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Texas High School Gets iBooks
bigjnsa500 writes "Starting in December, high school teachers and students in the sleepy south Texas town of Pleasanton will be receiving Apple iBook wireless laptops. The school has installed wireless access points throughout the campus, including classroom buildings, the shop areas, gym, field house and press box at the football stadium. It will be first high school campus in South Texas to go high-tech." Maybe it's just me, but wouldn't that $2.2m over four years be better spent on books and teachers?
Especially since being a Texas HS means their football stadium already seats 10,000+ and has astroturf. No need to upgrade that!
CMDRTACO CHECK YOUR EMAIL!
I'm sure they've let some money for teachers. It's not mutually exclusive to spend money on technological resources and teachers is it?
And the radiation hazard from wifi?
Seriously, what happened to that stupid lawsuit those idiot parents were trying to bring against the schoolboard?
And why isn't the Texas schoolboard worried about it?
(And I'll bet every single one of those moronic soccer moms spoke to their lawyer on a cordless phone that has 100 times the power of a wifi set.)
www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
Even though the computers are locked down (and Mac OS X is *nix so it won't be pseudo-locked like WinXP), kids will still be able probably to play Java games or the like. Or some industrious kids could boot up YD-Linux and do whatever they want.
At my HS, the most common use for TI-8* calculators is playing games. Who says there will be any difference with these computers?
How many of these are going to get lost/stolen/broken? I remember the hardback textbooks at my highschool had a tough enough time making it through the school year. I think a better computer lab or even laptops that are confined to classrooms would be a better idea.
In High-tech Heretic Stoll does a quickie calculation to compare the cost of computer installation (computers, network, software, maintenance) with the number of textbooks and general library books a school could buy. There's no doubt that books are a far better deal. Not to mention that books last a lot longer than any software or computer hardware will. I'm not saying there's no place for computers in school. My kids do some killer data reduction in science classes, but that doesn't mean flooding a school w/ laptops is a good idea.
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
Maybe it's just me, but wouldn't that $2.2m over four years be better spent on books and teachers? Only if those books do NOT mention the heretical "theory" of "evolution". Note to the humor impaired: I am totally serious. Really.
Theory and practice are the same in theory, but different in practice.
School districts are always saying that they are low on cash that is the only way they can get a bigger budget next year. That is the same with any other institution that gets government spending. Every year or so they show what they spend and then then show what they plan to spend next year. Now if they didn't use all the money the current year they will get a smaller budget next year. So they try to spend all the money on different areas (including $15 for a metal spatula for New York State schools (which is $4 at Walmart for a good one) So this year they had had some money left over so they cant give it to the teachers because next year they will want more and they may not have the same budget so they put in Computers will at least last for a couple of years.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
schools should be spending money on today...
My school bought new textbooks every 10 years... My senior year I had a brand new english textbook (exactly the same as the old one) and all the others were 10 years old... Government and Economics textbooks were both completely out of date (because they were poorly written... should be something that doesn't go out of date)
With computers, hopefully there exists (or will exist) a way of having new (well written) resources for all classes... updated to the minute.
Like anyone can even know that
From the article:
The students -- who expressed the most excitement about the CD burner and chat software -- will find that there are some limitations.
Their computers will be locked, meaning they cannot download any additional software, Hindes said.
Any Web sites deemed objectionable will be blocked, and the district could shut off the chat software if messaging between students gets out of hand.
Losing a laptop or having one stolen carries a $125 penalty, he said.
In addition, the district has software that tells administrators exactly what the students are doing on their computers, he said.
"We're entitled to monitor it and we will be able to do that," he said.
Is this legal ? Does giving a computer for free allow you to monitor and filter whatever you want ? Isnt'it similar to public library computers ?
Whatever the law says, such a deal sucks. The poor guy will have a big-brother computer while is wealthy friend will buy a spyless one.
--
Go debian!!!
schools should be spending money on today...
My school bought operating systems every 3 years... My senior year I had a brand new Microsoft Operating System (exactly as buggy as the old one) and all the others were 3 years old... Windows editions were completely out of date (because they were poorly written... should be something that doesn't go out of date)
With computers there exist ways of having new resources for all classes, but you'll never be able to access the only fine formats ever again.
