A、Computer use is rising almost everywhere, though it varies from place to place. B、The difference between European and American

Good afternoon, students. The topic for today’s lecture is How Computers Affect Our Children’s Minds. Let me start by introducing one of my colleagues, Jade Healy, who has been an educational psychologist ever since we met decades ago. When Jade Healy learned that new software had been created to introduce 7 month-old babies to computers, she phoned me to say that things had really gotten out of control. Healy is also the author of Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children’s Minds - and What We Can Do about It. And now she is one of the most outspoken critics of the entrenched American view that schools can’t spend enough on computerizing classrooms, even for very young children. She is not alone. A growing number of educators in the United States have now begun to question just how beneficial computers are in the classroom and at which age kids should be introduced to them. The debate raging in the United States is being closely watched by European and Asian educators. They welcome technology but also want to learn from American mistakes.
   According to US government statistics, 26 percent of American schoolchildren aged 5 to 9 years old spent time on computers while at school in 2004. Yet very little independently funded research has been conducted to examine what impact computers have on children’s cognitive and emotional development. Jade Healy says "Technology was put into American schools with very little planning, forethought or educational rationale," "My concern is that this is very powerful technology, the effects of which we don’t really know. "
   Most critics of wired classroom stress that, at a time when budget cuts have eliminated many music and art classes, it is especially troubling to see so much money spent on technology. To be fair, with the American economy declining, there have been cuts across the board. Still, technology expenditures have surged. In 1996, the federal government granted states $81 million for technology in schools. By 2003, that number had jumped to $ 2. 76 billion. That is an increase of over 30 times. Government data show that by the age of 10, young people are more likely to use the Internet than adults at any age beyond 25. Nevertheless, according to another colleague of mine, Larry Cuban, professor of education at Stanford University and the author of Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom, computers simply have not produced much of a return on investment. He says, "There’s very little evidence that kids are doing better academically because of computers in the classroom. Computers haven’t made teaching more productive. " Then, why are American educators spending so much on them? Many critics blame the computer industry’s lobbying and deep pocket. Others stress the keeping-up-with-the-neighbor’s mentality that causes schools to try constantly to outdo each other. In any case, the US Department of Education leaves the specifics of classroom computer usage up to individual teachers and schools. Jade Healy has spent more than two years visiting classrooms across the United States. She finds that computer use varies greatly from district to district, but it has been on the rise almost everywhere. So is the danger. She says, "In Europe, they’re willing to let preschoolers be preschoolers much more than we are in America. The human brain has a life of its own, and if you put artificial electronic stimulation in front of young kids, what the brain is programmed to need is not happening. " Despite all the rosy projections, those wires may be tying down our kids, not setting them free.
Question No. 16 What made Jane Healy think that "things had gotten out of control"?
Question No. 17 How much is the increase of the budget of the federal government for technology in schools from 1996 to 2003?
Question No. 18 What is Professor Larry Cuban’s criticism of introducing computers into the classroom?
Question No. 19 What does Jane Healy discover after her two years’ observation of classroom activities across the United States?
Question No. 20 Which of the following can be concluded from the talk?