Just to throw my two cents in here -- The school across the street from us did this about four years ago. They ditched all paper textbooks in favor of the CDROMs and textbooks on the laptops that every student was required to have. "more engaged" was not the case . . . Now it's several years after they started their laptop program. They've gone back to requiring real textbooks, because the CDROM option went so poorly. A lot of schools are faced with increasing pressure to bring computers and "technology" into the classroom. The primary thrust has been laptop programs. Personally, I think the laptop has very little place in a HS classroom. The laptop creates a barrier inbetween the teacher and the student. In theory, it creates a more self-driven learning approach. But in High School, 99% of students are not self-driving their learning. Most HS students aren't mature enough for that, heck, I don't know if I'm mature enough for that!! Instead, they browse the web, or are playing games or on AIM most of the time. And the support costs for a laptop program are astronomical.
Brilliant! lol, and repeated word for word by PieEatinFattie. (it's in reference to the movie Demolition Man, not a good movie, but a funny situational joke the 3 times the discussion ever comes up in life, and this is one of those times)
It's from that bad Stallone movie with Sandra Bullock and Wesley Snipes. Demolition Man I think. Stallone is a rogue cop defrosted in the future to catch Snipes. One of the can't get in sync gags they use is that they don't use toilet paper. Instead there are 3 shells in place of TP. He gets laughed at for not knowing how to use them. They never say how to use them in the movie.
I agree with Vengeance. It just sounds like distraction central, to be using those things all the time. Also, if it does get lost or damaged, the cost is a lot more... They're good for doing assignments, but I don't like the idea of doing all your reading on them. Staring at a screen. Or maybe I'm just old.
Because WE GET PAID FOR IT. But seriously, MB, for real... if these kids begin their school by going to a computer, they will want to come home and USE a computer, then go to their friends' house and SEE their computer, then would want to go somewhere to be on the computer, then that's all they will live for. Believe me, I would want my kids (got 2 of them) to read a book, say for example, The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, maybe Shakespeare, or maybe Fahrenheit 451 in palpable form. I think that with the addition of all this technology, we will lose some of the greatest traditions. OK, so I am an old-fashioned lunatic that doesn't want ALL of TECHNOLOGY to take over. I would want some of these things like homework on paper, or worksheets for practice to continue. Still, I believe that SOME technology can be incorporated, just NOT all of it. I still have to think of a way to explain why I don't like an ALL-TECHNOLOGICAL school as opposed to some old-fashioned way. I don't want to drive this thread to the D&D, but I think it is a very good topic to discuss, primarily if or if you don't have kids, to see the different points of view.
I'm not that old (26) and I'm old fashioned. I don't like technology coming in and taking over every facet of our daily lifes but it is the age of technology and some things are inevitable. I'm still on my 3.5 year old cell phone (and not looking for a new one til this one dies) and I reluctantly came into the digital age with a camera in March. I'm behind. I agree that students growing up with computers in class instead of textbooks, workbooks, etc is not the way to go. Yeah, it's neat; but kids have access to computers at home, in school libraries, public libraries, etc...they don't need it in classrooms. I'm partial to flipping through books, taking my own notes in a Mead notebook, etc. I wonder what the kids think of it and who funds for the laptops, software, training for teachers, etc?
I'm guessing that those of you who do not want to see paperless come to the mainstream are still PO'd that you can't get new album's on Vinyl! Do you still sit at home and listen to Rocket's games on the radio too? You know I heard that these talking movies are going to become popular as well! Seriously guy's, technology moves on. You don't think that because kids read books at school that they run home to read a book and run over their friends house to see their new book and then go somewhere to hang out and read books do you. NO. They go online to read what they want to read. Starbucks isn't a hotspot for nothing you know. The only reason I read a book in paper form is because I couldn't find it in electronic form.
I think this is a good move because more and more colleges seem to be moving in this direction as well. The more prepared high school students are for college the better.
