5 of 10

Agree

Write now Article Tools

Computer training is important to the quality of education in all those countries that are considered to be undeveloped, under developed or still developing. Computer training is also important to the quality of education in all those countries that are considered to be well-developed, or already fully developed.

Computer training is important to the quality of education for all students, everywhere. This is true because students everywhere deserve to be educated in those ways that will best prepare them for functioning effectively in the world of today that is fast becoming the world of tomorrow. Like it or not, computers are vital today and are likely to be even more vital tomorrow.

Computer training is an extension of technology training that began in some schools several decades ago. It was the late 1960's. The BVM Congregation (Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary) started a program in "Alternative Secondary Education" at their Girls' High School, on the West Side of Chicago. They called it, "Saint Mary's Center for Learning."

There were no computers in those days, but television was everywhere. The Sisters at St. Mary's discovered that their students, who had been viewing T.V. monitors since infancy, could accurately perceive the totality of a "4-split" screen with ease. They decided to try television and movies as major mediums of instruction. They called it "media education."

Companies and corporations made donations to the school. T.V. Production and Movie Making Labs were set up and televisions were provided for all classes. Students eagerly learned to script, perform, produce and film. Through involvement in those processes, they developed reading, writing and speaking skills that they had failed to develop during their elementary school years.

More recently, between 2005 and 2007, at the Dulce Middle School, on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation in New Mexico, it was demonstrated by students in an "alternative" class that they could perceive from and learn from computer monitors in the self-same way that the girls at St. Mary's were able to perceive and learn from television monitors.

It is apparent that generations of students have developed visual perception abilities that most of us who went through schooling prior to the advent of electronic monitors find amazing. It is apparent that teachers would likely become more effective with students if they ceased to insist that they learn to read in the left to right, line by line fashion that older generations of students were taught to use.

The absolute need for students to learn to read effectively and well has increased, rather than diminished with the increased use of computers. The apparent dilemma facing teachers seems to be that their ability to teach students to read effectively and well has diminished, rather that increased. Solutions will, perhaps, be discovered, developed, or "stumbled upon" when more teachers begin to consistently observe closely, listen well to and plan instruction in concert with their students.

Interactive technologies, that can't help but impact education, are being created and adopted at an ever increasing rate. Can it be expected that these technologies will, in some ways, impact and alter our sensory receptors and perceptual abilities at an ever increasing rate?

Learn more about this author, Calsue Murray.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Computer training is important to the quality of education in developing countries?
We want to hear your view. Write now!