Will Computers Replace Human Teachers?
1. Computers are cold impersonal devices and they relate to children as though they are machines—without love, care, or feeling.
2. Children who use computers will learn to communicate with machines instead of people. There is a risk we will create a generation of social illiterates. There is some truth to the stereotypical “computer nerd”.
3. Teacher-directed learning is underpinned by personal awareness and a focus on students. IT-directed focus is impersonal.
4. Within a class of 25 children, there may be 25 variables. These variables are understood by teachers but not by computer-generated and controlled programs.
5. Classroom teachers become aware of student learning difficulties and foibles .
6. Computers present programs that can not be accommodated. Personalized shifts do not happen.
7. Computer-generated learning places all students in the group onto the same program, at the same point, progressing them as a collective. Individual differences are not recognized.
8. Having a teacher in the classroom poses many opportunities for the students to learn life’s basics.
9. Having physical teachers in the classrooms is advantageous because they can teach personal interaction, reading, and teamwork. And computer cannot teach these things.
10. There can be confusion between reality and fantasy, between fact and myth