[ NNSquad ] Re: Irresponsible science and academic fraud

[Russell Smiley <im.russell.smiley@gmail.com>]

On Tue, 2010-06-29 at 11:26 -0400, Bob Frankston wrote:
> Â         It blames the parents. But these are the very households
> where the parents themselves need help so it ends up blaming the
> victim rather than seeing an opportunity for improving the children.
> Itâs a reminder that educating students is difficult if we donât take
> into account the context. Shouldnât we address the disadvantage
> instead of using it as a reason to further disadvantage them?

Except that when the report referred to distractions, I don't think it
was talking about students becoming engrossed with Wikipedia, or
planetmath when they should instead be doing homework. 

There are so many more entertainment options on the Internet from mild
diversions to extremely banal to downright unhealthy that in the absence
of parental involvement it is easy for those who haven't yet developed
self-discipline (and even for those of us who should have) to lose sight
of what is important and unwittingly lose a few hours over the course of
a week in some wasteful pursuit.

The disadvantage to these children is the disinterest of their parents,
not their access to broadband telecommunications. Technology doesn't fix
fundamental human problems, but instead, when everything is prepared and
conditions are right, technology can enhance human potential to allow us
to go further than we could before. 

I think a suitable analogy is that owning a set of hand forged Japanese
chisels doesn't make me a master woodworker, but when I have done the
training and spent time making furniture then these exceptional tools
may help me produce something better than I did before - essentially the
Internet (or part of it) is just a "knowledge tool".

Russell.