HIGH TECH HERETIC

Reviewed 11/24/2001

High Tech Heretic, by Clifford Stoll

HIGH TECH HERETIC:
Why Computers Don't Belong in the Classroom, and Other Reflections by a Computer Contrarian
Clifford Stoll
New York: Doubleday, 1999

Rating:

4.5

High

ISBN 0-385-48975-7 221pp. HC/GSI $24.95

Clifford Stoll is a UC Berkeley astronomer, an adept with computers1, a family man, and an unshakable opponent of those who extol computers as the latest panacea for all problems in education.

Those problems are many and serious — as are the special interests who ensure their persistence by promoting one shallow, glitzy solution after another. Many books have been written about the crisis in education, books brimming with indignation about the fact that so many American children can't read, or do simple arithmetic, or find Kansas on a U.S. map, or do so many things that my generation — baby boomers — regard as abilities to be taken for granted. The exemplar of them all is a government report entitled A Nation at Risk. Published in 1983, it contains the memorable judgement that "If a foreign government had imposed such a system of education upon our country, it would be regarded as an act of war."2

In this book — Stoll's third — he focuses on the issue of computers in the classroom. He discusses the various arguments put forward by computer proponents:

There are other arguments too. Some of them have merit. But, too often, if you look deeply into the situation, you'll find two common features: Those proposing it have glossed over the pitfalls and hidden costs of their solution, and they have a vested interest in the measure proposed.

Stoll demolishes these arguments very effectively. He has read widely on the subject, and spoken to many educators about it — not just to high-level administrators and pedagogical theorists but to classroom teachers, the folks "in the trenches". In a few places, the evidence he presents is ambiguous or actually seems to contradict his thesis3; but the preponderance of evidence is incontrovertibly in favor of it.

I won't attempt to condense his arguments here. Read the book; it's enjoyable. (Dare I say "fun"?)4 But, to give you the flavor of Stoll's style, I will quote a few passages from it.

Page 7: At a high school science fair, I saw a multicolor map of the Earth, showing global temperature distributions. I asked the report's author why the Amazon rain forest seemed so cold — the map showed the jungle to be thirty-eight degrees. "I don't know," he shrugged. "I found the map from the Internet." The guy never considered that the data might be in Celsius, rather than Fahrenheit.
Page 36: According to the chairman of the Texas State Board of Education, Jack Christie, replacing textbooks with computers will solve important school problems. For him, outdated and boring books are the enemy of a quality education. In 1996 he said, "We were replacing social studies textbooks that had the Berlin Wall still up, Russia as one country, and Ronald Reagan finishing his second term."
Never mind that only an idiot would teach current events from a textbook. Today, classroom computers have become a political panacea for school problems.
Page 53: Weaned on educational games and multimedia encyclopedias, kids naturally seek out the trivial when forced to read real books. While visiting a school librarian, I listened to a high school senior seek help with an assignment: "I'm writing a report about Napoleon," he said. "Can you find me a thin book with lots of pictures?"5
Page 99: No pilot project in educational technology has ever been declared a failure. Perhaps there's an underground of skeptics among the techno-educators, but most have been cloyed by a river of money flowing into such "research" projects. Who do you think gets grants: those who promise wonders from electronic classrooms or those who challenge their results?

These are only a sampling of the trenchant comments — by Stoll and others — that fill the book. Actually, they fill Part 1, Why Computers Don't Belong in the Classroom, which ends on page 107. The remainder of the book is Part 2, The Computer Contrarian.

This second part discusses the utility and the marketing of computers — indeed, of technology in general — in modern society as a whole. It probably is an extension of Stoll's second book, Silicon Snake Oil, which I haven't yet read.

It is as well-informed as Part 1 — and the comments are just as trenchant.

Page 117: In the 1930s rural electrification was supposed to save the family farm. After three decades of extensive promotion and wire stringing, all the farms were wired. So where's that family farm today? Gone.
Page 124: If computers form our culture's manifest destiny, they shouldn't need public funding. . . . they'll grow and thrive without government support. At the same time that states form incubators for high-tech jobs, computer-industry leaders tell us of shortages in high-tech industries — Canada needs fifty thousand more computer programmers, the United States must invite a hundred thousand foreign workers to fill the gap. What's wrong with this picture?

Stoll discusses computer software quality (inadequate) and hardware aesthetics (likewise). "How come I can buy a red shirt, an orange umbrella, a yellow bowling ball, a green radio, and a blue car, but computers are all beige boxes?" he complains6, and pines for "a wooden keyboard, made from knotty pine." He doesn't think much of the user interface, either, and feels that "Ordinary appliances seem to be built to frustrate." Later, he rails about planned obsolescence, Powerpoint presentations, and Internet addiction.

In these plaints, he is mostly spot on. But some are, slowly, being corrected. Apple, with its Frog Design connection, is breaking the "beige box mold". Nokia offers computer monitors in designer colors, and Dell supplies plastic inserts in multiple hues for its laptops. The digital wristwatch is going out of style, being replaced by the kind with hour, minute and second hands that Stoll likes. But as for software — well, I'm afraid it will be buggy and clumsy for a long, long time.

I don't agree with everything Stoll says in this book. For one thing, I think he comes down too hard on the quality of information on the Internet, and on its use for interpersonal communication. But overall, and especially with respect to his analysis of computers in education, I endorse his conclusions.

His informal, often cheeky style and the personal anecdotes make this an enjoyable read. The many works cited indicate his dedication to the subject, and he also reveals a surprising degree of erudition. I found just one typo: On page 195, he refers to "pattern baldness" leaving out the word "male".

Read it; you'll like it!

1 See his first book, The Cuckoo's Egg, which recounts his pursuit of West German crackers who broke into one of the university computers he was managing.
2 I've heard this quoted two or three times. Yet it may not be accurate. It certainly has a major logical flaw; for if some foreign nation were able to impose a system of education upon the U.S., it's likely the war had already happened — and the U.S. lost.
3 See page 84, which cites a study showing that computer users are better at math.
4 Actually, Stoll is all in favor of fun; he just doesn't want to see it dumb down education.
5 Perhaps, referring to the infamous "student bloopers" file, we could find him a JPEG of when "The Spanish gorillas came down from the hills to nip at Napoleon's flanks."
6 Notice I did not say "whines".
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