The Flickering Mind

A book review of mine was recently published at OLPCnews. It is about Todd Oppenheimer's The Flickering Mind. Here is an excerpt, followed by a link to the whole review.

About five years ago, Todd Oppenheimer published an extensive critique of the use of computers in North American schools. When I opted to research technology-in-education for a philosophy of education course, his book appeared to be an excellent resource. Having brought the book home, though, I became apprehensive.

Would I be able to read the book without making comparisons with OLPC? Had technology (and schools) changed enough in five years that the observations in the book were no longer valid? Would I really enjoy reading a 400-page book subtitled "saving our children from the false promise of computers?"

I needn't have worried. The Flickering Mind: Saving Education from the False Promise of Technology is extremely readable and, despite the subtitle, not polemical. But spontaneous OLPC comparisons were inevitable.

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