Laptops in schools.
 

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/ele...03computer.htm

This is an article about laptops in school. Why am I buying $1350 laptops for kids from my tax money, when I can't afford one?.

This is just messed up for a lot of different reasons.

The main one is that paper is permanent. I have books that are 2 hundred years old. I also have a first edition of Fahrenheit 451, signed by Ray Bradbury.

I guess we won't have to burn books, if the powers that be decide to "upgrade" our computers with a pollyannic revisionist history.

If you don't want the "Cliff Notes" for everything, we better stop this.

To sombody such as myself a laptop is a nessesity, not an acessory, to learning. If the kids all had Dyslexia or other similar problems that can be aided by a multiple scensory learning structure more than a mono or duo sence method, then I'ed gladly fork out to help them.

I myself did not have access to the facilities I needed untill late secondary school. My first laptop was purly to alow me to write things far quicker and more ledgably than I can by hand. Also with its spellcheck it alowed me to bi-pass my dsylexia and move on.

Giving them out to all students, hum... ..if the local education system was not doing to well, then I'ed understand it. But what realy bugs me, is they bought brand new ones? And ever then they bought them from a non education orientated company?
Over here if they did that they would go to RM and get the laptops made for 500 quid each with RM's ledgendary durability. (1993-2004 for one of there cheapo laptops of its time, all of its features worked bar the battery, needed to run off the mains.)

My brother in law, also 43 is an RN and is dyslexic. He's also a very decent Phlebotomist. It seems like he was able to overcome his difficulties without the help of Apple or Microsoft.

He runs the dialysis units for Providence Hospitals in Oregon.

why do kids need a laptop. They are not programmers or graphic designers. Moreover, with a laptop cases such as digital porn and all such r bound to increase. Keep it on paper

Uh, there's a little thing called "portability" that comes along with having a laptop.

Being a programmer or a graphic designer isn't a prerequisite in owning a laptop or a PC.

Yeah but they could pay for them, themselves.. that's the only thing I see wrong here.

If you take a laptop or mp3 player.. or cell phone.. or anything like that to the high school here they take it from you until the end of the school year :(

you have to be sneaky about it. you cant use an mp3 player in the middle of a hall :igor:

Schools don't need computers AT ALL.

Kids need to learn to write with pen and paper.
Kids need to learn arithmetic without a calculator.
They need to learn to plot graphs using a ruler and squared paper.

Computers don't require any special skills to operate.

I'm in 100% agreement with Will here. My kids have computers for something to do when NOT being educated.
My oldest needs to use a computer for research as she is home-educated and we aren't being given any proper help by our local education authority (which I am complaining about).

i disagree.

without the schools computers i wouldnt of got past the schools block to see my email.

without schools computer i wouldnt of gotten to surf the network and look at grades and print of pictures of girls i like.

other than that there useless.
people are so computer illerterate that they click "yes" to everything they see. i was the one who had to fix all the spyware\adware issues.

Tucker you complete spack.
You go to school to learn things not to check your bloody email.
Considering you spend so much time online and can't manage to spell 'illiterate' correctly leads me to believe you would be better off NOT having a computer and having after school English lessons.

so wHaT if i's cants speelz som thiiingz

everyone has weaknesses and strengths.
oh also i had to use it to check the forums

No, that is for HOME time, not a time when you are meant to be being educated. I shall give up at this point.
As a parent I completely understand that young persons aged 11-22 know EVERYTHING and that people of my age know nothing.

They don't? So you think those people who have problems operating computers are just stupid?

pff as if.
i usally do it during lunch hour and skip lunch or during class when we are supposed to be looking up something and stuff i just download firefox and then use tabs..they dont even know waht the tabs are so i win.

we had laptops in the science labs. It really helped us because we would do the experiemtn and enter the data into the excel spreadsheet and also type up reports. Laptops really helped having to calculate everyting with a calculator when everything relies off the answer above it.

No. There's some skill required, but there's nothing special about knowing how to drive a gui, use word processing/spreadsheet software or use outlook or hotmail for email.

Sucks for you...

And your strengths would be?

That's how it is at my school. If a teacher sees a cell phone in a class, they'll take it. You have to pick it up at the office at the end of the day. What really makes me mad is that you can't even have electronic devices out at lunch. You have a cell phone, CD/MP3 player, Game Boy, anything, they[lunch room staff] will take it, no questions asked. It's lunch, not a class, I don't see what the big deal is...

