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1. When is is assumed to be the prime motivator in a lesson - Give them a computer and they will learn. When computer use sticks out like a sore thumb in a lesson, and is not integrated naturally into the paedagogy of the lesson.
2. When used as a babysitter or time-filler, not unlike other technology used primarily for passive entertainment (e.g. dvd movies), with little resonsibility on the part of the learner.
3. When there is no purpose or plan to the lesson. (Students wander aimlessly, or spend weeks creating a Powerpoint presentation which be much more easily created on poster paper.)
4. When the amount of shadow work created for the teacher or student far outweighs the value of the lesson. This is the extra time and effort put into finding the resources, setting up the machines, dealing with computer and printer hassles etc.
["Ivan Illich (1981) coined the phrase shadow work
to describe work that used to be performed for pay but had been
downloaded to individuals in households. Some familiar examples of
shadow
work include self-checkout, self-serve gas, and automated banking
(Menzies, 1997). The development of new technologies has increased this
unpaid workload... In her work on the
relationship between shadow work and technology, Menzies (1997)
documents further how certain activities once considered part of labour
force activity, like on-the-job training or reading a user's manual on
how to use a piece of software, are now deemed to be unpaid work....
Shadow work remains largely invisible."
Paraphrased from source, Menzies (1997)]
5. When the kids have already spent a lot of time on computers at
home. Here is an abstract from an international study, by Fuchs and
Woessmann, Computers and Student Learning.
We estimate the relationship between students’ educational achievement
and the availability and use of computers at home and at school in the
international student-level PISA database. Bivariate analyses show a
positive correlation between student achievement and the availability
of computers both at home and at schools. However, once we control
extensively for family background and school characteristics, the
relationship gets negative for home computers and insignificant for
school computers. Thus, the mere availability of computers at home
seems to distract students from effective learning. But measures of
computer use for education and communication at home show a positive
conditional relationship with student achievement. The conditional
relationship between student achievement and computer and internet use
at school has an inverted U-shape, which may reflect either ability
bias combined with negative effects of computerized instruction or a
low optimal level of computerized instruction.