This was hilarious, MB. Seriously, I welcome Technology and all, but by golly, some things SHOULD be replaced, others shouldn't. The service shop at Toyota should NOT give me a paper to throw away, they should store it in their database and send me an RSS feed, or ask me if I want to transfer it on disk, or something like that. The store should not give me a receipt, just ask me if I need it for my work to prove I was there (or a related excuse to have a receipt). ALL employment agencies and workforce where someone gets paid for something should do AUTOMATIC DEPOSIT. The bank should send you a paper statement ONLY IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO AN ONLINE SERVICE ON A COMPUTER. All these things are convenient, but teaching students should not be done without books. I guess I am picturing little Johnny (or JUANITO in my case) doing something else on the laptop other than what he's supposed to do. I will be OK when Juanito can't install or download unnecessary items on there and it is STRICTLY for studying, I guess that's somewhat OK. RM95, do you think that right now you or I are not prepared for college because we used books and college uses computers? Pie, let's welcome technology, but not necessarily replace EVERYTHING. I guess what's next, replace the teacher?
If they were to give them laptops, you can be sure that they would be highly locked down. You can still run and support applications with this type of strategy at the same time preventing things from being installed, internet usage monitored, etc etc etc. If this were my project, I would lock that b**** down to nothing except a few shortcuts on the desktop. You wouldnt be able to modify it in anyway shape or form. You would cache files on the laptop and as soon as they hit the schools network (via wireless) all of their files would sync with their own personal network folder. This would enable you to wipe the machine clean at anytime. You could also have firewall/parental controls built in that would update via the schools network to prevent p*rn usage, etc. even when they went home. There are tons of other things that you could do/incorporate with these laptops (i.e. graphing calculators). I think this would be an awesome project to be on because it is exactly the kind of work that I do.
Don't be silly. The teacher's available for support via email, 9am to 5pm Eastern Standard Time. "TS" (teacher support) had to be centralized to pay for the computers. It's much more efficient this way. And the rumours about foreign outsourcing are blatently false. So far.
It's hard to imagine a technology that would ever be good enough to replace a person. That I think is way off. But were talking about a delivery method for information. Not killing the information. Why is it such a big deal to read a screen instead of a piece of paper? Click on a check box instead of filling in a scan tron form with a #2 pencil? Email a word doc with your final essay instead of printing it out? Are you trying to tell me Shakespeare is a better read on a piece of paper. And if you like writing so much, get a tablet instead of a laptop.
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2001/05/01.12.shtml http://www.mac360.com/index.php/mac360/more/henrico_county_ibook_program_in_jeopardy/ http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/2001/fyi/teachers.ednews/12/09/students.p*rn.ap/ well, it was nice and all, but the county underestimated the abuse, and the mistreatment by the students. first of all they had wireless b cards in the laptops with a router that was able to handle 10 laptops, there were 30 kids with laptops per router, so you can imagine the number of crashes,... the year after that the kids started dloading p*rn, they were file transferring on the school network, and WE were cheating on online quizzes and tests using aim and msn. they took em up and put strict security on em. a few months into that, the crack to the security was released and we were back at it, approximately 30% of the students were suspended for 10 days for trying to "hack" the system. Well we payed 50 dollars insurance per year, and at first if ANYTHING happend, you pay 100 deductible and you got a brand new one, well kids made their laptops dissappear and showed up with 100 dollars and straight up got 2 laptops, the county got smarter and changed the way the insurance worked, and lost laptops cost full price, and damages had zones, if it was purposely damaged it would be costlier than say a cd rom not working.... i loved the ibooks, personally, it was great. i got to learn to use the mac os, and overall just a good experiance, other kids on the other hand, used the ibooks as trays, coasters, rollerskating ramps, paperweights, door stopper ,etc etc so the final outcome, this year they are going to windows...
Pie, bnb, turn up the sarcasticometer's sensitivity. I was being sarcastic about replacing the teacher. Of course NOT. adeelsiddiqui, thanks for the info. I am off to download pr0n on my WORK PC.
Great idea, however, like someone mentioned earlier (possibly in jest) without proper ergonomics and other training there could be long term issues. Staring into a monitor for uninterrupted periods CAN result in computer-induced nearsightedness.
