a rant without hem-lines

The myth of public consultation

The term comes up quite regularly these days. But in reality, I think with the death of the community, there is no real possibility of public consultation. It is more or less consulting interest groups filled with the only people who really care about the topic. That might be productive but hardly the public at large. Maybe it is just a misnomer or euphemism.

Today, our lecturer whom many love and many hate came up with the research that there is not a shred of evidence that computers increase the power to learn, that computer skills do not necessarily need to be taught EARLY at school (as they can be picked up fairly easily). Some researchers perhaps of particular political persuasions suggest that the marketing of computers to schools is unethical and is essentially a trojan horse to expose children to commercialism. The thought is that computers assist children to learn (a meme that could have originated from those who are now profiting), so parents will pressure schools to invest heavily in computers (and they do, they could have another teacher or two at any school if they decided to not use computers), and now computers are ubiquitous in the classroom.

I was thinking back to whether I benefited from computers. I think the answer is bound to be yes, although I have no idea what a computerless me may have become. I started writing computer programs from books (in BASIC) and writing my own programmes very young (in machine code). Maybe the constant attempts to avoid "syntax error" statements cause me to have a fairly ingrained logical streak. Programs revolve around numbers. Programs are made on numbers and order.

I had some lovely inspiration for the use of computers in classroom today. I previously just had one thought, but now it has multiplied like opossums in spring. Now if only I find the Perfect World classroom.