Some Aussie High Schools Moving To Two Devices Per Child

sholto writes "One laptop per child is so last year. Private secondary schools in New South Wales, Australia are in discussions to upgrade their wireless networks so they can handle the strain of supporting a two-to-one ratio — a laptop and tablet for every student."

Comments

Public Funds

[bbqsrc]

Let's see the supporters of the public education system bitch that the private system is abusing public funding to give better services to their students than the public system. They will bitch, and the private system will abuse the funds. Ah NSW.

How does this aid in education

[jellomizer]

What I would like to know. How does this technology aid in education... Yes the student can access some information faster, and do some research, or if your books were ebook they can search for terms faster, so they are not flipping pages while there is a lecture... But does this justify the cost. I don't think so. I am a big fan of technology, I used computers when I was a kid to improve my education. But I am a rare case, I am a geek, I dug in and wanted to figure it out. For most students it will just be more of an internet based distraction.

Re:How does this aid in education

[cappp]

Thing is, there's plenty of evidance that the wired-classroom really isn't all that great. Back in 2007 the NYTimes did a report on schools phasing computers back out of the classroom

After seven years, there was literally no evidence it had any impact on student achievement — none,” said Mark Lawson, the school board president here in Liverpool, one of the first districts in New York State to experiment with putting technology directly into students’ hands. “The teachers were telling us when there’s a one-to-one relationship between the student and the laptop, the box gets in the way. It’s a distraction to the educational process.”

A research paper noted that

we also demonstrate that the introduction of home computer technology is associated with modest but statistically significant and persistent negative impacts on student math and reading test scores. Further evidence suggests that providing universal access to home computers and high-speed internet access would broaden, rather than narrow, math and reading achievement gaps.

A further NYTimes article noted that

Ofer Malamud, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago, is the co-author of a study that investigated educational outcomes after low-income families received vouchers to help them buy computers. “We found a negative effect on academic achievement,” he said. “I was surprised, but as we presented our findings at various seminars, people in the audience said they weren’t surprised, given their own experiences with their school-age children.”

Professors are also banning laptops from their classes. All in all there doesn't seem to be any actual evidance that kids benefit from the use of laptops et al in class. That's not saying they don't benefit from the use of technology in the learning process, but the use of individual laptops and Ipads and all that has so far been shown to be somewhat counter-productive.

Re:How does this aid in education

[xnpu]

It's not that every student has to use 2 devices. It's about making sure the network has sufficient capacity. You don't want to run into situations where a student cannot log on to the network and participate in his class, because some other guy decided to walk around with 2 phones instead of one. Dealing with capacity issues during class, THAT would be a distraction and a waste of time/money. Upgrading the WiFi network is, relatively speaking, a cheap way to avoid technology from becoming a real disruption.

Needless to say, the teachers can still limit/control technology use in their classroom as they see fit, but they can't control the guy in the other class from having the wifi-enabled phones in his pocket and taking away the network capacity they needed for class.

Re:How does this aid in education

[adolf]

I'm not a kid. I'm not going to school. I won't be going to school. I haven't seen a classroom proper in 17 years.

But I was a kid once; an atypical kid like many here on Slashdot, but a kid nonetheless. I remember being a kid.

And as a kid, I had real problems in school. I hated duplication of effort. I was terrible and slow at writing. I used to be admonished by my teachers:

"You can't use a computer to do that work."

"But are my answers correct?"

"Well yes, they are. But you can't rely on a computer, because when there's a problem to solve, there won't always be a computer around to help you figure it out."

Which, of course, was bullshit. Not long after I gave up on school altogether, computers were crawling out of the woodwork. By the time I became an adult and started making real money doing real things for real people, they were ubiquitous.

Nowadays, I carry a computer in my pants pocket that does things which were unimaginable when I was a kid. I use it all the time. And I keep a laptop nearby. These are tools that I use to help me in my professional career, which involves solving real problems in the real world.

Keeping computers out of a classroom is the same as depriving a mechanic the use of a wrench while insisting that they figure out some more archaic fashion in which to adjust a bolt. It's a useful tool now, it will continue to be useful later, and kids might as well familiarize themselves with using the tools available to them to solve problems as early as possible.

Re:How does this aid in education

[wvmarle]

In the classroom there is no room for computers for studying physics or maths. Leave those to the workplace (and then likely only the workplace of university or higher educated people). E-textbooks may be an exception, but those are a mere replacement of paper books.