If intelligent life is too complex to evolve on its own, who designed God?
I agree with Cliff. With the possible exception of teaching programming, computers in schools are an unnecessary distraction. Here's a background piece about his book on the subject.
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
Are these private schools? If not, how much money does the American government have to throw away. Is there going to be HUGE advantages for each student to have his/her own laptop? Yeh its cool, and their going to be able to get their assigments via online, saving the teacher having organise the hand outs all by his/her self, and maybe you'll be able to order your lunch from the kiosk whilst you'r walking there but does it all really help?
Maybe in the future i can see students needing laptops, and i wish i had one in my uni lecturs instead of using a pen to write, just type!
Also i can see advantages, like accessing the net for projects and assigments... Good for googling! But surely they didnt have to buy EACH student a LAPTOP, and an APPLE one at that! Wouldnt several cheap X86 desktop systems do the job? Why pick laptops, which are expensive and PPCs, which are expensive. So much money could have been saved. Also, i've only mentioned the software. We dont have to talk at all about the advantages of OSS!!!
I dont understand it. The article didnt go into the advantages of such a purchase. I cant see them! I hope if my government does similar things, they think first!
Giving IE users a taste of their own medicine since 2005 - http://pods.-is-a-geek.net/
Why? Well, I'm not an academic, but I think they forget that learning is something you do, not something that's done to you. You can't teach someone who doesn't want to learn, isn't ready to learn, or whatever. Conversely, you can't stop someone from learning who really wants to. Teachers are all well and good for the middle third of kids, I suppose... but give a kid a computer and odds are they'll learn something without you having to tell them to do so.
Consider an Algebra text book. The text book manufacturers keep introducing new Algebra text books year after year. Yet, Algebra never changes. A text book written in 1920 would be equally useful as one written in 2000. The difference is that the book written in 1920 is no longer under copyright. It is now in the public domain.
A wise school system would take a public domain text book, perhaps edit to their likes, then publish it in PDF format. They could print out chapters as need be. Students could view the text online. No need to tote text books back and forth to home and school. Look at the money the school systems would save by cutting out the albatross around their fiscal neck -- the text book manufactures.
In short, although buying the iBooks is not necessarily a bad decision, the community would be better served if this was merely a stepping stone to the elimination of the high cost of traditionally published text books. The savings on text books would easily pay for the computer hardware.
What you say is true, but kids will play games with anything. When I was in school, we folded paper into triangles and played football. We played hockey with quarters. We had races on inclined desks with erasers. And when calculators were first introduced into our schools, we played games with the calculators. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Saying kids will play games with something is always true, and is not a good excuse for not doing it. (Not that I think computers are necessarily a good idea.)
As someone who is somewhat familliar with school financing, I have to say you are way off base.
School districts in CA (where I teach) are required by law to put forth a balanced budget every year. In most cases, they must put forth a budget for the upcoming year using "soft" numbers, usually determined by projected enrollment for the upcoming year (x# of students *x$ per student). In most cases, school districts do not have firm numbers to work with, and yet have to come up with a balanced budget that will carry them through the next year.
The STATE determines funding (at least in CA), not the school board/administration. Schools don't tell the State "yeah, we spent 2.2 mil last year, now we need 2.3 mil, yadda yadda yadda". Instead, the State says "here's the money we promised you, sorry it is less than last year, and oh, BTW, you have to carry out all these unfunded mandates that the legislature passed last year."
And don't get me started on Federal funding--that is an even worse nightmare.
No way! We'll drain the Rio Grande (screw you, Mexico) before we let our precious players touch that stuff. 100 yards of pure, green, thirsty burmuda. Yup.
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
That's not funny. It's sad, really. Your joke sounds a lot like what I heard in high school... from my biology teacher!
I had always assumed that the people who spoke out against evolution were just a bunch of cousin-kissing yokels that just stayed on the farm. No sir. When I wanted to write a paper on evolution in my english class, my teacher decided to have a talk with me. She told me to write about something less controversial - like abortion. I shit you not. That's when you know that you've got to move away after graduation.
