Dept. of Education: educational software doesn't work

[Kire]

try figuring this one out...

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...=2007704050552

I don't know about you guys, but computers TAUGHT me how to type. They also taught me better arithmetic growing up. When I switched to practicing mathblaster every now and then, I got the highest test scores in my class.

This is BS.

[Jamos]

Re: Dept. of Education: educational software doesn't work

The computer taught me a lot. This is indeed BS! Those guys must be snorting up sharpened up nails!

[DarkwingChuck]

Re: Dept. of Education: educational software doesn't work

If it wasn't for educational computer games I'd have never learned how to avoid dysentery.

[Nixon]

Re: Dept. of Education: educational software doesn't work

Math Munchers RULED.

If I had continued to play math munchers throughout my grade/junior/high school years, there is no doubt in my mind that I would've become a famous poultry scientist instead of a lousy cartoonist.

[H2SO4]

Re: Dept. of Education: educational software doesn't work

I used to love educational games! This is BS indeed.

[IRC]

Re: Dept. of Education: educational software doesn't work

I don't know if it counts but I sure spellchecker and instant messaging has damaged literacy for generations to come.

[Magus]

Re: Dept. of Education: educational software doesn't work

I don't know if it counts but I sure spellchecker and instant messaging has damaged literacy for generations to come.

Absolutely.

Some of you freaks here and proof of that.

ARE. ARE PROOF OF THAT.

RRRNNNGGGHHHHHHH

[Shard]

Re: Dept. of Education: educational software doesn't work

And people who frequent a website dedicated to gaming and game creation are indicative of the greater student populace? The study isn't saying educational software helps no one. It's saying that has had no overall impact on student performance.

The study, mandated by Congress when it passed No Child Left Behind in 2002, evaluated 15 reading and math products used by 9,424 students in 132 schools across the country during the 2004-05 school year. It is the largest study that has compared students who received the technology with those who did not, as measured by their scores on standardized tests. There were no statistically significant differences between students who used software and those who did not.

Italics added by me. You can make a lot of arguments for why it's had no broad impact, but to just call the entire study BS because you've found certain software helpful is ridiculous. By and large the pavilion represents a very literate and educated sliver of the student population. Those who tend to do best under self-guided learning. Whereas anyone struggling to learn english (and I don't mean non-native speakers), or having had to subsist on the meager offerings of inner city public school, probably isn't going to glean that much from the programs except frustration unless they have a very able teacher around to guide them through it.

I'd argue if they had a very able teacher, they wouldn't need the software in the first place.

[thetruecoolness]

Re: Dept. of Education: educational software doesn't work

I don't know if it counts but I sure spellchecker and instant messaging has damaged literacy for generations to come.

Spell checker just decreases my external memory need. Why should I have to memorize the spelling to every word in the english language. Plus it immediately tells me when I've made a spelling mistake. Otherwise I would have to go dig out a dictionary and look it up. Now I don't have to and I think that's pretty useful.

As for IM you have a point there, though sometimes even forums do not entice people to actually write in complete sentences with punctuation and such. But IM doesn't bother me as I write pretty much the same as I do here, so no decrease in literacy there. Also apparently spell checker is two words.

2 words spelled correctly thanks to spell checker in this message.

[Misty]

Re: Dept. of Education: educational software doesn't work

Absolutely.

Some of you freaks here and proof of that.

ARE. ARE PROOF OF THAT.

RRRNNNGGGHHHHHHH

[The_Real_Crunk]

Re: Dept. of Education: educational software doesn't work

Our old black and white mac computer lab at my various elemntary schools had Mathblaster, and some other strange games.

[Dusk Raven]

Re: Dept. of Education: educational software doesn't work

When I was much younger, me and my brother used a number of educational computer games (until Pokemon, those were all we had), and now I have an A in all the classes I've taken so far (the games might be the cause, they might not).

I think educational software will work if it's fun, if it's not, then it's no better than doing it without the software.

From what I've heard, students will only learn something if they want to learn it, or if it's in they're best interests to learn it (in that case, they often forget it once they don't need to know it so they can remember stuff they need to know in the next class).

[IRC]

Re: Dept. of Education: educational software doesn't work

Eye spell good!

I'm not really talking about our generation, more along the lines of the next one. Talking to my sixteen year old sister on AIM makes me cringe. Also spell checker removes the incentive to learn proper spelling and grammar. This is especially damaging since spell checker isn't absolute.

You know who I blame for all this?

[thetruecoolness]

Re: Dept. of Education: educational software doesn't work

Well the same can be said about calculators, but if you always have one with you then does it really make a difference? But yeah having all these things that make our life more convenient does give us a lot less incentive to do them the 'old-fashioned' way. Many people now don't cook given the high amount of restaurants that deliver and frozen dinners and pizza available.

So while my spelling is far from atrocious it's not exactly perfect either, so it's nice to have a spell checker, just it shouldn't be able to be used while learning how to spell.

As for the topic at hand I don't see how educational software doesn't help at least some of the kids. You would think making learning fun would make more kids interested in learning, as opposed to the few that are just naturally curious and already just find the act of learning enjoyable. But I don't imagine that educational software has had a huge impact though, but I think they're more investigating the reasons why the software is not having the impact it should, not that the software itself is useless. Like this "Some educators use the software as a supplemental tool to drill students in particular lessons; others use it instead of textbooks to teach entire lessons.", I think this is what they're trying to fix, as the former approach is much better, and makes more sense.

But really I don't think the educational software is going to magically make kids really interested in learning just by itself. So I believe that is the point of the article.

[Shard]

Re: Dept. of Education: educational software doesn't work

But really I don't think the educational software is going to magically make kids really interested in learning just by itself. So I believe that is the point of the article.

You have mastered the reading comprehension portion of this test.
On to next CHALINJ!


I don't know why some people were acting like it was a personal affront. It's just a tool. A hammer doesn't stop being a hammer just because you don't have hands. The difference is passing it off to a carpenter versus a bunch of quadroplegics.