BG Steyr

Computer Education at schools:

In most of the schools in Japan or America and in many schools in Germany the
using of computers in the tuition is just as normal as using a pencil or a rubber.
The goverments of these countries have already realizied, that in our high
technnologized and computerized world, only people, who have had a good
computer education at school, have a chance to get a good job. In Austria the
pupils have computer education too, but just in a special tuition. And only some
teachers use the computer active in their own lessons. Also nearly every school
has old computers with old programms. And without great investions by the
goverment, the pupils won`t have the same chance like the ones in Japan for
example.
Now I will tell you the main pros of computers at school:

Pros:

•

Adults often have big problems with Personal Computers or Programms. It is
an established fact, that young children can learn easier than adults, and
because of this fact it is my opinion, that the computer education has to start
in the kindergarten. Otherwise we will gamble away the future of our
children. With the right teaching methodes it would make fun and they would
like to learn more about the computer.

•

After school doing the homework, wouldn`t take so long, if everyone had a
computer. If you make a mistake, you don`t have to take a correction pen or a
rubber to erease the it. You just press a button and the mistake will disappear.
And after finishing the homework you don`t have to search for spelling
mistakes which you have overlooked. This will make the spelling checker for
you, which has an integrated dicionary. And if your typeface isn`t very
beautiful the computer has a solution: hundreds of completly different types
for every occasion. And if you don`t like a type after finishing your work, just
click with the mouse and the whole text appears in another type or color.

•

At school teachers can show nonviolent games to the pupils, and so they
wouldn`t be tempted to play violent games at home, without any supervision.

•

In general persons who often work with computers have a better
understanding of technical things in life. That will be very helpful in special
situations, when there is nobody to help them.

•

When pupils play strategical multiplayer games with others over a network
they would learn cooperative thinking and acting. They could make good use
of this in the real life, when they have to do groupworks in class or play with
their friends in their sparetime.

•

If a school has a modem and a connection to the internet, pupils can
comunicate and talk with other people all around the world about topics they

BG Steyr

are interested in, problems or they can exchange their opinions to special
themes. This would cause that they don`t grew to lone wolfes.

•

Also they would have access to a gigantic amount of informations through
the internet. If you have a report at school, just link into the internet and after
a short time you will find many informations to the special topic you need.
This would be much easier and faster than looking into some books.

•

Also many new jobs would be createn. New information scientist, who
instruct the pupils, would be needed and a lot of companies would get big
orders for whole networksystems, which the schools have to buy. This would
cause an economic boom.

•

After school more different education ways are aviable for a person with a
high computer education level. The chances to get a better payed or more
welcome job are raising rapidly. In many organisations and companies you
must have great experience with computers to get a job there.

Questions:

1. Don`t you think that we and our children wouldn`t have any chances in the

future without a great potential of know how in the computer sector, which
we have to build up now and not in ten or twenty years?

2. Don`t you think that the future of our children is more worth than thirthy or

fifty millions of Schillings, which must be invested to buy new computers
and instruct new teachers?

3. What would be a good age to start with the computer education of pupils?

And why do you exactly choose this age?