社會上正瀰漫著一股不上網便被開除球籍的風氣，那些所謂教育改革家也自然緊跟潮流，認為不上網就落伍，於是大力擴充電腦硬件及上網設施，圖書館卻淪為考不上語文基準的教師的收集箱。

Clifford Stoll 這本書是唱衰電腦及網上教學的。Dr Stoll 七十年代已開始參與Internet的發展研究，如果他說電腦如何有威力，我們自然要聽，但如果他這樣的專家對電腦教學及網上教學存疑，那麼我們更要仔細聆聽，至少他對電腦的認識遠較那些連PowerPoint也不懂運作的教統會的所謂教育改革家深入。Amazon.com上這書的一篇書評是一位香港的大學教授 David Gardner 寫的，教統會袞袞諸公應細心閱讀。

全書分 "Why Computers Do't Belong in the Classroom" 及 "The Computer Contrarian" 兩大部分，小標題共23個。這書的內容不算有系統，但往往有一針見血的評論，其中 "Cyberschool" 及 "The Plague of PowerPoint" 兩章應該先讀。

現摘錄全書金句如下：

Computer and Curriculum
"... some subjects, while easy for a child to learn, are impossible for adults...languages, for instance. The earlier you start, the easier to become fluent." (p.5)
按：把本已不足的中文教節擠掉來加入所謂資訊技巧科目值得嗎？

Computer and Homework
"The computer-enabled students spend more time preening their reports, rather than understanding the subject matter." (p.7)
按：在一切講求包裝的香港情況更是如此。

Internet: a necessity?
"...frequent updating of classroom materials simply isn't necessary. Core academic content changes slowly." (p.38)
"...for every obsolete book, there's a Web site that's inaccurate, out of date, one-sided, or no longer maintained."(p.39)
"Those with valuable information naturally don't upload it ot the net ... they want to be paid for their work. ...the Internet is such an ocean of mediocrity" (p.192)
按：好的圖書館比 Internet 更重要，中學教育尤其如此。可惜那些教署高官看不起圖書館管理員。

PowerPoint
"PowerPoint is the enemy of a good talk." (p.179)
"In public speaking, PowerPoint is the coward's choice." (p.180)
按：香港的新教學文化卻認為不用PowerPoint就不是好老師。

上網後遺症
"Those weaned on computer communications won't learn basic social rules of converstaion. How to interrupt. How to share time with another. How to speak to an audience. When to be quiet." (p.203)
"As connection speeds increase, college students spend more time surfing the Web, and less time writing, studying,or whatever they don't want to do. Same's true for office workers--an Internet link is a license to goof off." (p.208)
按：我的告解：自從用了寬頻上網後，我上網的時間是多了而不是少了；自從桌上多了一部手提電腦後，我變得分心，工作效率是下降了而不是提高了，所以我要躲進圖書館避開誘惑。

真正的學習
" Most learning isn't fun. Learning takes work. Discipline. Commitment, from both teacher and student. Responsibility, you have to do your homework. There's no short cut to a quality education." (p.12,13)
按：所謂愉快學習只是笑話一場，人一走 （提出愉快學習的教育署長），茶就涼（愉快學習的文件已不知所終）。

真正的教學
"Really want to improve classroom teaching? Give teachers more preparation time. Prep time used to be for grading homework and setting up classwork; today, it's increasingly eaten by computers. Each program-even the simplest-requires someone to get the computers ready ...inevitably, it's the teacher. For the dirty secret of educational technology is that computers waste teachers' time, both in and out of the classroom." (p.32)
按：各位教改專家，你們走上了死路，要教師資源增值的結果必然是教學質量下降。