Re: Wanted: Ideas for teaching tech to K-8

William Orr (orrwill@mail.auburn.edu)
Wed, 10 Jul 1996 23:54:06 EDT

I whole heartedly support Dr. Schouten's premise that edtech should be
curriculum based and not taught separately. Today there are about 40
million computers in about 90 million homes. It's not too unreasonable
to begin expecting kids to arrive at kindergarten or 1st grade with
keyboarding skills and a basic knowledge of what a computer can do. (at
risk kids are another story, of course.) Even Internet experience is being
had by the little tikes.

Spreadsheets and database management apps are good for all sorts of
scientific experiments, and even teaching history is amenable to database
management tools. The Internet is great for gathering every kind of data,
and word processors should be used for creating reports across the
curriculum. (I'm a bit old fashioned, I know, but I still believe kids
in the early grades should learn how to print, write, and calculate in
their minds or on paper. One never knows when I computer won't be
available.)

And thanks, Fred, for mentioning Judi Harris. I met her 2 yrs ago at a
SITE conference. Her book on the Internet was my first primer on the
subject.

Bill Orr
orrwill@mail.auburn.edu