Laptops in Every Backpack

Scott Sawyer writes: "Check out Wired to see that Maine is going to put a laptop in every 7th graders school bag. I remember when we had to go to another room to work on the Tandy, TRS-80's." We did a story about Laptops in Education a few months ago that had more information about this Maine proposal that's now a reality.

Comments

(OT)Slashdot's db server is acting wonky

[yerricde]

There are very few comments at this time because Slashdot's database server died right after michael posted this story. When the db server dies, Slashdot switches to the static homepage that Anonymous Coward normally sees, which points to the static pages in /articles/... and all .pl files simply put up the static homepage. Under the old slashcode, you could tell this because "dead db static Slashdot" didn't have any banners. Now sometimes there's a line of text above the banner that pushes the banner down about 30 pixels.

Note: With the removal of the static archives of old Slashdot stories, you can no longer search Slashdot through Google.

Re:weight?!

[ziplux]

Jesus, listen to the damn article before you post. He actually seems to know what he's talking about in the interview. He says the units will cost $500 or less each, and will contain a small amount of writable flash memory. They will function as thin clients when connected to the school's wireless network, and the sudents won't be allowed to load any programs on them. When they're at home, they'll dialup to access the network.

"Why Computers Don't Belong in the Classroom"

[mlgm]

I'm a computer geek myself and love to work with my computers. And I always found computers in schools a good idea. That's until I read Clifford Stolls "High-Tech Heretic. Why Computers Don't Belong in the Classroom and Other Reflections by a Computer Contrarian".

You might know Clifford Stoll, he is famous from the early days of the Internet when he tracked down a computer spy. And he's programming computers since the mid 60s.

But his reasons for keeping computers out of the shools are compelling:

• computers and educational software are expensive. Much more expensive than say good school books. And computers will break faster than books.
• computers are also expensive because they bind ressources which could be used better. E.g. teachers have to do system administration instead of teaching. And computers and educational software get old soon.
• educational software e.g. in physics only simulates reality. To understand magnetism you have to hold the real thing in your hand.
• and most of all he thinks that computers are easy to use and you don't need computers in school to become computer literate. You can learn how to use a computer (which is what people need) in only a couple of weeks.

After I read the book, I was convinced, that we should have computers in school, but only where they are really useful. Giving a laptop to every pupil seems much too expensive and the money should better be spent for conventional education (more teachers, better books, better libraries).

Clifford Stoll sometimes sounds too extreme or even fanatic to me, but then he has a lot of facts which prove his ideas. So you might want to read his book or give it to your school :-).