CS 492/CS 692 W14 Role-Playing Exercise 8

Computers and children

Team A

A group of parents who acknowledge the importance of computer literacy today but who feel that computer usage skills should not be part of today's elementary school curriculum. They argue that today's youth already spend too much time in front of computer screens at the expense of much-needed exercise and face-to-face socialization and they advocate that elementary schools (K-Grade 6) refrain from introducing computers as one of the topics that are taught to kids. They are also concerned about the abilities of elementary school teachers to properly teach this subject.

Team B

A group of parents who feel that computer literacy should be one of the core topics taught in schools, along with reading, writing and arithmetic. Teachers should be expected to acquire skill in this area of teaching. They are concerned that leaving it to parents to teach their children runs the risk of important gaps in knowledge and that their kids should learn, at an early age, how to begin to discern what is credible on the web and what they should be careful with, on social media sites.