School Kids Get Virtual Web Lockers 178
Lucas123 writes "Seventh and eighth graders in Tulsa, Oklahoma not only get tablet PCs at the beginning of the school year, but they are now issued 100MB of storage through a hosted school 'Web Locker' system. The Web lockers also include chat, calendaring, and collaboration capabilities, but school administrators can also monitor and track all files uploaded to the system, and lock out individuals for misuse."
Re:Incentive? (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course any technically clueful student will have a thumb drive, unofficial email and IM accounts, and lots of other places to stash/do stuff they don't want teachers and parents to know about. (Though not all students are technically clueful, and the school will try to prevent such unmonitored activity.) But all the stuff they're supposed to be doing will live on the official server.
This school portal idea (which is kind of obvious/inevitable) is less interesting than the laptop program [findarticles.com] itself. There's still a lot of argument over whether laptops for this age group are a boon or a distraction.
When I were a lad (Score:3, Interesting)
The frustration of never a moments peace because we could read the books on the bus or train and be briefed ready to start our homework sooner, leaving more spare time that had to be filled with 'leisure activities - or - worse yet - the hassle of arranging to meet your friends and actually see them in person - heck sometimes we even shared a meal or some sodas in a local park - OUTDOORS - whole we worked together on projects!
At the moment it's a real pain when I have to visit my 7-year-old son's school to have him show me through his project books and explain what he has been working on. Soon I may be able to login to his folder, have a quick browse and tick a box.
Yay progress!
The Tablet PCs seem to be much more notable to me (Score:2, Interesting)
Tablet PCs start around a grand, 100MB of storage is pennies
Tablet PCs allow students to use computers productively (and more easily) in all classes, 100 MB of storage provides ???
Tablet PCs have (most likely) at least 40,000 MB of storage, 100 MB of storage has 100 MB of storage...
I for one think that if teachers are taught to use the tablets effectively, they can be a boon for education, as opposed to laptops, which I find to be virtually useless in most classroom environments in current usage scenarios. I don't that online storage has any discernible benefit to any population's education either.
A digital locker you can't own but must have. (Score:4, Interesting)
This brings us one step further to losing your right to read [gnu.org]. All they need to do is fill it with non free textbooks and tell you not to share them. If there's something everyone needs, you don't need to put it in a locker. A private space for students and computer access would be nice, but not if it's just another tool of control. Requiring the use of non free software is just the first part of that control and it's funny that one of the reasons given was the lack of reliability of the old non free software. The web already offers ways to share calendars, movies and the rest outside the control of the school.
Re:Useless... (Score:3, Interesting)
"But pretty much every computer on a private network is monitored, This isn't really a new "feature" so much as a continuation of existing procedure."
It depends on where you work. We don't monitor anything where I work - anyone stupid enough to try that would be caught out quickly enough. Its expected that people (both men and women) will hit a few porn sites every now and then. Big deal ... just don't download tons of porn all at once and swallow up all the bandwidth while everyone else is trying to work.
Not only that - its part of the job description for some of them. They're expected to keep on top of the latest trends and technologies, and the porn industry has always been THE first mover.
Exactly what does the school hope to accomplish by monitoring? Talk to a teacher. They'll tell you about kids in grades 2, 3 coming up to them and telling them about the pictures of penises on mommy's computer, or boobies on daddy's computer, and the parents will complain about how they can't keep their kids away from the porn sites.
The battle to keep the kids eyes safe from the sight of T and A, while letting them watch 17,000 murders and violent crimes on TV before they're 18, was always pointless, except to those who'd rather make war, not love, and the religious right, who need an enemy so they can fleece the flock for more $$$ to "promote family values." Funny how those "family values" don't go after violence on TV.
Re:Useless... (Score:3, Interesting)