Mr Lembke, can computers motivate people?

Professor Gerald Lembke would prefer to bancomputers from primary school. Why? The author of the book «The lie of digital education» explains in an interview.

Mr Lembke, how do you view the use of digital media in primary schools?

I don't think it makes sense to use digital media up to Year 5. After that, it is only effective across all subjects and only with the right framework conditions and sufficient teaching staff. I am in favour of more digital-free oases in the younger classes, because the later computers are used in schools, the earlier our children learn the skills for the targeted use and production of digital media.
And yet digital learning media have advantages: they adapt to the performance level of a child and thus support weak and very strong pupils in particular, it is said.
This only works if pupils can use digital media independently and in a goal-orientated way. School beginners are not able to do this. At a later age, from the tenth to twelfth year, it only makes sense if the learning process is accompanied by a teacher who does not leave the pupils alone with digital devices.

When learning with digital media, students also receive rapid feedback, while at the same time repetition of the learning material is guaranteed by an algorithm. Doesn't this make learning more effective?
I am convinced that motivation to learn at a young age should not be encouraged by a machine, but by a teacher. I consider the idea that software algorithms make the learning process more efficient through repetition or constant feedback to be fatal. After all, learning requires intrinsic motivation, time and space. Substituting this with technology in the expectation of achieving better learning effects more quickly is a myth that has not yet been scientifically clarified.
You don't embarrass yourself in front of the computer and it evaluates the results without a sympathy bonus. This can also be an opportunity for reserved pupils who otherwise tend not to take part in lessons at all ...
Observations that introverted pupils are more likely to be activated by digitally orientated learning are true in individual cases. However, they are not representative. Therefore, this cannot stand up as an argument in favour of the widespread use of learning computers in lower-level schools.
Most pupils already use a laptop at home. It has been shown time and again that those who do not learn the ten-finger system from the outset usually get used to their own, less favourable typing system and stick with it. Doesn't that speak in favour of teaching pupils how to type right from the start?
Children of primary school age should first learn to write by hand without making mistakes and to express themselves through writing. Substituting handwriting with technical keyboards does not promote this, quite the opposite: foreign studies show that the use of tablets in primary schools has damaged writing skills.

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Gerald LembkeProf., leitet den Studiengang für Digitale Medien an der Dualen Hochschule Mannheim. Er ist Autor mehrerer Bücher zum Thema Medien. In seinem Buch «Die Lüge der digitalen Bildung: Warum unsere Kinder das Lernen verlernen» setzt er sich mit den negativen Folgen kindlichen Medienkonsums auseinander.
Gerald Lembke
Prof., heads the Digital Media degree programme at Mannheim Cooperative State University. He is the author of several books on the subject of media. In his book "Die Lüge der digitalen Bildung: Why our children are unlearning", he addresses the negative consequences of children's media consumption.