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Reporting on the state of education in your community and across the country.

The Woz's Thoughts on Education

Brian Bull / ideastream

Steve Wozniak is known for many things: being one of the founders of Apple, inventing the Apple II computer,riding Segways.And now add another subject to that list: talking about the importance of properly integrating technology and education.ideastream's Brian Bull caught up with him recently in Cleveland, where Wozniak touched on that subject."Technology is the essential and most important academic tool that we’ve ever had in our history," Wozniak told Bull. "Has it made kids, students, learn more and come out smarter and better thinkers?  That’s the funny thing, I have to say “no” to that."[audio href="http://audio2.ideastream.org/wcpn/2014/1008woztalk.mp3" title="Listen to the Full Interview"][/audio]Here's a highlight of Bull and Wozniak's conversation:Q: "I know that Apple has been heavily invested in education for a number of decades, and 20, 30 years later after these implementations were done with classrooms and Apple Computers, do you feel the integration of technology is really at the core of educating young people, do you feel that there’s been good integration or do we need to improve on it?"

A: "Technology is the essential and most important academic tool that we’ve ever had in our history. Has it made kids, students, learn more and come out smarter and better thinkers?  That’s the funny thing, I have to say “no” to that.  Has it really improved how good a job they can do in society?  No, it is the tool they have to use, the tool of the day.  I’m a little disappointed.  I thought that computers were going to make a bigger difference in how people came out, and how fast their brains worked.  I think that still has a chance in the future, I worry more about the ones – not the come out the brightest ones that come out of classes, but the ones that come up in impoverished neighborhoods and don’t’ have really good attention to schools and their community, and their culture and their peers don’t believe in education that much.  or even in a very high level area, by third grade a lot of people give up on schools because they’re not the smartest one in their class, they’re not the smart one so they give up on it. And I really care about them, and to have them find a way…I think the way might be in the future if computers can ever turn into teachers. Like a human being who cares about the student, ask questions about its family, knows how to talk to it, knows when the student is slow or tired today, their brain is not working that well, and acts like a human being would to them.  That day may come someday, because I hope to be able to lok back and say I had some real positive effect on how people’s minds work.  But right now they work pretty much the same, it’s just that you gotta keep up with the times."

Q: "Do you feel that computers in general being used more for entertainment than education, and is that necessarily a bad thing?"

A: "Uhm, I don’t really know specific numbers.  Everyone one of us sees, occasionally some kids that totally get hung up on games.  My eldest son’s best friend was such a gamer, he was so good at it, and what you’re good at you value.  And he went off to college and he basically got all Fs, because all he did…for the first time ever, he was on an early network that had a T1 line at the college, that’s One and a half megabits.  Nothing like today.  but he just played games and games and games.  But he came back out, and he went through life, and eventually went back to school, he studied, he did good, and he’s got a great job now and great career.  So I really think that a lot of people are afraid that it takes us away from the way we grew up, and the way we dealt with people, individuals face to face, and some of the best times in life, and the kids are missing out those great times.  No, it’s just that their world is different than ours.  But it’s not like they’re missing out on socializing.  They just socialize a different way.  So I disagree with people saying, ‘Oh, we’re turning them into just computer zombies that can’t talk to people.’ They just have to talk by a different modality."