Computers and Kids: Advancement Through Technology or the Digital Menace?

(I'm definitely looking for opinions on this one, so please leave a comment)

For the record (yet again), this blogging thing is hard!  Hopefully I'm my toughest critic, because if not you people are saying some nasty stuff about me right now.  I've written 4 or 5 partial posts over the last week or so, but nothing really came together.  I am, however, intrigued by a couple articles that were published on the internet on back-to-back days at the start of the month about kids and computers.

The first article from July 5th, titled "So How Dumb Are We"  focuses on whether the computer and internet habits of kids are turning them into "The Dumbest Generation".  Author and English professor Mark Bauerlein wrote the book which led to this article, and he is of the opinion that young American kids are still intelligent, but not intellectually healthy.  His basis for this is kids' lack of reading skills and new habits developed from growing up with the internet.  The internet is vilified here because it teaches kids to access information and not retain it, to gloss over things instead of committing them to memory.  Bauerlein says this translates to the classroom, where students carry over these bad habits and consequentially fail to learn.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is an article from July 6th titled "Technology Reshapes America's Classrooms" .  This piece shines the spotlight on a state-funded school in Boston where every day 650 students are handed a Apple MacBook Laptop when they walk into school.  The school does not buy textbooks, it merely updates software.  Much of the work is also done using free applications from Google and Apple, along with specialized educational software.  According to the schools principal, since the laptop program was put into place attendance has risen 2% and disciplinary actions have fallen 30%.  Most interesting in my opinion is when the principal points out that the computers allow the students to work at their own pace.  She says that special needs students can share a classroom with advanced students and teachers can individually tailor lesson plans based on aptitude levels recorded by the computers.

Personally, I'm all for using computers and new technology for teaching.  I have a hard time believing the internet can be a net negative for anyone.  I'm more inclined to think that the education system needs to adjust in order to keep kids interested and engaged.  I also love the thought of students being able to progress through lessons at their own pace.  People work at different speeds, and using computers could allow everyone to maximize their time instead of waiting for others to grasp a topic or struggling to keep up in class.  The article doesn't mention it, but I would assume that computer based teaching would also allow for teaching to be tailored to each student's best learning methods (reading, hearing, working through examples, etc.).

So, what do you think?  Are computers preventing kids from learning or are they a potentially significant teaching tool that is not being utilized enough?