Before you can use said computer you will have to understand the underlying math and physics. You still have to understand the laws of physics, and how to solve an integral. Without that knowledge computers are useless, and probably only get in the way of the actual understanding of what's going on.

The second step is indeed doing physics simulations and mathematical simulations, that is where the computers come in: but only in the second part, the simulation part. The result of a simulation is only as good as the input - if the researcher doesn't understand what they are doing then they can never make a good simulation.

Not to mention that even if the computers come to the classroom (simple simulations can be illustrative), the software used and taught to the students will be outdated at best by the time they get a job. If the job uses the same simulation package in the first place. This teaching how the software works thus becomes a waste of time.

Re:How does this aid in education

[c0lo]

Children are typically intellectually lazy

On the contrary, kids are the biggest learners. They become intellectually lazy because how the schooling is organized - no education, but taming^H^H^H^H^H training (be good, fit in standards, otherwise will feed you with Ritalin... later, after being promoted with your batch, you'll be a great fool^H^H^H tool for the society).
There's somebody else saying it better than me.

Re:How does this aid in education

[Anonymous Coward]

Some simple simulations can be fantastic aids. I remember when I was a kid writing a BASIC program on a BBC B to demonstrate longitudinal waves. A bunch of vertical lines, each moving horizontally as x_i = a * i + sin(t + b * i). The middle one was coloured differently to the rest. You could see the wave moving across the screen, and you could see that each "particle" stayed where it was. It showed what was going on much better than a Slinky.

Re:How does this aid in education

[TapeCutter]

40yrs ago when I started high school they told me boys were not allowed to learn how to type because only girls grew up to be typists. The typewritter is now dead and all but forgotten but the skill of touch typing would sure have come in handy over the last 20yrs as a developer.

Computers are a universal tool, keeping kids away from them makes as much sense as keeping kids away from crayons and paste.

Re:How does this aid in education

[ffreeloader]

Yeah, this having two wireless devices is a huge problem. Like most kids, although I'm an old man, I'm a major bandwidth hog because I have multiple devices.

I simultaneously surf with both hands while at home or while using a public hotspot such as the public library. With my right hand I download files to my laptop while browsing /., and with my left I browse Groklaw on my Droid while downloading music to it. Furthermore, I speed read /. with my left eye and Groklaw with my right at the same time. If I had a third hand I'd simultaneously download and read ebooks on my iPad with my butt so I could use even more bandwidth.

In particular a laptop and a tablet

[Sycraft-fu]

That just smacks of trendy bullshit without good thinking behind it. I understand OWNING both, sort of. I can understand that maybe there are situations where you want somethign that boots faster than a laptop or is easier to carry or whatever. But how the hell does one person reasonably use both at once? Yes, yes, I can think of contrived situations, I mean how is it useful, in particular to education?

I also have to agree about the distraction thing. I don't think computers for their own sake are a good thing. Computers, particularly ones on the Internet, are wonderful little distractions. As such you should only be using a computer when there's a need. If students are doing a lab where they are using a word processor, or programming, or something well of course they should be on computers. However if they are in English class discussing a novel they read? No, the computers will just be distractions.

This is even true of adults, much less students. I've had the occasion to video tape some special lectures for the department I work at recently and this means I'm in the back of the room, watching everyone. Everyone in the room was an adult, many were over 30 and had "PhD" behind their name. Some brought laptops. All who did, fooled around on them and didn't give it their full attention. Nobody took notes (no need, I was laying it down to tape), they all surfed and goofed off. Fine, they are adults it was their time to waste and this was purely optional. However to presume that young kids would do any better is stupid, particularly when it may be something they aren't so interested in.

Students should do plenty on computers, learning how to use them is an important part of modern life. However they should be off them when whatever they are doing doesn't involve a computer. Less distraction.

And two devices? Give me a break.

A laptop AND a tablet?

[kurokame]

Man, that strain on the wireless network infrastructure has to suck. If only someone could invent some sort of bizarre laptop-tablet...

make 4 kids share 1, and they teach themselves

[Phil Hands]

as proven by Sugata Mitra (of Hole in the Wall project fame), if you get rid of the teachers and provide one computer per 4 children, and let the kids collaborate, they teach one another

http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html

The quote from Arthur C Clark is particularly telling: Any teacher that can be replaced by a computer should be replaced by a computer.

It depends on how you define "student achievement"

[voss]

The idea that student achievement can be defined by standardized tests that themselves test rote learning
not critical thinking is kinda silly. Giving a child 21st century technology to do 19th century work is pointless.
However if there is an integrated technology-oriented curriculum and testing to observe THOSE objectives
then the results might be very different.