I still love Texas, but it's getting tougher and tougher to proud of this place. Religious nuts. Bush. Gun nuts. Bush. Houston (at one point it had the fattest people and the worst polution, thanks Dubya!).
Sigh.A publicly traded company exists solely to make profits for shareholders.
the are 950 studens in the school system. this mean each student would get about 0.5% more teacher attention. Assuming an average classroom size of 30, that's about 15% more teachers per classroom, or one hour per day more of supervision. Or to put in plainly, one daily course.
personally I think immersive computer education is equivalent to an extra course, probably more so. Thus I'd say the trade off between books and computers is acceptable.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
What it comes down to is whether this is "new" money in addition to their current budget or if its instead-of existing teachers. Thos overhead costs are all being paid now if its existing teachers were talking about, but the full 100K is its new teachers being hired. More importantly, I'd hate to see them losing teachers, but doing this instead of expanding makes sense.
doesn't prohibit the use of any product made within a 100 mile radius of San Francisco?
Don't feed the trolls. Move along.
This is America, damnit. Speak Spanish!
Actually, I guarantee you they won't be able to boot into any other OS BUT Mac OS X. They won't be able to boot from a CD. A FireWire drive. NetBoot. Nothing. They won't even be able to drop into >console.
/see/ the (hidden) admin account.
/tight./ You can't even yank the RAM and zap the PRAM to reset the OF password because of these nifty little anti-theft strips that cross the AirPort card and top EMI shield. You can't remove the AirPort card to get to the RAM, and if you DO remove the strip, you get this nice little tattoo left behind by the sticker that means "hahapwned" to administrators.
Why?
Lock-downs. If this town is smart, they'll lock down the machines the same way Henrico County Public Schools did in Virignia. (After learning the hard way.) Firmware locks, linking >console to dropping into the "/dev/null" shell (wink wink), etc. The kids will get their own account and will never even
I work for a repair depot that services the county, and lemme tell ya: These machines are
Hopefully, Texas is going to implement similar measures. If not, they're going to have baaaad headaches.
Mikey-San
Karma: +Eleventy billion (mostly affected by watching Celebrity Jeopardy)
When Henrico County near Richmond, Virginia did this, they initially had considerable problems with systems breaking. Part of that was educating students in how to handle the systems properly. Part of it was underestimating the support needs of 25,000 laptop users. Even if 1% of the systems break each year, that's still 250 repairs a year. Initially, the county didn't have an on-site repair shop; machines had to be shipped to DC to be fixed.
Interestingly, after two years of iBooks in schools, the issue has generated enough controversy to be an issue in school board elections. The results? Two incumbents were voted out - including the chairman.
Education spending is done mostly by state and local governments (this is why you get nicer schools with larger budgets in wealthier towns). So this 2.2 million is most likely coming from local property taxes (or corporate taxes if there are any major companies headquarted in this town).
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals."
"Maybe it's just me, but wouldn't that $2.2m over four years be better spent on books and teachers?"
2.2 million isn't chump change, but an all computerized school is cheaper!
Look at Maine, the had a state supported program where they bought 35,000 ibooks, and they don't do text books anymore. Guess what, costs are down, grades are up, attendance is also up. Text books cost a fortune, and eliminating them and going to computers has put money back in the schools pockets.
Perfect Price Discrimination explains why we pay so much for textbooks here in the US, while in poorer nations, the prices are so much lower. We are willing and able to pay the higher prices, while people in say, Ghana, can't. Schools could save tons of money by simply ordering textbooks from international distributers over the internet and having them shipped in to them. I have a friend who makes tens of thousands of dollars a year at his university by doing this fro kids there, which also saves them money.
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals."
I guess Texas Aint important or cool enough to get real computer machines....
DUKEY!
"Hi, it looks like you are trying to cheat..."
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
Yes, but "high school spends $2.2m on teachers and books" wouldn't have gotten mentioned on /. (or in any other media source, for that matter.)
