computers affecting the way children experience school? The Child and the Machine offers one possible answer to that question. Authors Alison Armstrong and Charles Casement argue that "computers put our children's education at risk" by diverting funds from art, music, and other programs. What Armstrong lacks in scholarly or professional accreditation she makes up for in tenacity. A concerned mom's polemic, The Child and the Machine meets Armstrong's laudable goal of providing a framework for a "long overdue public discussion" about computers in elementary schools. Chapters about keyboarding, reading on-screen, using word-processor programs, and playing computer games are spiked with useful tidbits of educational theory. The importance of physical stimulation in children's learning is uppermost for Armstrong. Despite the computer's much-vaunted capacity to retrieve pages of information about ladybugs, for example, it is an inadequate substitute for holding the real thing in the palm of your hand. What's missing from Armstrong's account is sufficient attention to the role of parenting. Computers may indeed be a bland experiential diet for hungry young minds, but Armstrong's worry that computers are ruining children's appetite for other kinds of activity is unsupported. Still, The Child and the Machine views with healthy skepticism the benefits of the influx of computers in the elementary school classroom and will sharpen one's thinking on this vital subject. --Kathi Inman Berens --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Armstrong and Casement thoughtfully consider the use of computers to teach children. They explore theories of how children learn and their application to the hottest trend in education, computer literacy. The pressures of accountability and burgeoning technology drive the interest in computerizing schools, but Armstrong and Casement see computers as being in danger of becoming, like TV, a threat to educational development. They cite research critical of computer learning, which maintains that computers deprive children of sensory experience and may actually hurt academic performance. They note that most studies on how computers affect learning are inconclusive. The amount of benefit that students derive from computers depends on their state of developmental readiness and the adequacy of their teachers' training. Armstrong and Casement examine integrated learning systems, schools with heavy reliance on computer learning, and software packages for children as young as eight months, but their bottom line is that money spent on computers would be better spent on more teachers to reduce the student-teacher ratio. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Robins Lane Press (January 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1589040058
• ISBN-13: 978-1589040052
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,943,301 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Computers harm kids, June 27, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Child and the Machine: How Computers Put Our Children's Education at Risk (Library Binding)

This is a timely appraisal of the role of computers in childhood education.The authors question the hype surrounding the use of computers by young children.Parents are pressured to put their children on the computer bandwagon with fears that they will be "left behind".(It's perfectly sane to be left behind collective delusion.)The authors are not anti-computer, but they put forward cogent reasons why young children are harmed by computers.A central point is that computers offer very limited experiences.They offer little more than rote learning and visual stimulation of dubious value.The young child needs a variety of experiences that the computer just cannot give, such as interaction with other people and with living, stimulating environments.Computers deny the development of the imagination, language skills, and experiences of relating.Child development is thus diminished by the computer.The authors also mention physical harm caused by computers, such as RSI, poor posture, back strain, "Sega thumb," eye fatigue and headaches.Young children are more prone to these problems.This is a carefully researched book which wants to see the real needs of children met.It is a much needed antidote to current computer hype.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful Critique of Computers in Education, December 21, 2000

By 

"rrr338" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Child and the Machine: How Computers Put Our Children's Education at Risk (Library Binding)

This is not another Luddite style, hysterically pitched, attack on computers. Armstrong and Casement present a well-reasoned and well-researched assessment of the shortcomings of computer eduction for children. They point out many attributes of software design and computer network systems that work to the disadvantage of some children in certain cases, most children in others. For instance, the very nature of the Internet, with all of its built-in "hyerlink" capability, will give only the most intensely focused pupils a fair shot at genuine learning. The rest? Prone to the distraction and ease of "point and click" motions, they are likely to follow tangential digressions and drift more and more away from the topic at hand. They wil also encounter a high number of non-educational messages, intending to sell and promote consumption of products. The majority of "educational" software is described as heavily influenced by the video and computer game design mentality. Pupils quickly learn how to master the "object" of the "game" and score points, but often with only superficial understanding of concepts. Most persuasive, however, may be the authors' argument that learning about the world must involve going out and experiencing it in numerous ways. Sitting in front of a monitor is a very narrowly defined kind of "experience." All elementary teachers, and indeed all parents of young children, should give this book a very open-minded examination. Those whose kids read books, attend concerts, ask questions of other people, and get involved in conversations, will feel they are on the right track after following the authors' arguments.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Computers harm kids, June 27, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Child and the Machine: How Computers Put Our Children's Education at Risk (Library Binding)

This is a timely appraisal of the role of computers in childhood education.The authors question the hype surrounding the use of computers by young children.Parents are pressured to put their children on the computer bandwagon with fears that they will be "left behind".(It's perfectly sane to be left behind collective delusion.)The authors are not anti-computer, but they put forward cogent reasons why young children are harmed by computers.A central point is that computers offer very limited experiences.They offer little more than rote learning and visual stimulation of dubious value.The young child needs a variety of experiences that the computer just cannot give, such as interaction with other people and with living, stimulating environments.Computers deny the development of the imagination, language skills, and experiences of relating.Child development is thus diminished by the computer.The authors also mention physical harm caused by computers, such as RSI, poor posture, back strain, "Sega thumb," eye fatigue and headaches.Young children are more prone to these problems.This is a carefully researched book which wants to see the real needs of children met.It is a much needed antidote to current computer hype.