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Subject: Re: Big Business & Technology in Schools
Posted By: William L. Rukeyser
Date: February 22, 1999 at 14:05:05
In Response to: Big Business & Technology in Schools - posted by Anne on February 22, 1999 at 13:34:45

> With the apparent embracing of technology in education, I become increasingly more concerned of the role of big business and the government in our children's education. It seems like many of the tech-prep programs-technology academies are taking away from children's well-rounded education. I don't want to deny our children access to usable tools and believe technology is a valuable tool, but I also don't want to educate a group of students who will have no knowledge of the principals of democratic government upon which the US is founded and ways to analyze information and choices that retain our freedom.

> Technology scares me because it seems too easy to influence our children and condition them to accept a "Big Brother" mentality of big business and government running the world. Or...have we, and subsequently our children, already forgotten what the reference to "Big Brother" is?

Any technology... including ink-on-paper... can be misused or abused. I think that was one of 1984's points.
If, by word or policy, we lead our kids to assume that the only valid information is that contained on web sites or hypertext... then we have done damage to developing the inquisitve minds that we depend on to keep America healthy... both from a social point of view and a technological one too.

We hear time and again that "all the information of the world's great libraries is on the web". It simply isn't so... but too many schools are already acting as if it were.

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Re: Big Business & Technology in Schools Jane, February 22, 1999 (0)

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* Comments: > > With the apparent embracing of technology in education, I become increasingly more concerned of the role of big business and the government in our children's education. It seems like many of the tech-prep programs-technology academies are taking away from children's well-rounded education. I don't want to deny our children access to usable tools and believe technology is a valuable tool, but I also don't want to educate a group of students who will have no knowledge of the principals of democratic government upon which the US is founded and ways to analyze information and choices that retain our freedom. > > Technology scares me because it seems too easy to influence our children and condition them to accept a "Big Brother" mentality of big business and government running the world. Or...have we, and subsequently our children, already forgotten what the reference to "Big Brother" is? > > Any technology... including ink-on-paper... can be misused or abused. I think that was one of 1984's points. > If, by word or policy, we lead our kids to assume that the only valid information is that contained on web sites or hypertext... then we have done damage to developing the inquisitve minds that we depend on to keep America healthy... both from a social point of view and a technological one too. > We hear time and again that "all the information of the world's great libraries is on the web". It simply isn't so... but too many schools are already acting as if it were.