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
Please. Tell us. What are the "outrageous salaries" that are being paid in your community? Have you ever worked as a teacher in a public school system? Or, are you one of the "armchair administrators" that see this as a simple problem?
The problems of educating EVERYONE (no matter what their inclination to learn) and being forced to accept all sorts of abberant behavior (no matter what the parents' willingness to get involved may be) are among the more difficult things that my wife (who's been teaching middle and high school for 21 years) must deal with on a daily basis.
How many times have you been threatened at the workplace, and found the perpetrator of the threat RIGHT BACK in the workplace the next day? This happens to schoolteachers all the time. Are metal detectors necessary in your workplace? Is it because of the risks of someone in the room with you pulling a knife or gun and killing a co-worker? Again, this is a way of life for many schoolteachers.
I'll be the first to admit that simply raising taxes and throwing money at schools for higher teacher salaries and better facilities isn't going to fix our educational system. The system is (IMHO) fundamentally broken, and requires dramatic overhaul and review, from the top down.
Unfortunately, this would also mean that a large percentage of the population would lose the "free day care" services of the public schools, because revamping the system would also mean that many students would be deemed "unfit for the classroom," and would be directed toward a special education program (which is even more expensive) that increases supervision levels for the students, or left out of the public school system entirely.
Then again, we can just take the approach it sounds like you're suggesting. Tell the teachers to stop their incessant whinning about the environment they work in; insist that the rat-infested buildings some teachers use are still "perfectly acceptable"; cut back on extra-curricular activities that are typically funded 80% or more by fundraisers and parental involvement.
Great idea!
Tim
i am a little shocked at all the "better spent" comments. first, as a few pointed out, the money was likely from a tech fund and couldn't have bought books or paid teachers. second, if they have teachers who can actually (feign shock here) teach, a computer and an internet connection can be more useful for most subjects than a book.
if a collection of slashdot readers can't figure out how you can teach psych, or english lit, or current events (especially) with an internet connection, geeks must make poor teachers. and i know that isn't true, cause i spent ten years in the school systems. some of the teachers i knew used rebuilt pent 90 machines to get their kids to do real research and make multimedia presentations. surely using a real computer would be better, wouldn't it?
would you rather have a web connection, or a 15 year old history book? in the 80s my history book said one day man may land on the moon. these kids can be directed to the NASA sight to watch mars landings the day it happens. common people!
i would have killed for this when i taught....
Most schools thrive on education grants from the government and other organization to help them fund programs. When a grant is received, it is to be spent on a particular field. I just granduated from a South Texas school (Los Fresnos High School, just north of Brownsville, west of South Padre) a couple years ago. The year before I started there, they had no technology on campus, there were 486s that were not connected to anything but power. We received a very large grant and bought countless computers, switches, routers, servers (Linux back then), and had the entire campus hardwired. The Brownsville school district gets grants extremely fast and have done everything except to hand out notebooks but since many students already have computer at home, and every class room has a computer or to plus a computer lab per grade. There is no need for notebooks.
I think that before we continue spend the amount of money that we do anywhere in the country on computers for school, we should decide what they should really be used for.
With computers, hopefully there exists (or will exist) a way of having new (well written) resources for all classes... updated to the minute.
There is, but if your school could only afford new textbooks every ten years, they're not going to be able to afford it. Think of a laptop as a MUCH more expensive wrapper for the textbook's data. Yes, laptops have the advantage of being able to update that data, but all you've saved is the cost of the materials in the textbook--you still have to pay for the cost of the information (which is the larger share of a textbook's cost.
Now, you may be able to use alternative sources for the textbook's data (like MIT's open university thingy), but most states are VERY specific about their curriculum, and the trend is to be even more so, and textbook companies have an advantage there that they're not going to squander.
One man's -1 Flamebait is another man's +5 Funny.
Um. So?
Henrico County, Virginia, USA. Been there, done that. Hope you have a nice raincoat, you're going to get drenched..
Don't Ask Questions. I don't know the answers and even if I did I wouldn't tell you.
