Technology and Society

nyquist_theorem writes: "MSNBC has an interesting article entitled Billy gets a laptop that covers the Harley-riding independent governor of Maine's take on technology and its role in government. While previous coverage on Slashdot covered the governor's plan to give his 7th graders laptops, this article offers a glimpse of that all-too-rare breed, the insightful, technologically aware bureaucrat - in this case discussing the sociological implications of the net in the wake of Sept 11th. The article also mentions some of the other measures the government of Maine is taking to use the net in ways that actually benefit its citizens."

Comments

Students don't use laptops

[laptop006]

I'm writing this from my school laptop now (Melbourne Australia), but I'm only one of probably 20 or so people out of the 400 people in years 11 & 12 that use their laptops frequently. Most of them will only use them when the are forced to

Re:This is the coolest governor ever

[grammar nazi]

All too many times, the government or teachers give out technology and try to use technology as a crutch in the education. Time and time again, the schools and students have proven that what they need isn't the latest and greatest calculator or the fastest internet connection. They need skilled and motivated teachers.

I believe that technology should supplement a strong education, rather that be the basis of it. Give the laptops to the teachers; they can take them home and plan the next days lesson rather then passing out laptops in class and telling the students to quietly browse the internet while Mrs. Smith cuts her fingernails.

They don't even teach multiplacation tables to childeren any more. Okemos, MI is an example of a school district that left multiplication tables out of their students' educations. They stated that it was due to the fact that students have easy access to calculators and computers and don't need to remember these things. I say that the Okemos school district was using technology as a crutch to remove a rigorous and somewhat challenging (for the teacher) thing from the curriculum. Young students need to sit down and learn that some things you have to memorize or work for and their are not always easy shortcuts.

</end rant>

Perhaps this was a better rant for my 'angry old man' alter ego.

Re:laptops for 7th graders is bad

[terpia]

just imagine YOURSELF with a computer in middle school during a boring class. what would you do? something bad or good?

Good troll, and Im gonna bite. OK, if youre in a boring class, most people will just zone out after a brief point anyways. SO? Nothing is being learned; if a kid is intellectually excited by something online and they pursue it for 45 minutes in class (yes, still ignoring the teacher) instead of fantasizing about the girl two desks over...whats the big deal? People have been bypassing boring teachers and having fun for years (well, even longer than that), as represented by the always present note being passed, pencils getting thrown at the ceiling etc. etc.... But, replace the mindless time, filling with something a bit intellectual, and many kids are bound to grow a little bit. Plus, i might be little bit stimulating to find various ways around filters, firewalls and stuff. The worst part about introducing these laptops is that they DO have the potential to be distractions, and surely will be to a lot of kids. But isnt it a better distraction than fantasizing all class about the hot substitute? (which can be better accomplished at home with the door locked anyways ;)

How it works at one school

[nyquist_theorem]

The univeristy I got my first degree from, Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada, gives all its students AND all its faculty IBM Thinkpads. It's a very small (less than 4000 students) but well-respected university a few hours north of Maine. Every residence room is wired with 100mbit ethernet to a decent internet pipe, as is every classroom, parts ot the campus pub, most on-campus hangouts, and the first two floors of the library. Even the town, with a population of less than 4,000 (not including the students) has both cable and DSL available for $39CAD (~$25USD)/mo. It's a wired place.

The students really do all use the laptops, and for more than ICQing from one side of class to another (although that's fun too). My fourth year, I was a teaching assistant, and one of my assignments was to moderate online discussion groups for classes on ACME (Acadia's online discussion and coursework system) - one of the things my professors and I found was that the students making the most intelligent posts online were often NOT the students making intelligent points in class - opening up online discussion allowed a lot of shy, nervous, or whatever people to come out and say their piece to the class in a forum that they were comfortable in. Professors really do reply to their emails, and students and professors alike use powerpoints and websites on a regular basis.

Also, because students were posting on a forum (like Slashdot), URLs and other methods of backing points in their arguments up was quite common, and helped to add a level of intelligence and legitimacy to discussions.

Overall, the Acadia Advantage, as it is called, works quite well - while there are some who criticize it, enrollment at the school is up substantially, and students are well-trained in internet research methodology, online collaboration, web publishing, and lots more regardless of their major. It works, and it gets a lot of attention in Canada (its why I chose the school in the first place). Hopefully the same benefits will be seen in giving the computers to younger kids, as the man from Maine proposes.

Re:How it works at one school

[zerocool^]

Here at virginia tech, there are some successful classes and some less so.

