The amount of new information that is being made available to people today is phenomenal; while a lot of this information is old, equally a lot of it is also very current. These add to our knowledge continuously. School curriculum and teachers should benefit from the free access to these new knowledge through the Internet and the WWW. Throughout this course you will be continuously informed of the value of the computers in the teaching and learning environment. But technologies do not always bring good- at times they can also bring evil. In Unit 1.1 we looked at some of the threats from ICTs to society at large. In this section I wish to draw your attention to some of the disadvantages that computers present when used in the school environment.

The American social observer, Neil Postman in his book 'The End of Education' drew the attention of educators enamoured with technologies to ten principles that require thought when they are introduced into an environment. I wish to draw your attention to five that are of special interest to us. These are:

1. All technological change is a Faustian bargain. For every advantage a new technology offers, there is always a corresponding disadvantage.
2. The advantages and disadvantages of new technologies are never distributed evenly among the population. This means that every new technology benefits some and harms others.
3. Technological change is not additive; it is ecological. A new technology does not merely add something; it changes everything.
4. Because of the symbolic forms in which information is encoded, different technologies have different intellectual and emotional biases.
5. Because of their technical and economic structure, different technologies have different content biases.

Even as we speak enthusiastically about computers in the service of education, it is useful for us to be also cautious about some of the challenges that come with the territory. Between pages 340 and 342 of Chapter 13 Dr. Poole highlights some of these challenges or caveats as he calls them. Let us consider this further.

There is a belief among many in our country that when dealing with children's intellectual developments and personal achievements, those with computers at home or those using a computer at school do better. Some researchers argue against this. They say real creativity may dwell only in ill-defined environments which create an incentive for it. Logic-symbolic thinking forced by computers may hamper other ways of understanding and assessing the surrounding world. Content-rich educational materials deprive persons of the necessity to imagine themselves. Another concern that is also being expressed, not so much about intellectual competencies but emotional and associated psychological development - is the fear that childhood disappears at a much faster rate in a computer-rich upbringing and this could lead to still unknown emotional difficulties in adulthood. Questions are also being raised about the volume of information being presented to young people without proper adult guidance. Libertarians will argue that the freedom to information is an inherent right of all individuals. But is it really? Should not children and teenagers be taught some basic values focusing on the social values of their societies and cultures before they are bombarded with ideologies contrary to their communities? Is a young person of 10 or 12 years old able to understand that values such as freedom and rights are worth fighting for after reviewing pictures of violent suppression of freedom marches and street demonstrations in many of our countries? These are serious questions and certainly a dilemma for educators and policy makers. There are no easy answers.

Besides philosophical debates on the subject there are also some serious practical challenges that require consideration. See the video in the next activity where a young teacher describes what she sees as some disadvantages in pushing fast computers in classrooms.