"This is not an honest picture of what this program is doing," Cathleen Kennedy, a researcher at UC Berkeley's Evaluation and Assessment Research Center, said after reviewing several Renaissance studies. "It's a typical dog-and-pony show used on administrators who don't know about statistics." Schools need to steer clear of these shams. These companies are seeking profit, they do not want to help teach America's youth. Schools need to stick to the methods they have always used, pen and paper.
Technology Companies Are Out to Scam Schools
Computers, software, and Web commerce have long treasured their newfangled advantage over book publishing. However, their hardware is unstable and expensive, and that's not by accident, either. "The information economy is not about the information or the economy. Everything important that happens there is about the relationship," said Bruce Sterling. "Its not really who's fastest, most advanced, or most high-tech; that's just the sexy croon of the industry's come-on. Behind the scenes, it's all about commitment." Technology companies make it very expensive for schools to switch to another company, allowing them to control their prices. First, they have legal contracts. Second, the companies have brand specific training.
Once the schools have everything figured out and working the process of starting all over again becomes to difficult. Finally, there is information formats. They are complicated and hard to switch between, making it easier for schools to keep buying from the same company. Because technology companies force schools to make a commitment, they force schools to take risks to keep up with the technological age. A safe approach for schools is to spend their technology budget on qualified teachers and in-depth programs and classes that will enrich the learning of students.
When schools do set out to buy computer gear, the technology industry often takes advantage of them. In San Francisco, federal authorities approved a $50 million grant in 2000 to finance the lion's share of a massive school-networking project (the total cost of which would be $68 million). Surprisingly, the district later turned down the $50 million grant (Oppenheimer). After examining the contract, district technicians discovered they could build the system themselves for less than their tiny share of the costs, less than $18 million. How could this be? It turns out that if San Francisco had accepted the grant, that $50 million would have gone to computer industry giant NEC, whose bid marked up prices on computer hardware by 300 to 400 percent. One small Internet switch in the bid retailed on the open market for about $4,000 apiece, NEC was selling San Francisco 130 of these switches at approximately $10,000 apiece (Oppenheimer). This would have yielded a profit margin to NEC of $780,000 on just one item.
Fortunately, deals like this are finally coming to the attention of federal investigators. In the meantime, individual schools are left with a mess to clean up. Maybe, the discovery of a few corrupt school network contractors will ultimately provoke a desire for control in technology spending, similar to what the Enron scandals produced in the financial world. In the mean time, schools are throwing their money away when investing in excessive technology. The technology takes advantage of, not only schools, but businesses and personal users as well. Schools need to invest their money in something reliable, like more qualified teachers, which there is a national shortage of.
Employers Are Not Looking for Computer Skills
One of the most common selling points for computers in schools, even in first and second grades, is to prepare youngsters for tomorrow's increasingly high-tech jobs. Strangely, this may be the computer evangels' greatest hoax. When business leaders talk about what they need from new recruits, they hardly mention computer skills, which they find they can teach employees relatively easily on their own. Employers are most interested in a deep knowledge base and the ability to listen and communicate; to think critically and imaginatively; to read, write and figure, and other capabilities that schools are increasingly neglecting. A report from the Information Technology Association of America, which represents a range of companies that use technology, put it this way: "Want to get a job using information technology to solve problems? Know something about the problems that need to be solved." Despite these realities, schools are rushing into computing.
In Napa, New Technology High School puts a computer on every student's desk and orients nearly every academic project around the computer screen. The school has been widely held up as a national scholastic model, by both state and federal education authorities. Yet the academic work in New Tech High classrooms is shockingly thin. In class after class, students are encouraged to conduct almost all their research online, which means that books, magazines and other in-depth sources play a minimal role in their bibliographies. An indication of the school's academic culture is revealed by one instructor's oft-repeated advice to his students: "It doesn't matter what you know. It matters what you show." Ironically, one of New Tech's biggest weak spots is in math skills, perhaps the primary prerequisite for advanced high-tech jobs. Yes, computers can open up valuable new learning opportunities.