As I said in a post that got moderated "Troll", it could be worse, I think that $2.2M mark is about the budjet for the school systems for the entire state of Florida.
. as p?rid=1043
Now if you think this is a troll, you obviously know NOTHING of the Florida school systems - they are the worst in the country! I grew up in Michigan with excellent PUBLIC schools, the ones down here in Florida are an insult to this country's capabilities! I can give TONS of examples... most of which can be found with google.
Don't believe me? How about something from the research channel to back me up?
http://researchchannel.org/program/displayevent
Florida was dead last when it came to the most BASIC questions of science: What causes the seasons?
So for the moderators who think this is a troll, think about if for a second - you should either find it informative, or humorous. Unless, of course, your a typical Florida moron who thinks he/she's actually well educated! (now that's funny!)
- Preferences: Solaris 10 (servers), Ubuntu (desktops), Solaris 11 (personal servers) -
He was joking dude. (Don't know why it was modded interesting)
Random is the New Order.
He is very busy about it. But, brother, I can tell you strange news that you yet dreamt not of.
-- Antonio, Much Ado About Nothing
Maybe it's just me, but wouldn't that $2.2m over four years be better spent on books and teachers?
Actually, Texas has the best-funded book program in the country. We've basically got socialized schoolbooks. We're taking a lot of heat from the environmental lobby, and rightfully so, for consuming an excess of schoolbooks, which kill all those perdy trees.
Texas is book rich and teacher-poor. Problem is lower unemployment than in other states, so the only people interested in teaching as a profession are usually the dregs of society who can't get real work because of personality defects, degrees from shoddy out-of-state universities, etc. No matter how much money you throw at Texas teachers, the same sort get hired every year. Increasing teacher pay just results in overpaid deadbeats teaching our kids. Deadbeat teachers shouldn't get another thin red dime, IMHO. Texas should instead lower educator salaries so that teaching becomes a noble calling instead of the state's best pork-barrel welfare program.
In the meantime, Texans are increasingly turning to home schooling. Students home-schooled in Texas rank at the top of the national science fairs, spelling bees, college entrance exams, future salaries, etc. The message is, if you love your children, teach them yourself. If you can't afford to stay home and teach your kid, either abort it in the womb or don't blame society when you let TV and the public school system corrupt her into the dim-witted, foul-mouthed evil slut that the liberal left needs her to be in order to perpetuate elite media megacorporations, depraved Hollywood tycoons and socialist governments (aka socialized education, aka the public school system).
The real question here is who would an IT employer rather hire-- someone who spent her 12 most formative years hacking in Unix at least 40 hours a week before even going to college, or a wannabe who only touched a Wintel keyboard an hour a week and attended college in a state that could only reasonably assume minimal literacy? Easy choice. Buy the iBooks.
Religious nuts. Bush. Gun nuts. Bush. Houston...
;), because atheist extremists place so much faith in science as a tool for disproving religion that we tend to throw the scientific method itself out the window in order to make science bend to our faith in a godless universe. We play with science, but many of us conveniently ignore it when it won't support our claims. Sad.
Don't forget atheist nuts. You know, like the pseudo-scientific zealots who believe that theory plus evidence equals law. Sorry. Unprovable theory plus overwhelming evidence equals really strong theory that still can't be proven in less than several million years or so-- even then, not without a technology that detects the presense or absense of a completely unobservable god. Welcome to the nut bowl. You've been one all along.
Don't get me wrong, evolution is a great theory IMHO, and very probably true, but as much as we might want it to, science can't rule out an unobservable, omnipotent god, nor can it deny that such a god might have influenced mutation, natural selection and the apparent age of the universe. As soon as we even consider the unobservable, science becomes irrelevant with respect to truth. Truth can be both observable and unobservable, but science is restricted to the observable; therefore, pure science has never claimed to address the whole truth, and explicitly declares itself neutral with respect to considering unobservable gods.
Zealots of atheism are far more damaging to the cause of real science than the religious wackos (Wacos?
Neither side can claim their view is absolute truth without abandoning the fundamental principles of science, which demand absolute, emperical, reproduceable proof-- not merely mountains of interpreted evidence or culturally authoritarian assertions.
