School region wants to move to iPads at the expense

[wordoflife]

That's because you're only thinking in terms of writing notes.

These kids are using online collaboration tools. They look up things online. They're blogging their book reviews for other students and teachers to read - on other iPods. They're sending emails, and sending their work via email. Not just to their own teachers, mind you. Doing all of this, beyond simply being valuable tools for future research and schoolwork, is also exciting to them.

Think about it - if nobody ever had a need beyond scribbling notes on a piece of paper, we might still not have computers at all.

I personally think that the school should be using computers for that kind of stuff. Cheaper, more useful, and more serviceable. For example, I don't see how they can easily send work via Email. You can't just upload from Safari and I doubt they're going to enter their credentials into the Mail app and delete it after that. Sure, the school could come up with a more elegant solution, but I'm just saying. Also, computers are easier to repair/fix.

I'm going to be completely honest, but I don't think they need iPads. In highschool, kids rarely use computers in school anyways. What are you going to do with an iPad thats even less function? At the end, the school will have to follow their curriculum and there's not going to be time to mess around with iPads. If a key needs to type an essay, it's going to be faster on the computer. And if you suggest that they also buy keyboards for each iPad, then I just think that they really need a computer.

Sorry, but I just don't think this is necessary here. School needs to save up themselves. Right now the iPad just isn't there (at the costs necessary). They're better off buying computers no matter how you look at it.

I could understand the iPad argument for younger children though (age 1-6?). But middle/highschool? No.

If the student/parent buys an iPad or (private) school requires you buy an iPad, then that's fine. But its by no means necessary and therefore tax money shouldn't be spent on iPads imo.

 

[roadbloc]

That's because you're only thinking in terms of writing notes.

These kids are using online collaboration tools. They look up things online. They're blogging their book reviews for other students and teachers to read - on other iPods. They're sending emails, and sending their work via email. Not just to their own teachers, mind you. Doing all of this, beyond simply being valuable tools for future research and schoolwork, is also exciting to them.

Think about it - if nobody ever had a need beyond scribbling notes on a piece of paper, we might still not have computers at all.

I fail to see how any of that stuff actually helps a child learn. Apart from the looking up things online bit. But that was achieved easily back when I was young with an Acorn computer hooked to the internet in every classroom. You don't need much more than that in my opinion (obviously something less redundant than Acorn).

When I was taking my GCSE's they began experimenting with what I call e-ifying everything. They began asking us to do our maths homework via the internet instead of just handing out a question book at the beginning of the year. To be honest, it was a total ****ing disaster. A few of the kids (including myself) who didn't have internet or a computer at home had to spend their lunchtimes completing the homework, the website was often down or broken, one guy spent week after week doing the work, but the teacher wasn't receiving it and it was all due to him having an older version of flash (and no-one realised it) and it provided them who could have actually done the homework fine with an excuse not to do it (they could claim that the website didn't work).

A few years later and my brother is at high school. They're still trying to do maths homework via the internet. It is still failing compared to the good old days of a question book.

Now I'm not suggesting that tech and education should never be combined. But I feel there is a line to be drawn where we say, "actually, this is causing more problems than solutions," and stick to the working method of doing things. I never understood what they aimed to achieve by making all our GCSE maths homework an online thing, but I don't think they achieved it.

 

[miles01110]

Think about it - if nobody ever had a need beyond scribbling notes on a piece of paper, we might still not have computers at all.

How is this even relevant? Nobody is saying computers or electronics aren't beneficial or necessary in the classroom. There is surely, however, a line to be drawn past which the benefits of the simple, cheap, low-tech solution outweigh that of the iPad or computer.

For example, taking notes on an iPad in a history or English class is one thing, as standard letters and numbers are easy to use a keyboard for. Switch to calculus or physics - the iPad or any other electronic device I know of completely fails compared to the speed at which you can write equations on paper (unless you're really good with LaTeX).