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New Hampshire to Follow Maine's Lead
Timex writes "According to an article from the Portland [Maine] Press Herald, some seventh-graders in New Hampshire will be issued laptops in January. 19 school districts have been invited to submit proposals, and up to five of them will be chosen to lead the way in New Hampshire. Cabletron Systems co-founder and NH Governor Craig Benson is getting funding for the four-year project from corporate donations. So far, he's gathered about half of the estimated $1.2 million estimated cost."
(fp?)
mom, can I go back to school please. . c'mon I'm only 25
The teachers knew how to use them, and the system admins know more about securing them then the kids that are using them.
WindowsCHILD, WindowsNEWBORN, WindowsIMPLANT
If they don't choose Macs, they aren't following Maine's lead, they are moving in another direction entirely.
Namely, backwards.
I dunno. I can't see issuing my middle schooler a laptop. Not because I have any particular problem with their use in education, but because the kid has a tendency to drop stuff (and lose stuff). Seems to be endemic to the age group.
Roving Web-Teleoperated Robot
I help support the laptops here in Maine and the program is a complete joke. Schools don't do much more than post information on the Apple run FirstClass mail server and have students use search engines with the things.
Now if a REAL computer curriculum were to be developed around the Unix aspects of Mac OS X that would be something, but integration with the classroom itself isn't going to happen. I don't know how it could really without losing the attention of students who resort to web browsing during dull (and meaningless) lectures.
High School/Public School education is a joke in the U.S. Student's don't even know algebra by the time they graduate with A's in math.
What a waste of money. Laptops aren't the answer to better student performance, as anyone who's been through college recently can attest. Laptops simply add more distractions - games, instant messager, PORN ... and aren't really more efficient than old fashioned pen and paper.
That $1.2 million should be spent on something that really matters ... like new textbooks?
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
Could buy an awful lot of textbooks.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
The same money could buy more desktop units, and could be used to teach the kids how to actually program.
I was taught that one needed to know the math before one could use the appropriate functions on the calculators or computers. This is a prime reason there are so many garbage "scientific" studies out there. Nobody recognizes the stats for the baloney they are.
I am a teacher in Maine and I have to say that the program in Maine works. It received some criticism early on but now the program is in full force and it works. You can trash Apple as much as like but the bottom line is this. Imagine training the number of teachers necessary and then handing out laptops to very enterprising middle schoolers. Also imagine the headaches that could arise when all these middle schoolers get their computers infested with Windows worms and viruses and then expecting the teachers to fix the problems. It is a disaster in the making. The bottom line with using Apple laptops is that they are simple to use and maintain with a big emphasis on maintain. You can quote all those crappy TOC studies you want about Windows vs Apple but again, the burden on day-to-day maintenance is on the teachers themselves! I hope this is clear to all the Windows pundits. For what the state of Maine needed these computers, Apple simply worked better. I wish my neighbors in NH the best of luck in setting up their program. I hope they will take what we have learned thus far in Maine and get their program off to a good start.
Absences, tardiness and disciplinary trips to the principal dropped significantly in one Maine school with the laptops, Benson said.
"If that doesn't tell you this works, nothing else will," he said.
I think it's because the laptop is more like a gimmick that keeps kids occupied. Back in my days, we stopped playing pencil break because we were busy making ASCII porn on a TI-82.
I live near Bangor, Maine, and I did a college photojournalism project at my middle school to see how the laptops were working. Not only did the students seem more engaged in their learning, but they used them for almost everything: they wrote journal entries, found clipart for multimedia presentations, and then researched information for a speech. And that was all during one class. Students in social studies the next period spent time researching current headlines on msnbc.com and informed the teacher of the latest development of the war in Iraq (I visited this spring). That's right, they were telling her the latest news. What better way to engage students in education than by letting them be the teachers? Every study I've ever seen has said that two-way learning is much more effective than reading from a textbook or listening to lecture.
While some districts in the state may be less excited about the program, its important to note that the laptop program in Maine is still supported and still working. While expensive, this program introduces students to technology at a fairly early age. It's very possible that Maine students will be much more tech-savvy once they leave their middle and high schools.
