HOW SHE SEES IT Risks and reward of computers for our kids

By DOROTHY RICH
MCCLATCHEY TRIBUNE
Should we want a laptop in every kid's lap? Is that the magic road to student achievement?
It is confusing. The evidence is not in. There are many computers out there in classrooms and in homes. Yet, children's basic skills, where computers were supposed to excel, have barely improved. Are our children learning twice as fast? Are they learning to love learning more?
Or are our children spending lots of time in front of the computer alone, doing messaging, e-mail, roaming the net, perhaps checking in on pornography sites. Computer games can be addictive, and it's hard for kids to break away from a machine that provides immediate, even if dumb, responses.
Some say that computers are revolutionizing education. It's true: computers provide information at all hours, night and day. But, information alone is not education. That's what we have to remember when we tally up how much good computers really can do. It will take years to understand truly the benefits and detriments of computers.
Human relationships
Computers are fine for keeping track of things, except when they break down. What can't they do? They can't read our minds, yet ... and of special importance to young people, they don't help to build human relationships.
Computers have their place. Their bounty of information is essential, yet it has to be integrated and synthesized and understood. That's where real people have to step in, to help children figure out what all this information means, in context, with a sense of history and community.
If not at the computer, how should children be spending their time? I know that this is a very old-fashioned and I am ready to be attacked for it. I want to see more children talking with their parents, doing homework, playing board games such as Scrabble, engaging in hobbies, playing sports, getting into the world and out from in back of the screen. There has to be time for both the computer and the rest of our lives.
Understanding how to balance time is not a competency children are born with. They have to be taught -- by parents modeling balance in their own lives, helping children schedule times for other activities, discussing together the differences between the virtual and the real world.
Computers have their virtues, no one can deny. They are not personal, which is both a strength and a weakness. They know a child's poor test score from yesterday, but do not hold it against the student. A human might. Computers give a child a fact or a game. Yet, they cannot teach a child how to be more mature. Computers can't wipe away a tear or roar with laughter.
Parents
That's why we still need teachers and mentors and parents. Machines do not take the place of people ... who need to be here to provide the understanding of life and the world that is the bedrock of education.
Many of us remember when TV was proclaimed to be the breakthrough for revolutionizing education. Before that is was radio. Both are still with us, but over the years, we recognize what they can and cannot do. The same will be true for computers ... except that computers pull us in more. We can get the false impression that they know and can do more for us than they can.
X Dorothy Rich is founder and president of the nonprofit Home and School Institute, MegaSkills Education Center in Washington. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.