Date: Fri 28-Jul-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

edink-technology-scholarship

Full Text:

Technology And Scholarship

There is one everlasting irony that has to do with time. Our fondness for the

past and our hope for future are always separated by the thin line of the

present, which is where all frustration and disappointment reside. We can fool

ourselves about the past by making it seem better than it actually was, and we

can fool ourselves about the future by expecting it to be brighter than it

actually will be. But every day we get up and learn again that you can't fool

around much with reality. It is what it is. And if you want things to get

better, there is no time like the present to get started.

This is the conclusion that has motivated the Legislative Council and the

Board of Education to initiate a $1 million technology program in the Newtown

schools. Last week, the council approved the school board's request for a

municipal lease program for computer equipment that will begin by upgrading

the computer labs in the Middle School and will later place more computers in

classrooms and create a systemwide network.

Two popularly accepted notions - so popular that they are overworn cliches -

have helped to gain this initiative widespread support: our children are our

future; and advanced technology is key to making our lives better and more

productive in the future. There is no arguing with the former, unless we

discover how to stand the aging process on its head. The latter, however, is

not a sure thing.

The town and its taxpayers are making certain that needed hardware and

software will be in place in our schools as we enter the next century. But as

with any tools, their effective use requires purpose and skill. Cyberspace,

technology's great new frontier, is already littered with examples of

purposelessness and ineptitude. The real challenge for educators and students

is not only to become computer literate, but to use their computers in the

cause of literacy. It does us, as society, no good whatsoever to have all

information instantaneously within our grasp if that information is inaccurate

and incomprehensible.

Computer literacy is not scholarship. Technology is a vehicle and not a

destination. One of the things we hold dear about the past is the emphasis

that was placed basic educational skills. The value of a well-wrought

sentence, of an elegant mathematical proof, of the lessons of history were

never confused with the chalk and slate. If we are to get beyond our perceived

frustrations and disappointments with the present state of public education

and realize our best hopes for the future, we must first realize that while

the tools for learning may have changed radically since our own childhood, the

spark that fires them into action remains the same. It is the human mind. And

it is that spark that will continue to require our closest care and attention.