I agree... schools, and the education system in general, need to figure out 2 things:
- How to teach using computers, and when teaching without them is better.
- What to teach about computers.
Both these issues are not being addressed or even recognised in schools over here (Holland). In rare instances you see an enthusiastic physics teacher giving classes on computer science, and even in those cases they have little if any teaching materials to back them up.
Buying computers for schools or giving laptops to kids is not the way to improve education.
Oh, I can sympathise with your sentiment about education. Here in Holland, per-capita spending on education is about 2/3rds of the amount spent in the rest of Europe. It scares the hell out of me to see my country dumbing down, visibly.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
No, they aren't training kids to be programmers or Unix dudes or whatever: so what. What they are doing is ensuring that the entire educated populace in maine is comfortable with technology. And whether you like it or not, that is still becoming more and more a fundamental requirement of any form of employment, even if it's just on the administrative end. Hell if you want to work the cash register at the pizza place next to me you have to know the basics of computer usage.
The last story on this in maine highlighted greater attendance, fewer discipline problems, and greater attentiveness in class as easily spottable trends after the implementation of this program. The laptops stay with the classroom, not the students as they move on. But when the students move on they will know how to use the internet as a research tool, how to use spreadsheets and databases and word processors and such, in short they will be able to utilize technology.
In a state that is trying to update its workforce to keep pace with the times, that alone is a big step. Frankly, I think an educational system that IS NOT addressing the ever growing prescence of technology and its uses in our lives is woefully inadequate.
What the poster was trying to point out is that simply throwing a bunch of laptops at schools isn't enough... Schools and teachers need to support the use of these things as well, and teach students how to use them.
As he pointed out, the schools in his area were hardly making good use of the machines. In your example, I bet that the distribution of laptops in Maine was accompanied by an education programme to teach how to use the laptops for school assignments.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
this is just another of those sounds good, feels good ideas. i taught seventh grade for seven years, and now teach high school. the whole "computers in the classroom" is nonsense. there has not been one definitive study to show that technology aids in learning. now if these were part of a technology program, fine. but are these going to motivate students? no. are these going to increase learning? no. are these going to make the students more critical thinkers? no. it isn't the computer, it's what you do with it. for years teachers in my junior high school were all shits and grins about powerpoint presentations. they'd have the students spend a week in the lab, make this really neato PPT presentation. impress the shit out of everyone with all the eye-candy, and what did the students learn? not much. there was so little room for any information, all the students' time was spent looking for pictures, making word art, etc. it was crap. now, i would do a current event assignment. the students had to find a current event, had to research the country at the cia website, had to research the history on the web, and had to evaluate the article for bias. even though it was done in word, i specified no pictures, graphics, etc. i wanted content. now, which is more impressive? the PPT. which is more educational? hmmm...
beware teachers and districts that say how much technology they are implementing. if it is a tech program, i.e. networking, web design, sys-admin, programming, etc., fine. wonderful. but nothing beats a good teacher, who knows their subject, who makes kids read, think, write, and learn. technology should be part of a technology program only. it doesn't take a computer to make kids read books, use their brain, learn arithmetic skills, write complete sentences, learn history, etc. sorry, but that is the truth.
i am finishing a masters in ed. technology. i am as big a computer geek as there is on a high school campus. but i also am a history teacher. and there is nothing a computer can do for me, the kids, or the class, that will make them learn history better.
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
In the late 1980s i got busted in the 7th grade using my C= Plus/4 to do my algebra and geometry homework with. I was removed from both classes and had to make them up the following year.
My principal's famous last words:
"You need to learn to do this without a computer. When you grow up and get a job, is your computer going to be there to do your work for you then?"
heh
do() || do_not();
I think it's a great idea to provide all kids with regular computer access, so long as it's access to something. What I mean is, just handing out computers to kids and hoping osmosis or something will take over and they'll suddenly start weaving technology magic and make the kids learn more is useless and a waste of money.
