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Internet Could Mean End of "Snow Days"
fangmcgee writes "Could the Internet mean the end of snow days? Some schools think so, and they are experimenting with ways for students to do lessons online during bad weather, potentially allowing classes to go on during even the worst blizzard." Alright folks, it's finally happened: The Internet has gone too far. It's time to blow it up and go back to papyrus scrolls and horseback couriers.
Unless the wired and wireless infrastructure for broadband is made better and tougher.
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
Maybe it can teach the difference between "to" and "too"? Then move on to advanced concepts like "their", "they're" and "there"; the proper use of commas and even that spawn of satan itself, the apostrophe.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
wouldn't be "to" bad an idea for some.
Your computer and internet still won't go if your power goes out. Or if your internet goes out separately. Also, this will only work in wealthy communities where everyone has broadband and a computer that meets the specifications for whatever terrible software the schools will foist on students.
I think it's a good idea as long as students are not penalized for not participating. Unless the schools want to provide PCs and on-demand dial-up connections to students that don't have a computer or Internet, it would hardly be fair to expect students to go to the public library to get online if schools are closed due to weather. Believe it or not, there's plenty of students that would take advantage of this even if it was not mandatory, if only for a review/Q&A style class online.
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
Snow days are healthy. By Saturday it'll be muck, or ice, and the kids will be stuck inside, yet again. And since it's May, let's not forget it's dark by dinner time in the winter. Let the kids play outside, for their own good. It's only a few times per year.
Operator, give me the number for 911!
Wow, your comment made me look at online education in a different way. Before I always just saw it as all the students watching the teacher over a live video, and maybe there being a video stream back if they want to ask questions.
Instead, I think it would be a lot better for the teacher to record the lesson once (assuming the same lesson is taught multiple times in a day or week) and then allow the students to individually pause it to ask a question, which could be done via live video. While the students are watching, the teacher can be grading papers or whatever other work they have to do, instead of having to take that home with them like so many do right now.
The only issue I've thought of so far is multiple students having the same question, but responses to questions could be recorded also and added to the site like a video FAQ for that lesson/course/etc.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
Get prescribed amount of work done, then do whatever you want for the rest of the day.
I was homeschooled from fourth grade through twelfth. This is pretty much what I did, except I did it in week chunks. My mother would plan out the school year in advance then hand me my workload for a given week. I would then crank through as much as I could, often getting my work done on Wednesday, leaving Thursday and Friday for leisure time.
That schedule allowed me to start up my own computer repair business when I was 16. It was great - I could schedule clients during normal business hours when I might have been in school wasting time for the slower kids to catch up.
You have clearly never known true poverty.
Most people know the difference, but still screw it up occasionally. In the final draft of my dissertation, even I used "there" instead of the proper "their" in a sentence (only caught it years after the fact). There's something about homonyms that still throw us off, even if we're well aware of the distinctions (I've known the difference since grade school).
It's more akin to a typo than ignorance. Pompous grammar nazis, of course, don't understand that--what with their propensity to use any grammatical mistake as a chance to make up for their small dick sizes.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
(Also, unlike snow, you can't just plow the ice off the road.)
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Many folks working out how education will evolve in a productive way (not the politicians and corporations who only look to break education in order to line their pockets during the crisis they create) see the coming of the virtual classroom as a done deal. It will happen and we will see it in our lifetime.
So to see the end of Snow Days (due to transportation problems) because students can be required to participate in lessons from home is a done deal. All the technical stuff students learn in school today, you know the stuff that they assess with standardized testing (another useless and damaging corporate weapon) can easily and quickly be learned in a virtual learning environment.
What will be interesting is how we deal with the aspects of schooling that aren't shown on report cards, socialization, mental and physical well being. Parents who home school their children tend to work very hard to include these very important components of development. I have talked to parents who go way out of their way to have their students participate in group activities educational, spiritual and recreational.
So I say good riddance to the Snow Days of old that more often than not rewarded the bus students and punished those who walked. Good bye to the nightmare of parents having to leave kids at home with only a moment of preparation time and having to rely on the TV and game console to guard over them. Welcome to the new reality of the web being used for more than just porn.
By the way, yes, I was never a bus student and I didn't get my fair share of snow days.
Is there actually anything to back that up? I hear that over and over, but have never seen stats.
My experience in school until Highschool was never one of cooperation or interaction. The closest I got was my Gifted class that most students couldn't pass the test to get into. In that class, there was a lot of projects, presentations, and such. But in my regular classes (that I had to go to in addition to Gifted) there was none of that. Highschool was the first time I worked with someone else on anything and was graded on the team's performance, and that only happened a couple times.
So I have to question exactly how much interaction is really happening in our schools.
I'm not even saying you're wrong... It could be that you're right, and I'm right... And that we NEED to start teaching social interaction and teamwork in our schools. But again, is there any real evidence, or just suppositions?
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
Having access to a computer doesn't always mean having one in the home, available to be used in the event that you cannot leave the home for whatever reason.
"I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
You have clearly never known true poverty.
Notice that the heading of the post is "In the developed world...". So where have you seen "true poverty" in the developed world?
In the United States, education is handled locally. So even through there are districts where internet access is a rare luxury, there are other communities where it is taken for granted. In those communities, arrangements might be made for the few households that currently lack access.
Those richer communities can work out the kinks and when the poorer communities catch up in terms of internet access, the best practices will be well known. That's one of the benefits of local control of government services.
I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
I'll sell you some. I've got a bunch.
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
Where I live there is one high school in the county and its about a half hour drive from where I live and I'm about half way between the school and the county line so it's further for others. The only broadband we have access to is satelite. I also imagine there are quite a few children in this county that do not have a computer. Also I do not get cell service.
I have seen "true poverty" where I went to high school. Their are lots of children that only eat when they go to school and get a free lunch. I remember one kid in school who the teacher bought a pair of shoes and a coat for him. He came to school the next day wearing his old shoes and no coat. The teacher asked him about it and he said his father had taken them for himself. Maybe you grew up in a nice suburb but there are children in the US of motherfucking A that do live in poverty.
I would call that poverty, but "true poverty" to me suggests unsanitary conditions where medical help is unavailable, children have to be sold to pay bills, human waste sewers are the ditches that run by people's "houses" (which consists of cardboard boxes, tents, and the like) and other problems that are pretty much unheard of in the developed world.
Your friend, as difficult as his life was, knew where his next meal was coming from (the cafeteria every day Monday through Friday), used toilets that flush, had clean water available (from the drinking fountains at school and if he was in the US any restaurant he cold find - they're required to provide water free of charge), had emergency medical care available, etc.. He even had education available free of charge.
Yes, I did grow up in a nice suburb and I'm very thankful I didn't live your friend's childhood, but I'm even more thankful I didn't leave a truly poor childhood in another country where surviving to adulthood isn't taken for granted.
I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.