Failure to Connect

A timely and sensible challenge to the prevalent notion that computers necessarily enhance mental development and learning and a warning that computers might hinder a child's social development.

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Though most parents of school-age and even preschool children believe that computers are essential to learning, the truth, according to Jane Healy, is that more important educational priorities are being pushed aside in the rush to buy computers and computer related products. Once a bedazzled enthusiast of educational computing, now a troubled sceptic, Healy spent hundreds of hours talking to school administrators, teachers, parents, and students to provide this balanced and thoughtful evaluation of computers in the school and at home. In FAILURE TO CONNECT, she examines the benefits and drawbacks of computer use for children, arguing that time spent on computers is often time stolen from other developmentally important activities such as reading and creative play. Healy also suggests that most schools overlook the most critical technology component: adequate teacher training. FAILURE TO CONNECT also explores the effects computers have on children's health, brain development, creativity and their social and emotional needs. Based on years of research, FAILURE TO CONNECT is a timely and eye-opening examination of the central questions we must confront as technology increasingly influences the way we educate our children.