If they're providing the technology for access to more technology enhanced curriculum or integrating something useful, then It's a very good thing.
I live in the silicon valley, and I went to a middle school that issued all the 6th and 7th graders laptops(for some reason, not the either graders, so I was screwed). The problem with that kind of system is, it ONLY trains the students to be entirely helpless end users, and nothing more, but there's really no way to fix that. The thing is, when you own your own computer, it's YOURS. You can do what you want: install software, put in another OS, set it up as a webserver, program, etc. However, all of that gives the user access to parts of the computer that the network admins of schools don't want them to have. So, all that they end up being able to do is type word documents, surf the net and use AIM durring class, and play nanosaur. Nothing else.
Larry Cuban, a professor of education at Stanford, has written a book on the subject, "Computers in the classroom: oversold and underused," which is available in .pdf form here:
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/pdf/CUBOVE.pdf
I absolutely agree that the curriculum needs to endorse and support the laptop program in order to be successfull. However - the expectation cannot be that teachers can do this overnight.
When we implemented a laptop program for graduate students in 1990 at UC Irvine's Graduate School of Management, it definitely took some time for faculty to understand how to best use the new technology for their curriculum. Obviously, some professors took to it faster than others, some may never take advantage of the fact their students have laptops. IMO it took a 3-5 years for the faculty to understand how to best utilize the laptop program for their curriculum.
'Cuz, they gotta turn them back in, right?
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
This has serious potential of being a serious nuisance. can you say, students not listening. -browsing -games -music -INSTANT MESSENGING! plus the possibility of some guys running exploits on other students machines . id take windows off ... nix (and wine if necessary) ...
nonetheless ... i like the idea
With that said, as a practical matter, laptops are a bad idea. They are easy to steal. They suffer a lot of wear & tear and break (all you road wariors know this). Anyone ever had an LCD crack? Laptop batteries, just like all other batteries, can only hold a charge for so long. And repairing/replacing them (all the parts, not just the battery) is expensive.
Now, I recommend that instead of trying to fool with all this fancy technology (administering these laptops would be a pain in the ass, too), students just take a pad of paper and a pen. We are really losing something important if we teach these youngsters to be dependent on technology to learn.
The 19 school districts are: Mascenic Regional; Allenstown (4800); Colebrook (2600); Franklin (8400); Monadnock Regional (23000); Winnisquam Regional; Farmington (6000); Mascoma Valley Regional (12000); Somersworth (11600); Haverhill Cooperative (4100)(Warren, Orford, Haverhill, Bath); Wilton-Lyndeborough (3300); Lisbon (1700); Stratford (900); Milton (3700); Wakefield (3200); Andover (1900); Hillsboro-Deering (4600+1900); Weare (6800); and Thornton (1600).
hi, nh kid living in an actual city here... just like to point out those are like... really small. did it even say how many laptops they're getting? 1.2 million over 800 bucks a laptop is 1500 laptops. the above list adds up to just about 100k people, so how many of those are 7th graders? 1.5 percent?
slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
I think it's a good idea to put computers in schools, but I see giving some students laptops as opposed to having a compter class with maybe twice as many desktops stations as a real mistake (analogous to the NEA giving 10 artist $1 million instead of 1000 artists $10,000). It just seems like won't really address the fact that ALL students are going to need to have a computer education and if they don't they might as well get a shoe shine kit now and get to work.
A competent teacher can teach give a piece of chalk, a blackboard, a textbook and an eraser. Money for education should be used to support a highly trained teacher profession who has excellent grasp of the subject matter to be taught.
Most primary and elementary school students need to be educated in the basics before they are able to
tackle the literate medium of the Internet.
We used to produce many engineers and scientists and put men on the moon when we weren't falling into this PC trendy educational experiement. I seem to recall that those scientists and engineers did well with the phonics, sentence diagramming, and long division worked out on paper, not a calculator.
The reason why our kids can't read and perform math without a calculator is that the modern educational system hand-holds them through the things that they need to learn.
