Slashdot Mirror
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."
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.
Keeping
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
.sig wanted: Must be concise, funny, and display my cleverness.
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.
-- "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge." (Charles Darwin)
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.
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.