Re:haha

[donscarletti]

Well, as someone who went through K-12 in the NSW public school system, I believe that a parent should have the right to get the same amount of government funding to educate their child be it at a public or any other school that teaches an approved curriculum. The bulk of private schools are not exceedingly affluent, some have a smaller total funding per student than state schools. Some private schools have money to blow on oversized network infrastructure, but this is not a typical one.

During my education in the public school system, I saw 50% or more of the teachers being quite good. Most of the principals I saw were promoted far above their level of incompetence and the bureaucracy who control the money seem to be composed of exactly those people who know so little about teaching that they cannot survive in a classroom and thusly continue to invest in exactly the opposite things to what children need to learn. These people need less money, not more. All that is needed is for the teachers and students to be given more options as to where to go.

Fuck Everything, We're Doing Five

[dominious]

Would someone tell me how this happened? We were the fucking vanguard of children's projects in this country. The OLPC was the project to own. Then the other guy came out with a Two Devices Per Child. Were we scared? Hell, no. Because we hit back with a little thing called the 2 Devices and an iPod Per Child. That's 2 devices and an iPod. For music. But you know what happened next? Shut up, I'm telling you what happened—the bastards went to four devices. Now we're standing around with our cocks in our hands, selling three devices and a strip. Music or no, suddenly we're the chumps.

Well, fuck it. We're going to five devices.

In completely unrelated news...

[SpectreBlofeld]

...prescriptions for ADHD medication among Australian high school students skyrocketed 400%.

Tools

[WildNahviss]

I work in a public school district where every student has 24/7 access to a laptop, we are on the sixth year of this project. I have been in public education for 15 years now, six as a classroom teacher (high school math, business, and computer), and nine as a district technology director.

To those who feel there is no need for a computer outside one or two subjects, that's short-sighted. In music students compose their own songs, they record their practice sessions in mp3 files and email them to teachers for a critique, they find good prices on new and used instruments and parts, etc. In foreign language classes they have websites where they can work on one to one language skills, with the computer speakings words for them to help them learn them, they read websites in different languages, they record their practice vocabulary and phrases and email them to the teacher. In English, they create poetry, not only in words, but visually, through pictures, music, movies, and other media. Virtually every class has been transformed, not in what is taught, but how it is taught. It engages the students, it empowers them to take control of their education. Students in our school work harder than they ever did before on projects, enjoying the work, and taking pride in what they do. Not only do they get the "over-stressed" basics of reading, writing, science, math, and social studies, but they work on skills such as creativity, organization, problem-solving, collaboration, prioritizing, etc. Nearly every student is a better student because of the computers. Those that can't physically write well, can usually type much better. Those that are visual learners have tools at their disposal. Instead of forgetting a book at school, their books are always with them on the computer, at a weight of one laptop instead of a stack of six books. The students are better organized, using calendars, reminders, sticky notes, and other applications to help keep their busy lives lined out.

A computer is a very powerful and versatile tool, but it's just that it's a tool. If the current class doesn't require that the students use computers, the teacher asks them to put them away and they do the old fashioned pencil and paper work just like pre-one-to-one days. When the moment strikes that they are needed they are used, when not needed, not used. During school hours, the ONLY thing students can do on the computers are specific assignments for specific classes, or they get in trouble, just like if they mis-used a pencil and were writing notes in class. We use VNC apps to view the students perpetually, the first few weeks they quickly realize that we are "always watching" and setting that standard means the number of mis-uses are very infrequent. When schools come to visit, we proudly bring up every students screen and randomly click on them, watching students, chatting with students, and completely impressing the visiting schools with the quality of work and time on task our students have.

For those that claim it doesn't help with student achievement, that depends on what you measure. If the measure of a student is just math, reading, and science skills, the no, it won't make that black and white difference. If the measure of a student is being organized, creative, self-sufficient, engaged, motivated, excited, collaborative, self-discovering, and able to pursue individual areas of interest, then it is a black and white difference. In a district where 60% of our students qualify for free and reduced lunch, we have a higher percentage of students attending and succeeding as college level classes and their high school classes, the average grade for all students is going up, the well-rounded education they are getting is better than ever before, and we have less discipline problems, better attendance, and lower drop-outs. We have also found that our math, reading, and science test scores are slightly better, but that was never the point of the computer, it's an essential tool for learning, a tool that is used in nearl