My 2 cents,
-Crolis
I've seen lots of posts with people complaining about how laptops aren't any more efficient/better/sexier/etc than pen and paper, but let's look at the facts: In today's instant messaging filled world, many kids can type 50wpm or more. Show me someone who can write at 50wpm. No matter how fast you move your hand, it's just not physically possible to form letters using a pen as quickly as tapping the letters on a keyboard. For this reason alone, kids could spend more time thinking about their ideas and less time writing them down/typing them.
I wonder what kind of laptops will be issued. Physical fitness classes are on their way out and we wouldn't want the kids throwing their back out lugging around a Dell.
Attention all sixth-graders everywhere: If your parents pay a lot of property taxes, make sure you do poorly on your tests. Maybe next year you'll be rewarded with a laptop!
Good grief, people! I can't believe I'm reading this reaction here at Slashdot. You all seem to think that your kids should have to earn the right to use one like you did! What's with that? Today a computer is not a computer at all, but rather a communicator. Only a subset of kids will have an interest in the inner workings of a communicator, but everyone has an interest in communicating with others and being able to use the resources on the net.
This has nothing to do with teaching kids how to use a keyboard and mouse, or about binary and hexadecimal data storage. It has everything to do with empowering them to use the intellectual tools of the trades in our society. And one laptop contains every textbook you or your kids will ever need, and always in the most up to date version. The entire MIT undergrad curriculum and much of the grad curriculum is now online, along with most of world literature. Do you think this is mistake that will soon be corrected with a back-to-basics movement? Give me a break! This is the vehicle through which our kids will progress at their own pace, rather than being held to the average abilities in whatever class to which they may be assigned.
Give a human a fish and you feed them for a day. Give a human a fishing rod, and teach them how to use it, and you give them the means to feed others as well as themselves.
ThosEM
While writing simple text notes is indeed faster on a computer than by hand (at least for those of us who type well), writing complex equations is generally much faster by hand, especially if they happen to use symbols you haven't encountered before (which is not infrequently the case -- you are after all supposed to be learning things you didn't already know in these classes). No matter how proficient you are at LaTeX, it's not very fast to write down formulas filled with stuff you've never seen before, while with pen and paper you can just copy them down immediately.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
In short, your post simply confirms the original premise: the laptops are useless toys that do nothing education-wise. Sure, they might slightly improve students' understanding of computers. However, learning how to use Word and Powerpoint is something that can be done in just a few hours, and doesn't require students to have laptops.
Flame bait and ignorant.
Teachers like this one , and studies and newspapers back up my claim.
Do you work better on a good day or a bad day? Most work better when happy. I know this sounds amazing, but learning AND having fun is possible. Don't be a troll and don't try to deny the results. Attendance is up, kids are having fun, teachers are happy, test scores are good, etc. What more do you want?
ool. I went to a private school in australia that introduced laptops to the classroom in 1995 (fifth grade for me)... heres what I can say. It was extremely useful for work, and helped a lot with that. It got me interested in programming (BASIC, logowriter, html (way back in 95 or 96 I made my first web page...)) MORE importantly, it provided a distraction - games, games, and, uh, games. Why is this more important? first off, i had to find a way to connect to the network without using my proper ID and such so that when we swapped games (via email, heh), i wouldn't get in trouble. This gave me at least a working understanding of a lot of under the hood things, and configuring everything just right for the games did the rest. then the time factor kicks in - i used a computer so much it replaced every thing else. I prefer to write math formulas, take notes, communicate - all with my pc. Now in college, (UC BERKELEY! GO BEARS) i have a reputation in my building as being the 'computer guy' her - 'my internet doesn't work' me - hmm, wtf, everything looks ok, wait a sec, why does your ehternet card wobble around... open case... ah, see, its good to have it connect to the motherboard... or 'why do popups keep coming on every page' followed by a download of zonealarm, hijack this, adaware... so, it provides easy money (or better yet 'favors', ;) and continues to help in my education - so, from my experience, laptops in school = l337 h4X0r c00l! boXx3n 4 4||! (uh, did i just unmake my point wit that last part?)