While this article is about Malaysia, the same can be said of the majority of classrooms in LAUSD and probably in most other US school districts. As an example of poor management, Microsoft donated 1 million dollars for computers to the large district and these PCs went to the staff and not the classroom. This is typical and unless MS demands the materials go to the classroom then money & equipment will continue to be sucked off by administrators.

"Ten years after the digital revolution, our classrooms remain largely unchanged. The teaching learning process is still didactic. Even with the much vaunted multimedia courseware, it seems to be a case of same method, different medium. "

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I disagree with your conclusion. As an adult wanting to further my education in engineering, I looked for software to learn math. I ended up spending around $200 for two different math teaching software. Neither of the programs proved to be of any teaching value. Furthermore, it is the 8 hour days using a computer (doing Computer Drafting) that has allowed my math skills to fade with time.

While computers have a place in education, one cannot simply assume the presence of a computer in a classroom will improve the quality of learning.

While I am not exactly a fan of the edu-crats that control our our public education system in the U.S., it is possible that the school system in question atually made the correct decision and put the computers where they were needed, thus freeing them to put other monies into other purchases for items in classrooms they felt they did need.

Finally, when I first heard that the Microsoft judgement included Microsot donating software... I realized the judgement was not going to really carry any weight. Donating software is really just training a future generation of users to buy Microsoft products.

Joe Dunfee

Hi Joe,

What type of software did you purchase and what type of math were you trying to learn?

Oh - and you can disagree with my conclusion too. I favor computers in instruction when they are done to the benefit of the student. I also believe that the classroom comes before administration.

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Layne P. Heiny / Administrator for Tux Reports Network

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Sorry for the late reply, I've been away on Christmas Vacation.

One program I purchased was "Math Advantage" by Encore. It covers pre-algebra through Calculus. I forget what the other one was.

But, perhaps there some subjects that are better handled by computer-aided learning than others. I worked briefly for a firm that created programs to teach police about recent changes in the law. I do feel that this subject worked well with the computer. But law is, by its nature, a subject that is defined by its efforts to very carefully define concepts by words (sometimes by too-many words).

Joe Dunfee