New Hampshire to Follow Maine's Lead 236
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."
Waste of money (Score:5, Insightful)
$1.2 million ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Thats for sure (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
Whatever.... (Score:2, Insightful)
"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.
The program seems to be working in Maine (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Kid's and laptops. (Score:1, Insightful)
i am a school teacher (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
Re:$1.2 million ... (Score:2, Insightful)
On the other hand, the information contained in those textbooks can and will be largely out-of-date in a decade, particularly where the fields of natural sciences and engineering are concerned.
Back in the days before the web, when I was in the K-12 system, I was handed textbooks that were decades old.
If I wanted to write a paper with current information, I would have to travel to the local college library, which had a budget sufficient to pay for today's periodicals and reference materials.
As a taxpayer, I wouldn't mind my tax dollars going to fund access to a textbook that can always grab current information from the web.
The web is here and children should be able to take advantage of that.
Granted, teachers need to be able to leverage this advantage but over time this will become the norm.
Embrace change, don't fear it.
-Alex
tech for tech sake (Score:2, Insightful)
If they're providing the technology for access to more technology enhanced curriculum or integrating something useful, then It's a very good thing.
Ehhh...Kind of a waste of money (Score:2, Insightful)
don't bother with laptops (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:Thats for sure (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:$1.2 million ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Schools should have web access. (Indeed, virtually all of them do.) The internet should not be the only source of learning material, however. That's not embracing technology, that's just a blind rush to do the next big thing.
Are laptops more expensive than desktops? (Score:2, Insightful)
We need to get back to basics... (Score:2, Insightful)
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
Efficiency (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Kid's and laptops. (Score:5, Insightful)
So, get an iBook. They are cheap and when you wake them from sleep, they are on almost instantly. No waiting.
They also require juice considering they don't run on air and a random day at college lasts 8 hours for me.
My 800 Mhz iBook ran for about 5 hours of constant use which is more than plenty for a day at school considering that you are not constantly using the laptop during your school day. If you were, you had access to a power outlet. Currently, I use an 12in Powerbook that has less battery life, but since I am not in classes anymore, I prefer it and the extra features.
Also, laptops aren't very versatile for writing down stuff in a hurry.
I can type much faster that I can write as can many, many others who generally prefer taking notes with a keyboard.
The programs given are very limited and using them can feel very unnatural at times.
I find a simple text edit program the easiest and fastest way to input notes.
That whole issue might be solved by those tablet PCs with the pen thingy, which is far more suitable for jotting down notes and what not.
I agree with you here. I have owned an Apple Newton 120 (they still rock!) and I have used some of the new Microsoft tablets, and by far, the Newton had better usability, although they are showing their age now by lacking modern I/O and networking. The Newton however was not quite ideal for notetaking. If you plugged in the additional keyboard they were O.K., but it needed a little more integration with the pen and keyboard. The current Wintel tablets are simply tablet versions of dekstop metaphors and simply, don't work very well. More R&D needed to go into interface design. I don't know if Apple will ever produce another tablet/subtablet type device, but it would certainly be welcome in many circles.
Reactionary Geek Alert! (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:i am a school teacher (Score:3, Insightful)
do you only take humanities classes? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Kid's and laptops. (Score:3, Insightful)
I've thought about the usefulness of laptops during classes, and the best way that I've seen to make them useful would be to set up a tiny direction microphone pointed at the lecturer, set up a small webcam, and record.
Years ago, when my mother went back to school, she did a similiar setup with a cassette recorder. Works well for review, if your professor does not rely on blackboard diagrams. Else, an audio/video recorder is the way to go.
Then again, it would only take one person to do this and just share his `notes' to the rest of the class.
Next on Slashdot: Lawsuits over recorded lectures.