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Maine Laptop Program a Success
Myoglobinologist writes "The New York Times has an article about how the State of Maine purchased $37 million worth of iBooks from Apple. The article states that the kids have adapted quickly to the laptops, attendance is up, and there is even heart-warming testimony from some politicians that were opposed to the project." We've done several previous stories about this initiative (they were originally considering custom-designed thin client machines - probably a good idea to go with off-the-shelf systems), and it's interesting to see how it has panned out.
Until the laptops are considered mundane, perhaps.
Do you like German cars?
there were lots of studies about factory workers and those that were given some attention liked their job more. put windows into the factory and morale goes up, production goes up. treat people nicely, and they'll feel good about themselves. nice to see the old tried and true is still being shown today.
btw. i can't read the article, the link only went to NYT front page, and the link from there didn't give me an article. anyone willing to help a guy actually read the article ??? hint hint.
I am a born and raised Mainer, thus I must:
beginRant() {
Maine's education system is in terrible shape. Many schools are too small, many teachers are underpaid, and there's little funding for books and repairs for any of the counties here.
Gov. King was not a bad Governer, but his insistance that the state pay money so that middle schoolers could have laptops even stupified my liberal mind.
Those students do not need laptops! They need good teachers! They need nutritious food programs! They need cultural programs! I've spoken with many students who could care less about their laptops. They're in frickin' middle school. Their homework is algebra, not write a ten page research paper.
This was simply a program put in place to show that the state cared about it's education and pretend that their children weren't tools because they could use a laptop, basically a 'I don't know what to do so let's buy something exciting' move.
}
Thank you for your time.
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
The laptop program might be working in pockets in Maine, but it's akin to putting a new paint job on a delapitated vehicle that doesn't run. Maine's educational system is broken, and has been for quite some time; test scores are low, there isn't a standardized method of assesing performance of students throughout the state (don't tell me about the Maine Educational Assesment exams - they're fundamentally broken), and teacher pay and morale is low in almost all schools. Angus King, the previous governer, left the state holding the bag for the $37 mil proce tag, not to mention training for teachers, and a new curriculum to support the laptops. The state's education program is in dire need of funds for basics, such as books, buildings that aren't falling down around the students, competent teachers, etc. The news here in Maine for a while now has been how to get out of this laptop contract as cheap as possible. I'll give credit to Seymor Papert, and folks who would like to implement similar ideas, but until the most basic needs of students are met, laptops shouldn't be integrated into the curriculum.
I've spoken with a few teachers who deal with the laptops on a daily basis, and it's clear to them that the support network for the hardware itself is severly lacking. The issue of what to actually *use* the systems for seems to have been overlooked.
Bottom line: the money could have been better spent elsewhere. It's a valiant and forward-thinking idea, but not very pragmatic at the moment.
Being from Maine, I can assure you that we no longer have a surplus in the budget. Just this morning I was watching a story on how 110 jobs have to be cut from one school district. Thought it was a bad idea then. Still do.
Upgrade time? Why would anyone *need* to upgrade a modern computer (with the exception of gamers)?
The only reason I have a fast PC is that some of the software projects I work on take a while to compile. I wouldn't expect school kids to be working on projects of that size.
Some of the most educational software is *much* less bloated than most of the stuff on Average Joe's PC.
450MHz, with a 10mb NIC is perfectly useable today. Just as useable as it was 4 years ago. And I'm talking about x86 systems here, not G3/G4s.
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Hmm, I bet that "free" information cost a newspaper buyer at least 50 cents U.S. in New York. Just because you come in on a web browser doesn't mean that information is just "free".
But also, the registration is free, but that helps them get demographics to help get advertising which is how newspapers have operated since the beginning of time or at least modern times.
Just remember that advertising has paid for the newspaper and magazine industry, not subscribers or daily buyers. Their payments probably don't even cover the cost of paper.
Yeah well after all the fluff let's see the real stats.
Test scores are up 20% right? the students are learning at a faster rate? more? better? ratio of students failing to succeeding is getting better?
what other gains on the children are there? Reading higher? Math higher?
funny how the "sucess" is very thin on any real details or statistics that make it a sucess and not just a PR job.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Try to sell the equivalent P3 for that amount. It won't happen.
Keeping
I dont' want my children using a computer until they are (at least) teenagers.
so you want to raise very stupid children? this idea of yours is the stupidest I have ever heard.
I started my daughter (now 11) on computers at 18 months of age. I wrote a simple mouse program so she could click on familiar objects and the computer would say with recorded speech what it was. she loved this, and eventually found my invisible spot that quit the program. so I started her on a kids paint program to understand selecting tools, and it continues to this day where she is better at using the computer than the CS teacher in the local high school. She was tought programming with logo (by me) then I started her on basic for advanced ideas. This year I am starting her on perl and perl::GTK to introduce using GUI's before dropping her into C later if she wants to continue it.
My 11 year old has a better understanding about computers, operating systems and computing than 90% of the population. she has an advantage that will be with her forever, even when she becomes a Vetranarian (that's what she said she wants to be)
So if you want to breed residents for the trailer parks and slums feel free to. I take my spare time to teach my child Computer Science, Physics, Astronomy, and even play her games with her (Go ahead and laugh, but I'll bet $20.00 that none of you laughing can keep up with her or me on Dance Dance Revolution Max!)
My child is ahead of every other child in her district and is happy, she play's like a kid and has a kids life.... it's that daddy, instead of lying around like a lump on saturdays and sundays watching worthless things like football, basketball or car racing. He spends 3 hours with his child teaching, and 8-12 hours playing (you gotta keep up on the house and spouse/GF also)
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I'm amazed that this got moderated up. First, can you point out any schools specifically that are falling down? Because I haven't seen any, and my company was the one that installed every single wireless network in the state. That covered every middle school. Second, training; they actually instituted a comprehensive training program for all of the teachers, which you would have discovered had you really "looked into it quite a bit." Third, why would we back out of the program in within five years? Apple bent themselves over a table for the pricing on this, and it was quite a gamble on their part. We asked them, they did it for us, and then some people in the state legislature asked about the possibility of backing out of a signed contract. After it had been approved and passed. And finally, laptops going home; each school is allowed to set their own policy on that. It is entirely up to the school administration, so rant at them. I do have one further question for you; was your spelling a clever political ploy to try to demonstrate to /. readers the state of education in Maine? Or was it legitimate?