computers and learning

From an article by Lowell Monke in Orion magazine:

I've never witnessed a child developing a reverence for nature while using a computer...

For example, a reverence for precalculus... And seriously, wouldn't you rather be outside playing than poking around with that mouse? I would, or so I'd like to think.

The control computers offer children is deceptive, and ultimately dangerous... If they try to think "outside the box," the box either refuses to respond or replies with an error message... The sacrifice of internal growth for external power generally operates at a more subtle level, as when a child assembles a PowerPoint slideshow using little if any material that she actually created herself.

These are just dismal facts of everyday life. See where Monke takes them — profound, right on, and well worth reading.