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Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by formercalifornian
Alan, would you mind sharing a bit about your experience? What was your school's purpose for issuing you a laptop and do you think it fulfilled that purpose? How did you use it on a daily basis to complete academic tasks? Did you find it of benefit? Why or why not? How did your teachers feel about the program (e.g., enthusiastic, overwhelmed)? When you or one of your classmates had a problem how was it addressed?
Thanks for the information.
Okay.
- The schools purpose is that since our HS student population was mostly from lower-income backgrounds which didn't have computers at home I figure that's why we got them.
- We did use it to access blackboard, some research, and basic Microsoft Office stuff. But not a lot of use in a lot of my classes.
- I didn't find too much benefit to it because I already had a computer at home.
- My teachers mostly hated the program because they stuck to their books and most students either loaded games on theirs or were watching porn.
- Any tech problem we had we took it to a repair facility located in the library.
Although I agree with you about the expense of textbooks (think about the number of hours your professors spend revising courses every time a new edition is published!), it's folly to believe that everything worth knowing is available on the internet, especially when it comes to the type of reading/research required of serious scholars, and isn't that what higher education is all about?
Though I somewhat agree with you, I also know that there are search engines devoted to nothing but finding scholarly papers, but most of us wouldn't be aware of those b/c we have no reason to go there usually and yahoo or google aren't going to take you there. Besides, I imagine what they're saying here is that the textbooks will be loaded up on the computer, not that the internet is the textbook.
What would be nice is if the teacher had a way to set the computer so the student couldn't go off the page that they're currently working on, b/c my experience has been that alanboy is right and they will be playing games or worse when they're supposed to be working.
There are two separate issue: (1) the delivery mechanism, and (2) the content. A computer tablet is just another delivery mechanism, like bound books, or photocopies, or PowerPoint presentations. It has decided advantages. It cuts out vast amounts of paper and transportation costs so makes books more affordable. It also provides expanded content. For example, you can have history books with links to video of speeches by people like JFK, FDR, etc. It can make the information come alive. You can also do a lot with photographs, charts, maps, voiceovers, etc. Or say there’s a word you don’t understand? Just click on it and a dictionary entry pops up. We’re at the very beginning of what digital books can be.
The other issue is content. State and local governments already control content and it’s a very political issue. Just see the Texas Textbook Controversy. If anything, it digital books might provide more diversity. Texas has a lot of control over textbooks because its market is so enormous. If you remove some of the hard-costs of publishing textbooks, huge states won’t be able to dictate what is (or is not) read so easily.
Regarding going online, I think schools should get internet blockers. They should automatically switch on during classes and then switch off at other times, like lunch, etc. That provides the benefit of connectivity, but keeps people focused in class.
Although I agree with you about the expense of textbooks (think about the number of hours your professors spend revising courses every time a new edition is published!),
New editions, ime, typically don't require profs to revise their courses. When I was taking organic chem, for example, I knew upperclassmen, so I asked around so I wouldn't have to buy them. I got three books for the same course, all exactly the same except for the font coloring in the notes (highlights through out the book), and they were all different additions.
Quote:
it's folly to believe that everything worth knowing is available on the internet, especially when it comes to the type of reading/research required of serious scholars, and isn't that what higher education is all about?
Well, aren't all text books created digitally on a computer and then go to print? There is no reason not to skip the printing aspect. It doesn't even need to be available on the internet, the files can just be transferred to electronic notebooks. As a researcher, all of my research happens online. Every journal on the planet is available on line.
My mother is a university professor (School of Nursing) who teaches some classes on-line using Blackboard. She's spending the summer revising a course to reflect the new edition of the textbook. It's a lot of work.
They're a nation of people who respects education.
Imagine giving millions of American recipient class students that stuff?
It may save some money and improve efficiency, but it would make absolutely no difference in student achievement.
People, respect for education doesn't come from throwing more money at new technology. It comes from actual respect for the teaching profession and actual respect between children and their parents. The South Koreans have functional families that take an active part in their children's educations and actually instill values of discipline and achievement them - instead of just coddling their egos and accepting mediocrity. Until this actually happens here, it doesn't matter if the students have textbooks in the form of an iPad, a book, a papyrus scroll, or whatever else.
Many students in California would lose their laptop. Many would also sell them. Many would go to facebook or my space. Many would go on You Tube. Some would use it for school. 75% of adults do not have a college degree and do not find that memorizing stuff from educational books is all that important. The average adult reads at a 5th grade level and is doing just fine.
^^ When school 'issue' the laptops they have software on them that if lost/stolen/sold the next time the computer connects to the internet, the server sends a logic bomb down to it to disable it. Theft is very low, within day(hours) of it being stolen you have a hunk of plastic that does not do anything. My niece school isses IPads, each class room has it own low power wifi node, so the teacher can turn off wifi in that room, also they have internet filter that dont allow you to go to Non/school related website durring classs time.
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