BILLW@SRI-AI.ARPA (07/10/83)
From: William "Chops" Westfield <BILLW@SRI-AI.ARPA>
a020 2-Jul-83 08:25
BC-COMPUTER-KIDS
(Art en route to picture clients)
By RICHARD SEVERO
c. 1983 N.Y. Times News Service
NEW YORK - It was the usual computerese one hears around the new
cognoscenti - talk of chips and programs, pixels and peripherals,
hardware and software, commands and graphics.
The only difference, really, was that the nine conferees were all
between the ages of 6 and 16, with a decided clustering around the
age of 7.
And if the graduate students and teachers who gathered to hear them
Friday at the Teachers College at Columbia University in Manhattan
were impressed by what the nine children had learned about computers,
they seemed delighted also to learn that among the nine there was a
love of such non-computer things as parents, humor, baseball and good
music and, most important to the teachers, of words written on paper
and bound into books.
The occasion was the end of a three-day national conference
conducted by the Teachers College and entitled ''Microcomputers,
Electronic Toys and Genius Machines in Early Childhood Education.''
The conference promised to take a critical look at what the computer
age was doing for and to children, without dodging the possible
negative psychological effects of obsession with the machines.
But apprehensions were allayed when Erik Hueneke, who is 7 years
old, said that although he liked computer training, he preferred
''reading a book.''
Patricia Vardin, the conference director, asked Erik why he liked
books. ''It's because I like to read,'' Erik replied, ''and also I
find out more things, just like a story.''
The scholars gathered around - worried at the national decline in
reading skills and the emergence of young people who play videogames
and seem to relate far more to the pictography of video terminals
than the kind of imagination and intelligence nurtured by words -
burst into applause when Erik said that.
In the course of the discussion, it became clear that Erik was by no
means alone.
Robert Schlesinger, who is 14, said he played the violin and liked
baseball and reading, but emphasized there was ''nothing wrong with
learning about computers.''
''If people don't learn,'' he said, ''they won't be able to go
anywhere in the year 2001.''
The children, most of whom are studying computers under Karla Pretl
at the Fleming School on Manhattan's East Side, were asked what they
would have the computer do if they were allowed to have it do
anything they wanted.
Robert said he thought it would be nice to ''break into Government
computers'' to see just what they held, while Erik said he would ask
the computer to ''find a baby deer for me to take care of.'' Then
Robert added he would like it to ''change my grades.''
When asked by Miss Vardin, all the children said they thought they
were ''smarter'' than the computers they programmed, but when asked
if she thought she was smarter, Dierdre Cohen, 7, replied, ''I don't
know.''
Using computers is not all fun. Katherine Redfern, who at age 6 was
the youngest participant, said staring at a screen ''makes you very
tired.'' Jonathan Niborg, who is 8, acknowledged that once in a while
computer work gave him ''a very small headache.''
Gary Caldwell, who at 16 was the oldest participant, said that he
was convinced computer use had strained his eyes, and that he would
probably have to wear glasses for the rest of his life.
But he said he loved computers anyway and would like to learn more
about them at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His advice
to those thinking about getting an education in computers was,
''Don't get it out of fear of being left behind - get it out of a
desire to get ahead.''
But for most of the others, careers seemed a long way off and they
preferred to think of the computer as a source of amusement now.
Eric said he liked using computers because ''no other activity
includes machines.''
''You are the boss of it,'' he said, ''and it's the one that does
the work.''
Robert said he found using computers satisfying because it was
something he could do and his parents would not have the slightest
understanding of what he was up to.
nyt-07-02-83 1123edt
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