exactly right Tony
Ok, I'm talking to my girlfriend now. And what she is telling me is, in the preschool and mid school criteria. Computers are taught in a basic skill level with concentration being on the three R's. Then when the children reach the high school level, they are required to know how to use these tools for presentation purposes. IE, word and power point.
In that context, I do believe what you said is true Tony. Concentration is maintained at the 3 the R's level, with technology being taught as a tool to assist you in research and presentations.
It still requires good teacher's though no matter what is taught. Being able to reconize where a child is having difficulities, and knowing how to assist them is more important. Being able to look at a class room of 45 kids(yes, this is Laura's class size) and being able to keep all children on the same page. And, no. 50 is not the normal class size.
Example of this. Today, or this weeks lesson is the children are creating books on characters from the civil war. This includes the bibliography, index, table of contents, maps, informational writing. Some of the children chose characters that are not as well known, IE: Lydia Derraugh - One of the first American Spies. Because you won't find a lot of reference in your history books, the children asked if they could look up information on their characters via the Internet. They used Google to compile data for their informational writing.
This is an example I believe, of how it should be taught. The children using this tool, just like a library. For information gathering, or presentation of the facts.
Dan
by the way, she gave up on my spelling problem. She considers me one of her problem children {/i]