If you want to take a look at the Math class i'm taking (math 1015 - algebra/trig/calc intro), click on the lesson pages link. The lessons are fantastic. They can be learned at your own pace, and are accessible from anywhere.

If you wish to, you can go to the Math Emporium, a place off campus that's open 24 hours a day, and has something like 600 Mac G3's/G4's. (they can also boot into windows 2000.) If you go there during appointed times, i.e. 9AM-2PM, one of several teachers for the math course will be there to answer questions for you, and there are grad students on duty 8AM-7PM to answer general questions. It's a great place to do work in general, remove yourself from the noise of life, and to get help.

A not so successful example, however, is CS 1604, intro to the internet. It was created when the internet was the cool new thing, and never revised. The quizzes have questions about Gopher, how to use search engines (looking for allen touring? type Allen AND Touring - as opposed to today's "allen touring"), questions about webpages that don't exist, things related to adobe acrobat 1, the list of grievences goes on and on.

In general, though, computers are ABSOLUTELY necessacary to my education here. My humanities homeworks, due every thursday, are submitted to a "digital drop box", all my teachers respond to email within 24 hours, many times less, my Econ teacher sends out the homework on the listserv, 2 years ago, all my C++ was submitted online, and graded by an automatic grader. It's virtually impossible to get anything done around here w/out a computer. But, if by some chance, mine is broken or gone or whatever, I can always use the emporium.

~Z

Re:Not a great idea

[Gabey]

I was going to post a comment similar to this, but you've really hit the nail on the head... I used to be my high school's "tech" person, and I also worked in the elementary labs, as well as keeping the other ~350 computers in the school up and running.
Each classroom had a minimum of 4 computers with english/language arts classes having more (for typing projects?). In at least 95% of the classrooms, the computers went unused for the entire year. In the english rooms, the typical action was to sign out a lab for the period since the 6-8 machines in the classroom couldn't accomodate the whole class using them, so why bother staying in the room?
If we had consolidated maybe half of these machines into 5-6 high quality labs, given the rest of the money to teachers who deserved them and programs that needed them (the year I graduated, the budget got shot down and the vast majority of the arts programs there were screwed), a lot of good could have come of the funds.

Anyway, just wanted to post a big "hear, hear" to this comment...if I had mod points, I would've modded it up instead :)

-Gabe

My experiences

[sprayNwipe]

When I was in school, they had a "students with laptops" program - essentially, if you had a laptop, you could bring it to school and use it instead of books.

It ended up being the worst 3 weeks at school. It was quite a while ago, so my Laptop only had 1 hour of battery power - every other class I was moving my desk or trying to find somewhere with a power point. On top of that, since it was a 486, I spent 2-3 minutes just waiting for Word to open. Maths was impossible, and Computing Studies was ironically also a waste of time, since I was forced to use their dodgy programs rather than my own, not to mention that most of the CS Teachers were just other teachers who filled spots ("CorelDRAW? No, I'm sorry, you have to use Canvas, since it lets you draw lines").

It ended abruptly when my laptop was stolen. Fortunately it was recovered, but literally just before the kid who stole it was about to hand it over to someone outside the school for $$$.

While it might be different now (longer battery life, books online/net access), I still think in general it's a bad idea.

Cardboard computing

[ebcdic spork]

IMHO, I would not give the kiddies a laptop until they know a little about how a computer really works. The old Bell Labs CARDIAC "system", a cardboard computer, was really great for this and cheap too. Of course, you don't have to buy this, you can make your own. There are also a large number of software simulators too.

Re:Not a great idea

[The Cat]

2) A few "multimedia" computers in the library playing movies of cheetahs. This was during the era when "multimedia" was first rearing its head. Each one of these 486s with a CD-ROM and monitor probably cost the district $3,000, and possibly more.

Here we go...

for purchase and maintenance of those units would be around $8,000 for a classroom of 28 students. Can you imagine the jump in the quality of teaching applicants a district would receive if even $4,000 of that amount were being given to the teacher?

It is easier to get approval to build a two-mile suspension bridge than it is to be successfully hired as a credentialed teacher. $4,000 makes no difference at all.

The process of becoming (and remaining) a credentialed teacher is as sure to crush the very life from any possible inspiration to impart knowledge as being a cubicle-dwelling "team player" programmer is to destroy any joy in writing great and useful programs. Fix that problem, and you'll have all the great teachers you need.

