The homework assignments Kristen Lenox hands in to her 5th-grade teacher haven’t been the same since December.
No more dog-eared pages, glue stains or eraser smudges.
Since her father bought a home computer, Kristen has practically abandoned loose-leaf paper, pencils, crayons and paste for new high-tech tools and programs: Windows, a mouse, PC Paintbrush, Excel and PowerPoint.
Now with the press of a button or the tapping of a few keys, she can produce slick reports with borders, graphs, clip art and lettering in the font of her choice.
“My teacher is really amazed I can do all this stuff,” said Kristen, 10, who attends Dryden School in Arlington Heights.
“I think it’s really neat you can put all these graphics in because I stink at drawing,” she added as her printer spit out a cover with a stylized sun, moon and cactus for her social studies report on Native Americans.
As home computer use climbs, teachers throughout the Chicago area are noticing a dramatic rise in the quality of homework assignments turned in by pupils Kristen’s age and younger.
The change, though, has created what some might call a bug in the classroom, as some pupils hand in typically child-like penciled reports and others letter-perfect assignments on laser-printed paper.
The disparity has caused a quiet tug of war between pupils with computers and those whose parents cannot afford them-or don’t want them-and has raised a discussion among educators on how to judge the differences.
It also has raised a debate among some parents on whether it is unwise to focus so much attention on computers at an age when youngsters are not yet proficient at reading, spelling, drawing and penmanship.
Joanna Rolek, a Lake Bluff parent, said, “My feeling is at the elementary level, I’d rather they learn to do their work manually first because they won’t always have a computer at their disposal.” She said she encourages her 10-year-old daughter to do her homework the old-fashioned way, with paper and pencil.
“I don’t mind her becoming comfortable with it later,” she added. “But for now she should learn to read, write, add and spell on her own first.”
Yet as students will no doubt learn in history class, technology rarely retreats.
The debate is reminiscent of that over calculators 20 years ago, when some parents and educators questioned whether children would master basic math skills if they relied on calculators. Yet calculators have become a staple of many classrooms. As the machines’ prices came down, it was never an issue whether most students could afford one.
No data exists on the number of pupils using home computers to prepare homework, though many Chicago-area teachers say that more than half their students do. But experts say the numbers must be rising, given the proliferation of the technology.
According to a recent study commissioned by Nynex Corp., the regional telephone company for New York and New England, 24 million households have computers. That breaks down to one in four families.
Another survey, published in January by the Electronic Industries Association Consumer Electronics Group, estimates that up to 35 percent of U.S. households use computers.
“What concerns me is that computers are making the division wider between haves and have-nots,” said Andrea Oseas, a research assistant in the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, who is studying the issue.
“When a kid uses a computer,” she said, “he is not just making his paper look cleaner. He is engaging in higher-order thinking and he is getting exposed to knowledge and information that are not always available in the classroom.
“Lower socioeconomic students don’t have access to this kind of information that could lead them toward a more productive life.”
Research is scant on whether technology helps students perform better in school, but parents and experts agree that students with home computers are more motivated and more inclined to explore ideas.
“If used with the proper software, computers can be a considerable thinking tool and can be used to (enhance) other tools, like books,” said Douglas Clements, an education professor at State University of New York at Buffalo, who conducts research on youngsters and computers.
Pupils cite other reasons.
“When I do my spelling packet and vocabulary and math on the computer, it takes me less time,” said 11-year-old Jenna Casale, a 6th grader at Hoover School in Schaumburg. “It takes me maybe 20 minutes on the computer and about 45 minutes by hand.”
“I like to play games like `Oregon Trail,’ because it teaches you about different states and what life was like in the past,” said Steve Glab, 11, a 5th grader at Hoover.
In many classrooms, the number of pupils doing their assignments on home computers outnumbers those using pencil and paper.
The difference in the appearance of the work has led some teachers to establish different grading standards and others to carefully consider issues of equity.
Ric Neustadt, technology liaison at Addams School in Schaumburg, who previously taught language arts, said, “When I was (teaching) in the classroom, if I had two kids sit down and write exactly the same thing, the student with the paper done on the word processor would get a higher grade over the handwritten one.
“I’d tell them anything you can do to make your paper look better will improve your grade. If a teacher looks at a paper and starts off with a positive attitude, that will generally be reflected in the grade.”
Bernie Bradley, a science teacher at Newberry Math and Science Academy on Chicago’s Near North Side, said he offers extra points to students who use word processors for their assignments.
“They’ll get two extra credit points because I want to encourage them to use technology,” Bradley said.
Though schools with such policies encourage students without computers to work on their assignments in the computer lab, some educators dispute whether separate evaluating systems are fair.
“I’m not hung up on the computer,” said Marie Dora, a 6th-grade teacher at LaSalle Language Arts Academy on Chicago’s Near North Side.
“I do not evaluate the students on the visual appearance of the project or book report. The grade is based on the content and on the requirement of the assignment,” she said.
Focusing too much on a paper’s appearance defeats the purpose of what a computer can really do for a child, said David Schiller, author of “My First Computer Book,” a guide for children 3 years and up.
Such attitudes “make it easy for kids to become superficial perfectionists. They sometimes focus too much on lining up their margins and other inconsequential intangible stuff instead of the meat of what they’re trying to do,” he said.
Linda Feeney, a 6th-grade teacher at Oak School in Hinsdale, added: “Yes, a nice-looking project done on a computer has to affect you to a certain extent, but as a teacher you have to focus your attention on other aspects of the work. We try to be careful to prevent disadvantaged children from being unduly punished.”
In addition, she said, because of computer programs that check spelling, “We always look at the rough drafts, which are written in class, when we assess pieces.”
Recognizing that many families don’t have several thousand dollars for computer equipment, a New York-based agency has opened computer centers for low-income youngsters in New York’s Harlem, Boston, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.
For a $10 annual fee, youngsters can prepare their homework on computers at centers operated by Playing to Win Inc.
“Our founder felt there was a need to bridge the gap,” said the executive director, Ramon Morales. He said that the agency is exploring establishing a center in Chicago.
Parents also are debating whether spelling and grammar checkers, as well as encyclopedia software on the computer, will help or hinder youngsters. Some are holding off buying computers for their children, while others are restricting their use.
“Computers stifle the learning process,” said Joel Thomason of Bartlett, who decided against buying a computer for his sons in 3rd and 6th grades.
“I’d rather have them read, or make up stories or do something outside,” Thomason said. “The computer is such a sterile, techy thing that takes away from all that stuff.”
Rita Muth of Arlington Heights, whose son Karl is a home-computer user and a classmate of Kristen Lenox, said, “I’m very old-fashioned in some ways.
“We bought Karl a set of encyclopedias instead of (a computer research system) because we feel there is great benefit to browsing,” she said.
“The chances of looking at an adjacent entry are very high. Whereas with a computer search, you’re going to get exactly what you tell it and nothing more.”
In the mind of Jim Lenox, Kristen’s father, the computer is a tool that has great benefits but should not be overused.
“Like anything else, balance is the key,” he said.
