Teachers using pens and paper in the classroom “not fair” to students, Microsoft official says

[MisterP]

Pens and paper have no place in the modern classroom. And chalkboards? They should be banished from our schools too.

...

“When was the last time you used a piece of chalk to express yourself?” De Cicco Remu, a former teacher, asked by phone from Toronto. “Kids don’t express themselves with chalk or in cursive. Kids text.”

...

“Why do you expect a kid to go to school and sit in the same seat everyday with pens and paper?” De Cicco Remu asked. “When they come home, they’ve got all these devices and they’re gaming and they’re doing all this great stuff online, and the expectation at school is to do something radically different. Would you want to do it? I wouldn’t want to do it.”

Asked what today’s classroom should look like, De Cicco Remu cited that of Zoe Branigan-Pipe, a teacher in Hamilton, Ontario. De Cicco Remu noted Branigan-Pipe teaches in a “hub” featuring 3-D printers, computers, couches, and Lego.

http://www.straight.com/life/452561/teachers-using-pens-and-paper-classroom-not-fair-students-microsoft-official-says

I only agree with the Lego

[elleng]

1. Damn, let's further dumb us down!

Know people LEARN better when we read 'hard copy,' and WRITE? I'm really concerned for my grandkids, 18 months, 9 months, and to be born in 6 months.

[catrose]

2. Ain't that swell?

In my town, there's fund drives every year to collect pencils, notebooks, and crayons for school children who can't afford them. Where's the money for all these other things coming from? I'd donate for Lego though.

[arcane1]

4. It's probably free advertising for the companies involved.

[arcane1]

3. I don't think I want to rely on the first generation who never learned how to write n/t

[delrem]

5. All my arts and science work is "analog"

I use paint, chalk, pencil, ink, metal, plastic, wood, glass, paper (loads of paper of all kinds, sizes).
It's my livelihood.

All my real knowledge comes from books, and I find sources like wiki to be incredibly shallow (every sentence has 5 links to other shallow articles, never to a root explanation) and almost instantly forgettable. Esp. in the math sciences.

I use computers to play games, to do quick lookups of info, some shopping, downloading movies, etc., but find it very very limiting if I try to use it for design, sketching, thinking on the move, for which I *need* to breathe in the world, to get inspiration from my physical space. From my intensifying connection with my physical space, as my work gels and progresses. If I wanted to mass produce some project that I've done I'd no doubt input the design and directions into a computer, get some company to manufacture the product, but I've never done anything creative, from scratch, on a computer, except gfx and level-building work on computer games.

I find it absolutely necessary that I have the mental patterns in place to do quick mental arithmetic.

The microsoft shill is totally wrong-headed.

[xocet]

6. A semi-related article from Scientific American...

The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens
E-readers and tablets are becoming more popular as such technologies improve,
but research suggests that reading on paper still boasts unique advantages
By Ferris Jabr | April 11, 2013

In a viral YouTube video from October 2011 a one-year-old girl sweeps her fingers across an iPad's touchscreen, shuffling groups of icons. In the following scenes she appears to pinch, swipe and prod the pages of paper magazines as though they too were screens. When nothing happens, she pushes against her leg, confirming that her finger works just fine—or so a title card would have us believe.

...

Nevertheless, the video brings into focus an important question: How exactly does the technology we use to read change the way we read? How reading on screens differs from reading on paper is relevant not just to the youngest among us, but to just about everyone who reads—to anyone who routinely switches between working long hours in front of a computer at the office and leisurely reading paper magazines and books at home; to people who have embraced e-readers for their convenience and portability, but admit that for some reason they still prefer reading on paper; and to those who have already vowed to forgo tree pulp entirely. As digital texts and technologies become more prevalent, we gain new and more mobile ways of reading—but are we still reading as attentively and thoroughly? How do our brains respond differently to onscreen text than to words on paper? Should we be worried about dividing our attention between pixels and ink or is the validity of such concerns paper-thin?

Since at least the 1980s researchers in many different fields—including psychology, computer engineering, and library and information science—have investigated such questions in more than one hundred published studies. The matter is by no means settled. Before 1992 most studies concluded that people read slower, less accurately and less comprehensively on screens than on paper. Studies published since the early 1990s, however, have produced more inconsistent results: a slight majority has confirmed earlier conclusions, but almost as many have found few significant differences in reading speed or comprehension between paper and screens. And recent surveys suggest that although most people still prefer paper—especially when reading intensively—attitudes are changing as tablets and e-reading technology improve and reading digital books for facts and fun becomes more common. In the U.S., e-books currently make up between 15 and 20 percent of all trade book sales.

Even so, evidence from laboratory experiments, polls and consumer reports indicates that modern screens and e-readers fail to adequately recreate certain tactile experiences of reading on paper that many people miss and, more importantly, prevent people from navigating long texts in an intuitive and satisfying way. In turn, such navigational difficulties may subtly inhibit reading comprehension. Compared with paper, screens may also drain more of our mental resources while we are reading and make it a little harder to remember what we read when we are done. A parallel line of research focuses on people's attitudes toward different kinds of media. Whether they realize it or not, many people approach computers and tablets with a state of mind less conducive to learning than the one they bring to paper.

...

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-screens/

[Clayguy61]

7. Using technology

As a teacher I agree with the article but... When I ask students to blog or respond on our Facebook page or to take notes on phone they argue and complain. I do find that power points on a projection screen is no different than whiteboard or chalkboard. It is still a lecture. I try all technology in the classroom but it is hard. I use websites and ask students to download and they want hard copy. To them own and paper notes are easy. It is changing in classroom but slowly.

[LWolf]

8. Learning to write

is helpful to brain development.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/memory-medic/201303/why-writing-hand-could-make-you-smarter

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/science/whats-lost-as-handwriting-fades.html

As for the rest? When someone asks me what I want in my classroom, I'll tell them this, after I get over the shock:

Flexible work stations; I like the node desk/chairs on wheels that can be arranged easily into multiple configurations at a moment's notice, have room for stuff, tablet/laptop, and even attached white board.

Tablet/laptop/chromebook for each student.

Smartboard. Some smaller white boards on wheels.

Books...thousands of them, hard copy and digital versions.

And...students with both strong keyboarding and handwriting skills.

[CRK7376]

9. My NC rural high school

is completely wired and has gone digital. our school has a great for all the electronics and it's pretty cool. All students receive a Google Chrome book, faculty get a Dell laptop. We use the Canvas system, similar to Blackboard. I still use my chalkboard daily, but most of the kids take notes on the laptops on don't take them at all. It can be very challenging to teach with a room full of electronics. Between the laptop and cellphones, lots of YouTube is watched. It pretty cool, at the same time it's a curse having a wired school. About a 25% on any given class does not have internet access at home and to get to a McDonalds or some other establishment that offers free wifi is pretty tough. Homework is often a challenge for all the kids…..Still having access to movies, museums, instant art (Show them the Pieta, Moses, David in Florence or other Renaissance art work in real time is pretty amazing. I do a lot with the digital classroom but the dinosaur I am, still uses tons of chalk and daily wishes for a white board…..