We spend $150K/year per classroom per year in this state. Teacher makes $40K if they are lucky. See any problem here? How many classrooms in the average school? District? Where's *that* money? That's a far more important question than the tiny sum spent on computers.

Meanwhile, people just keep saying things like "we don't spend that much!" while the budget is quietly increased to $175K. Schools don't have pencils, paper, current textbooks, reference materials, properly maintained buildings, etc.

Name one, ONE public school band, athletic team, club, whatever (besides football) ANYWHERE that has their uniforms/equipment replaced at district expense on a regular basis (and the football team pays from their own ticket sales.. nice try).

When problems like that are solved, the teacher pay problem will be solved with them.

What are the building blocks ?

[Bugmaster]

That's absolutely true; I would argue, however, that computer literacy has become a basic building block, along with reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic (hmmm... "computer" doesn't start with "r", damn it). Even now, most people would be required to point-and-click somewhere at some point in their lives. Computers are becoming cheaper, and ubiquitous Internet access is almost here (despite the recession, even). Portable devices, such as Palms and suped-up cellphones, are also becoming more widespread. It is becoming difficult to survive without having at least a basic understanding of how all this stuff works.

Consider - a couple hundred years ago, basic literacy was really an optional luxury for most people, not a requirement...

Laptops ? Why not...

[Anonymous Coward]

As always, the /. crowd is just forgetting one thing : computers are just tools.
These tools are used in real life, it is just normal to train kids to at least use them or to get used to them. That should be enough to justify this "laptop" program.

The Downside

[Adrian Lopez]

Laptops for every kid seems like a great idea until you consider how little control kids are likely to have over the laptops given to them. Restrictions such as filtering software installed on every computer is almost a sure bet. Kids who use their free computers for all their schoolwork will get a filtered view of the Internet. A dream come true for many, a sad state of affairs for independence of thought.

Re:I think they should give the teachers laptops..

[maxpublic]

Just in case you somehow missed the beginning of the 21st century, learning how to use a computer *is* a basic skill these days. Relegating the use of the computer to a 'hobby' is a luxury only those already-established in the job market can afford; an example being the large group of boomers who rail, whine, and moan about the advance of computer technology and how it has no place in their childrens lives simply because it had no place in their own.

It's been my experience that the folks who piss away at computers are either the ones who already 'got theirs' and wish time would just up and stop (i.e., the aforementioned boomers) or the technologically illiterate who can't keep up with their peers and are bitter about it.

I currently work in a school district, and have for the last three years. Sure, there are problems with the school system, serious problems; but blaming these problems on computers ("our kids should be learning the 3 R's", bitch and moan) is the refuge of the simple-minded who pine for simple solutions.

Computer technology and the internet will be an integral part of these kids lives, far more so than any generation previous. Teaching them early, especially the poor who don't have computers or the internet at home, is far better than saying 'screw you, learn it on your own'. Regardless of how it panned out for you, it won't fly for future generations.

Max

Re:This is the coolest governor ever

[chacha]

I live in Henrico County VA, which just struck a deal with Apple to loan every high school student in the district an iBook, and the current school year is the first year to see it implemented. It was the kind of thing where they did it because they could, not because they should. They're the first school district in the country to do this on such a large scale, and it's such a fantastic accomplishment that Steve Jobs himself came out and told everyone, "Look at how fantastic this is." The school district figured they'd get themselves some national exposure and make themselves look incredibly important. They didn't count on a few things, though.

First, they forgot that your average high school student, when given a network-equipped laptop to use in class, is probably going to use it for things like games, surfing the internet, and IM. The teachers are having tremendous difficulty maintaining classroom discipline, and are having to tell students that they're not allowed to use the iBooks. The irony is that just about every class has been redesigned to allow for CONSTANT use of the iBooks - accessing notes, lecture outlines, even textbooks online.

The teachers have been told by the school district that they aren't allowed to say anything "negative" about the program, so they're being forced to give anonymous quotes to the local papers. Some of the ones that have offered anonymous negative quotes have said that they would LOVE to say who they are, but have been told that doing so will all but guarantee their termination of employment.

The other problem is that, because they rushed into this just so they could be first, they didn't think to UPGRADE THE NETWORK. I don't know what kind of connection they have, but putting a few thousand extra people on it has led to a lot of crashing.

I definitely think that there's a time and a place for technology in schools. By all means, teach them how to do things like use a word processor and a spreadsheet, things that will help them later on. I think there is also such a thing as overdoing it, and this is what people need to be careful of.