I’m a mother or father of two and I train at a college. I learn Dr Robert Harrison’s letter (14 April) with scepticism. He writes eloquently of scholars utilizing know-how in “wholesome, purposeful, and life-enhancing” methods. This sounds pretty, however very removed from the fact that we live.
My five-year-old’s college has furnished dad and mom with no fewer than 5 know-how platforms the place we work together with the college; this doesn’t embody the various mother or father WhatsApp teams. Each swimming lesson, scout troop and karate class requires a brand new on-line platform. My son clearly doesn’t use these platforms, however does see me swearing at my telephone at any time when I strive to go browsing to 1 since I can’t probably bear in mind so many passwords.
My graduate college students equally work together with a number of academic platforms every time they should do one thing easy like comply with a studying record or discover a journal article. When one among these platforms is modified or tailored (which occurs typically), our complete educating employees, together with directors, spend months studying find out how to use the brand new system and asking for the scholars’ endurance whereas we navigate them.
I’m on the level the place each time I open an academic know-how platform, I can really feel my mind melting. Schools can’t train a “balanced, nuanced method” to know-how when lecturers and oldsters are so overstimulated by screens. I recommend reverting to an earlier know-how: the guide.
Dr Susan MacDougall
Departmental lecturer in social anthropology, College of Oxford
