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I will add another couple of points. In kindergarten (many decades ago) sometimes we were given individual assignments, such as sticking figures in the right p

I will add another couple of points. In kindergarten (many decades ago) sometimes we were given individual assignments, such as sticking figures in the right place, coloring things, basic counting... But other times we were forced to interact with our peers and "play together." As someone who has always struggled to interact with other people, and who had not met any other kids before/except in kindergarten, I think those times were very formative. Hard, but formative. I still struggle with people as an adult, but I think I would be worse off had I spent that time in front of a screen, whether touch or not, instead of interacting with other kids, including hard times like being excluded from the group with they best toys and stuff like that. Also, I was using a keyboard (Model M!) as young as 3 years old, and the Microsoft Mouse not much older. I remember watching my dad add the mouse ISA card inside the computer, and learning to use three 5" floppies in the right order: first the DOS one, then the mouse driver one, type MOUSE.COM or something similar, then the Windows 1.0 floppy, and finally I could use Paint or Othello :-) I think early computers increased my ability for concentration. That's interesting, considering modern devices are said to decrease it.

kickscondor 8y ago
> I still struggle with people as an adult, but I think I would be worse off had I spent that time in front of a screen. I will say that one of the things that makes a tablet so great is the potential for group activities. I do a ton of whole-class activities with lots of interaction - and it is possible on a tablet because it is small enough to be easy to look past. This is an issue with desktops (esp. in a lab) and, to some degree, with laptops. Just today we did an activity where all the kids 'drew' a visualization of a certain math problem and then we passed the tablets around and added on top off them and then I showed the results on the projector. There was laughter, story-telling, kids helping each other, moving around the classroom, you name it. The fact that you can get up and walk around with a tablet is a point I hadn't mentioned. Thank you for the stimulus!
- jacobolus 8y ago
  > activity where all the kids 'drew' a visualization of a certain math problem What was different about their drawings vs. using paper?
  - vxNsr 8y ago
    For me this gets at the crux of the question of the place of technology in the classroom, it almost always seems to replace regular paper and textbooks, without actually adding anything. I had teachers who would handout "transparencies" and we'd draw/right and them and then hand them back and the activity was exactly the same... only with $0.00001 pieces of disposable plastic. I really struggle to understand the benefits of a "smartboard" and any computer in the classroom, it really feels like we're just doing this because we can, without asking, "why?"
  - etatoby 8y ago
    I'm currently learning a foreign language in school. Apart from the occasional use of a TV screen to show pictures, everything is taught by voice, whiteboard, and paper handouts. I personally use spiral-bound notebooks and erasable pens (friction) as my medium of choice. Yes, with some sort of technological device I could maybe type faster, sort things into lists, make indices, search and replace, have a builtin dictionary, and so on. But would I really be learning more? Or would I just be more distracted in class? I use technology all the time, including "spaced repetition" apps on my phone, to exercise my memory as much as possible. But I strongly feel the classroom is not the right place for fiddling with that.
- earenndil 8y ago
  > I will say that one of the things that makes a tablet so great is the potential for group activities If your interactions with other people are done through a screen, then they're very heavily structured and so you don't learn how to actually interact with people in the improvised, real-time way you often have to.

kickscondor 8y ago

> I still struggle with people as an adult, but I think I would be worse off had I spent that time in front of a screen. I will say that one of the things that makes a tablet so great is the potential for group activities. I do a ton of whole-class activities with lots of interaction - and it is possible on a tablet because it is small enough to be easy to look past. This is an issue with desktops (esp. in a lab) and, to some degree, with laptops. Just today we did an activity where all the kids 'drew' a visualization of a certain math problem and then we passed the tablets around and added on top off them and then I showed the results on the projector. There was laughter, story-telling, kids helping each other, moving around the classroom, you name it. The fact that you can get up and walk around with a tablet is a point I hadn't mentioned. Thank you for the stimulus!

jacobolus 8y ago
> activity where all the kids 'drew' a visualization of a certain math problem What was different about their drawings vs. using paper?
- vxNsr 8y ago
  For me this gets at the crux of the question of the place of technology in the classroom, it almost always seems to replace regular paper and textbooks, without actually adding anything. I had teachers who would handout "transparencies" and we'd draw/right and them and then hand them back and the activity was exactly the same... only with $0.00001 pieces of disposable plastic. I really struggle to understand the benefits of a "smartboard" and any computer in the classroom, it really feels like we're just doing this because we can, without asking, "why?"
- etatoby 8y ago
  I'm currently learning a foreign language in school. Apart from the occasional use of a TV screen to show pictures, everything is taught by voice, whiteboard, and paper handouts. I personally use spiral-bound notebooks and erasable pens (friction) as my medium of choice. Yes, with some sort of technological device I could maybe type faster, sort things into lists, make indices, search and replace, have a builtin dictionary, and so on. But would I really be learning more? Or would I just be more distracted in class? I use technology all the time, including "spaced repetition" apps on my phone, to exercise my memory as much as possible. But I strongly feel the classroom is not the right place for fiddling with that.
earenndil 8y ago
> I will say that one of the things that makes a tablet so great is the potential for group activities If your interactions with other people are done through a screen, then they're very heavily structured and so you don't learn how to actually interact with people in the improvised, real-time way you often have to.