CoSN Response to the Alliance for Childhood Study

Response from the Consortium for School Networking to the study Issued September 30, 2004, by the Alliance for Childhood

The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) has represented key technology leaders primarily at the school district level since 1992. Our mission is to advance the K-12 community's capacity to effectively use technology to improve learning.

We believe that Tech Tonic, the recently released report from the Alliance for Childhood, is at its core deeply flawed. The report, like its earlier version (Fool's Gold, September 2000) uses reasonable concerns about creating nurturing environments for children to reach unreasonable conclusions about actions to take.

We agree with the Alliance for Childhood that the lives of children today are "vastly different" and that our children face a "daunting future." We also agree our children will "be faced with moral and ethical questions about the development and use of technology" like no other generation; and we agree that "how today's children and youth respond to these questions will (largely) be determined by the education we provide them." What reasonable educator or parent would not agree with the above statements?

However, we strongly disagree with the conclusion that technology inherently leads to a less humanistic caring and nurturing environment, and therefore should not be part of children's environment. In fact, by using educational technology in appropriate ways we can and are enabling human connections. For example, through video conferencing between classrooms we can link children in the U.S. with children around the world to learn from each other. Likewise, email pen pals can improve children's writing skills. Similarly, we can create collaborative work environments with teams of students working together to collect scientific information. And, thousands of students now have access to advanced classes they would not otherwise have because of online education.

Unfortunately, the Alliance for Childhood prefers to paint the world in black and white. Yes, technology can be misused. However, technology can also be a powerful means to transform learning. Rather than coming to the simplistic conclusion that all technology is bad, we should focus on the ways technology can be employed in the service of learning.