Jane M. Healy, Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds and What We Can Do About It (NY: Simon and Schuster, 1999), 350pp., USD14.

Dr Healy 是位教育心理學家，她的幾本著作都是兒童教育的經典。

現代的所謂教育改革家重視電腦多於一切，甚至幼稚地認為有了電腦，一切問題（例如師生比例、學習動機、教師工作量、教員室空間等）都不再是問題，他們要認真地看看Dr Healy這本書。

全書分三部分：第一部分介紹電腦在學校的普遍情況及一些值得關注的事；第二部分剖析電腦對兒童的身心發展的影響；第三部分是具體指點怎樣才是運用電腦教學的方法。

無可否認，電腦是無處不在的東西，已避無可避，但不恰當地使用電腦，對兒童做成的危害，恐怕是那些只管追求cutting edge technology, state of art hardware的技術人（不一定懂教育）所不能明白的。Healy一書充滿了這方面的警告：

"Kids are always learning, but they're not always learning what we think they're learning - even with the help of technology!" (p.24)

"Just because children … are performing tasks that look technologically sophisticated does not mean they are learning anything important." (p.27)

"In the end it is the poor who will be chained to the computer; the rich will get teachers." (Quoting from an article in Forbes) (p.47)

"To make effective use of information, however, students must have developed critical thinking, concentration, reading, and research skills. If they had these, they might not need the computers!" (p.97)

"Some of the best jobs in the corporate and professional worlds still go to literature or history majors. Why? Because they know how to think." (p.106)

案：說讀文科是阿茂的快收聲！

"Another question is whether the random nature of these bits of information will accurately convey what needs to be learned. Will students be better informed - or will they be distracted?" (p. 147)

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