"As we move to meet the educational needs of working adults in a mobile society, our conception of the university must extend beyond place and embrace process. An adult university cannot be campus bound, rather its borders must be defined by the lives of its students..." (John Sperling)Each new technology has brought its share of hype from those who would like to see its use for education. In 1922, Thomas Edison said that the motion picture was destined to revolutionize our educational system (Oppenheimer 1997). In 1945, William Levenson, director of the Cleveland public schools' radio stations, said that the time might come when a portable radio receiver would be as common in the classroom as the blackboard (Oppenheimer 1997). In 1961, the Ford Foundation claimed that educational television promises "a whole treasure-trove of new and stimulating experiences" (McKibben 1993, 204). More recently, at the National Education Computing Conference in June 1997, Bill Gates compared the computer and the Internet revolution with the California gold rush of the mid 1800s.
education
American Education is in the Dumpster
Hamerschlag Hall is one of the principal teaching ...He exhorted educators to use this new technology in the classroom to give students a better chance at success.
Researchers have long been aware of such hype and the often unfulfilled promises that educational technology has brought to education. Few are fully aware of the negative effects that these same technologies can bring to education and to our lives. Television has been in schools and in our homes for nearly half a century. During that time, extensive studies have been conducted on this medium, with some interesting results. For example, second graders from towns without television score higher on reading fluency and creative ability tests (Williams 1986). Non-TV-viewing fourth and eighth graders score higher on basic skills tests (California Department of Education 1984). Television viewing is a cause...