:mad:

computer\graphics\some website layout design\radio talk show host

yours??

And I need to pay for that with my tax money?.

From the article above:

At King Middle School in Portland, for example, seventh graders produced an interactive CD-ROM for a lesson on "fading footprints" that includes written descriptions and scientifically accurate illustrations of endangered species in Maine, videotaped field trips to coastal nesting grounds, and a narrative film on the learning process..

For $1350, we could send the kids to Maine. I think that would be far more educational.

EDIT: and a load more fun.

of course :D

SMH

and that is...?

Laptops in schools is only going to be denied most likely. It's going nation wide that extra curiccular school activites such as, gym, computer, art, ect. are being taken from schools. It's starting at my old school, and moving nationwide. So its most likely going to not happen, but if it does, that would be fucked up. When I was in school, they gave me a slow ass macintosh that works from little blue disks. (Of course then again, that depends on where you live)

In lectures where teachers's points/things that occur to you go through your mind like lightning on speed, it's a good thing to have a keyboard in front of you, especially if you're like me and type much, much faster than you can write.

Maybe you could pay a teacher to slow down for $1350.

Typing classes. Programming classes. Office classes.

All these need computers.

Schools don't need computers at all

Hmmm.. Computers are part of our lives. You should know how to basically run a computer. It doesn't mean that it takes the place of pencil, books and paper.

Computer courses require computers. The bulk of what we need to learn will not be taught by a computer.

Typing, programming and office classes require a computer. In seventh grade, it doesn't.

I'd rather have a computer that outside the lecture hall can use Adobe Photoshop. ^_^

/edit

And I think we're talking about different things. I mean having laptops in High School/College/Uni scenarios. Not elementary school.

//edit

These are all vocational skills which need not be taught in schools.

This is the kind of stuff you learn in courses taken after you leave school.

Back in middle school a few years ago, we were doing the end of the year examinations, and the kids asked the teacher to turn the radio on.

So I'm sitting there listening to country shit, so I reach into my backpack and plugin my earbud headphones into a cd player that is still in my bag.

This country ass kid behind me goes and tells the teacher I'm playing music.

She came over to my table and said "turn it off and hand it to me". I refused and she said it again, she said "Fine, I'll call the principal and have them come get you". I put my bag on and walked towards her and said "You've got a radio going playing this crappy music, but I can't listen to my own music?"

Her: "If I am playing it and you don't like it, deal with it"

I ended up calling all the kids hillbillies and when I got to the office the principal tried to take my headphones and cd player, I didn't even open the backpack :p

One week suspension for not liking country music. That's what that was.

wow you trouble maker.

lol our school is fucked up worse than that

Maybe in England.
Here in the US vocational training is still an important thing for those not going to college and still going straight into the workforce (which I'd say is probably ~50%, including kids who spend a semester partying)

i have to agree with Will on this. while i was in school i didn't need a computer to learn. in high school when i did find a computer to use, i just checked my email and played online games and stuff like that. schools around here need to stop upgrading computers every couple of years. at this moment i'm on a 7 year old computer that can run the newer Office programs just as well as newer computers.

In my school in Lima all the kids now get a laptop. Education in this school is now geared into teaching with laptops. 'Tis a private school though, so it comes out of parents' pockets.

I'm not sure it's a good thing. When I was there I'd go every break time to play football on the field, but now it's almost empty because all the little shits are playing CS or chatting or whatever. They spend hours upon hours infront of the laptop, and then at home they do it a bit more. I think it's a bit sad, because I loved playing football on the field and I think is something that should be a part of school life.

But these skills are quickly becoming vital for everyone, and are already vital for nearly any office worker. Why shouldn't they be taught in high school? Particularly vs. things like "advanced algebra" or chemistry - things that the vast majority of people don't need.

@Will & deeder7001

Did you use a calculator in school? There was a time that people said kids didn't need to use a calculator 'cuz they needed to know how to do math in their head or on a sliderule. Wake up and smell the technology...

The problem here is that most school districts install systems for the students and then don't have teachers qualified to teach the proper use of them or to monitor how they are being used.

My son may get an Apple laptop this fall from school (its not official yet). I personally don't like that idea, but I do feel that the school should provide enough desktops for each student to do a daily assignment on. I feel computer literacy and typing classes should be mandatory starting in elementary school.