So many of the things that Stoll talks about in this book are things that I’ve never even questioned in my own mind before. I have just always accepted computers as what they look like. They are what the are. Big deal. They look boring. They work okay? Then it doesn’t matter. There was a big whoop-dee-doo when the Macs came out with the bright colors. Too bad it was the wrong company – I would have bought one. Think about all the colored cell phones people are buying all the time.
Once I got deeper into this chapter, I realized that a statement Stoll was trying to make is that technology may sometimes seem useful, but the maintenance it requires is a pain to keep up with. Some things are more trouble than they’re worth. It seems to me like we should try to perfect the technology we have now before inventing useless gadgets to do stuff we really don’t need done. Our focus is in the wrong place.
I think the same principle can be applied to education. Why don’t we fix what’s broken instead of just slapping a band-aid on it while we razzle dazzle ‘em with cool new stuff (that only people who haven’t been in the classroom are fired up about – real teachers know better).