The truly dispassionate scientist disregards atheism as readily as she disregards religion. For pure science to win the debate, the other two sides must tolerate the presence of alternate views as possible (and popular, if not reasonable) explanations. They must reject all appeals, on the basis of science, that one side is superior to the other. Everyone should get back to the business of real science, and while conducting science, remain neutral to the question of the existence of an unobservable god.
It is strange to any real scientist why so many wannabe scientists would so readily adopt an unscientific view like atheism, and then riddicule other unscientific beliefs like theism in the name of science, which can take neither side. What is even more baffling is how such psuedo-scientific bozos assume most scientists would agree with their unscientific world view simply because it admires science when science is convenient to their faith, and then denies science in order to assert the non-existence of god. Geez, where do these people come from?
Texas, I guess.
Yep. There's lots of nuts in Texas, but there's far more in California and New York. Texas nuts are mixed. One of our nuts, Jack Kilby, invented the basis of all modern technology. Another of our nuts is so deluded by politics that he/she actually thinks science is on his/her side of religious debates between atheism and theism that have chosen evolution as a convenient political battleground.
Sorry to crack your shell, dude, but you're a nut, too. We all are. Embrace it. When you stop filling your mind with hatred of your president and superstitious/religious extremists, you'll live a happier life with fewer ulcers. But hey, it's your own elite media megacorporation-inspired delusion. Don't let some nutty scientist ruin it for you!
Apple laptops are effectively unusable for unix users.
I am a long-time Unix user. That means I need to have the Ctrl key to the left of the A key. This is a genuine need, not merely a want; it is based upon ergonomics. The Ctrl key is heavily used in unix, and it must be easily accessable. It cannot be off in the lower left corner of the keyboard where it is difficult to get at, and where it distorts the position of your left hand such that you can't easily type other keys while holding the Ctrl key down.
Apple desktop keyboards are now all USB. They are all OK. The CapsLock key can be re-mapped into a Ctrl key.
Unfortunately, even in this modern age, all Apple laptops have built-in ADB keyboards. The ADB keyboard is broken-by-design. It is, in general, not possible to remap the CapsLock key into a Ctrl key.
There are some exceptions, but they are horrible kludges. They are horrible kludges because the original design of the ADB keyboard was a horrible kludge. The correct solution would be for Apple to re-design their laptop motherboards to use built-in USB keyboards. This hasn't happened yet. If you run Linux, use Debian's solution. For Mac OS X users, uControl works. There are no solutions (that I know of) for either NetBSD or OpenBSD. Please note once again that the "solutions" above are in fact kludges, because of the original bad design of the ADB keyboard.
Apple provides a technical note on how to remap the keyboard, but provides no solution to the hardware problems caused by the design of the ADB keyboard. This tech note helps foreign language users, but does nothing for the CapsLock/Ctrl problem.
Apple is (currently) ignoring Unix users! This is not merely speculation on my part. In an on-going email exchange I am having with an Apple employee (whom I won't name) in their marketing department, the Apple marketing person directly stated to me that Apple was catering to their historic Mac customers, and is purposely ignoring the Unix market. He also claimed that Apple would soon start paying more attention to the Unix market. I won't hold my breath. Apple has been ignoring Unix users for more than 13 years. I expect that trend to continue. (Also note that my Apple contact indicated that Macs would never ship with a 3-button mouse, even though Apple intended to port almost all X-window software and deliver it either on a CD/DVD or installed directly on each Mac's hard drive. How Unix friendly is a 1-button mouse with X programs that often require 3 buttons?)
Apple has now lost two opportunities to sell me hardware. I really wanted an Apple laptop for their superior battery life, and for the PowerPC with Altivec CPU. (The Altivec is vastly superior to the x86 line for DSP.) Because I can't live with the broken-by-design built-in ADB keyboard in all Apple laptops, Sony and IBM sold me laptops instead. If Apple fixes this problem, they will sell me a PowerBook next year; if they don't, I'll still be running OpenBSD on x86 hardware, and wishing I could use a Mac.