Book Reviews
by Dianne Hauschildt

Does Jane Compute? Preserving our Daughter's Place in the Cyber Revolution
    by Roberta Furger

This book made me think about how I was already using the technology and where my focus was. In promoting technology so much I took a look at how I was getting the kids involved - both boys and girls. This book talks about the different ways that boys and girls approach the computer and the things that they do and what hooks them. After reading it I kept telling my girlfriends that they should read it so they can help their daughters as they get older and enter school. It talks about stereotypes that we unconsciously foster when using this medium and things that other teachers have done to change the way they approach the class. It is an excellent read for any teacher and parent. One factor that made me look around was "how many female role models are there using technology, and are they computer teacher or school technician?" Girls need to embrace this technology just as much as the boys already have.

"In the 1970s, the nation became obsessed with boys' low verbal scores on standardized tests. The question, 'Why can't Johnny read?' became a rallying cry for parents and teachers, prompting a complete rethinking of the way verbal and reading skills were taught in school. It's time to ask a new question, to marshal our resources to face a new challenge, one that, like Johnny's low verbal scores, affects half the children in the United States. Individually and collectively, we need to ask, 'Does Jane compute?' None of us should be satisfied until the answer for each of our daughters is a resounding, unequivocal, enthusiastic yes." [Author's Note, page xiii.]

This book takes a very different view on using technology in schools and what she sees as a dependence and widening gap between the haves and have-nots. I agree with some of her claims that our schools are changing into businesses and we need to question the use of technology to some degree, but I also found it to be an informational and eye-opening book. I think for any changes we need to look at all aspects of it and try to find ways to make transitions easier and to question what it is we are doing. It doesn't change my opinion that using technology is a very good and useful tool for students to have, but it reminded me that socialization skills are just as important as are teaching students to use a variety of different resources in their learning, like a good book. The first impression I got when reading it was an attack on the use of technology in schools and that administrators were hurting the overall school environment, by cutting budgets for things like books and teachers.

Below are a couple of excerpts from the text that gave me something to think about:

"According to the University of Toronto's Len Fertak, schools shouldn't be agonizing over empty library shelves. Fertak says books are the past; reading novels and classic literature is not what makes today's students educated, when they can learn more from a CD-ROM encyclopedia than a 'a stack of books.' 'We've given too much honour to the liberal arts in general, ' he says. After inflation, school library budgets have been cut in 75% per cent over the last twenty-five years, and half the remaining budget goes to CDs and other electronic resources." [page 55; Source: Ottawa Citizen, August 21, 1996.]

"According to representatives from twenty countries attending a 1997 teacher-educator's conference at Brock University, the first question the world's prospective teachers are being asked in job interviews is not why they want to teach, or what their qualifications prepare them for, but whether they are computer literate. An affirmative answer can mean almost anything. Theodore Roszak writes in The New Internationalist, 'Computer literacy is a commercial fashion, not a specific skill, let alone a subject matter. If computer literacy does not include material on what computers can't do and shouldn't do, it is advertising, not education.'" [page 186]

"Complaints about teachers' unmet professional development needs surfaced so forcefully at CMEC's 1996 national consultation that the ministers agreed to look into it. A task team representing teachers' organizations, school administrators, ministries, and deans of education was struck in early 1997 to 'outline the principles of teacher education on the use and teaching of IT,' and to examine 'issues and barriers.' Despite the millions of dollars spent on technology by the governments that CMEC speaks for, the project was set at only $25,000, which meant the meetings would be conducted by e-mail.  When the task team reacted with intense criticism to the CMEC's proposed questionnaire to be sent to ministries, boards and universities, one face-to face meeting took place that made considerable progress towards an expanded mandate for the project and new ways of collecting information. Even the technocrats were in favour of something more meaningful than a checklist of 'technological competencies' that teachers should be able to demonstrate, even if they have had no opportunity to learn them. Then the CMEC put on the brakes. No new mandate, no more meetings -- and no minutes from the one that was held. Consultation had concluded." [page 187]

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