Do your kids take laptops to school?
- Thread starter Beca
- Start date
My school district has laptops for all the students.
Now, it isn't each individual student has a laptop, but more a shared grade system.
For example, all the 5th graders (there are 93 5th graders in the school) have one cart of 20 laptops for them all to share. They stay at school, but each student has a flash drive that the teacher keeps with all thier work on it. The laptops are scheduled out for certain days for each of the 5 5th grade classes but can be rearranged carefully.
My daughter (in the same school) has been using the laptops for each grade since kindergarten. Its a wonderful thing! They started using the laptops so they could utitlize classroom space. They got rid of the computer lab and the laptop carts get locked up at night in the office or AP room.
However, some special education students have thier own DANA. DANA is not a laptop however, it does look like one. It is basically a "dumb terminal" --sorry thats the technical name (its not PC), which coordinates with the desktops computers hard drive. The DANA has limited if any hard drive capacity, and very minimal functions. Basically a student has to download DANA work into the another desktop so it can be printed.
I sub at a high school, and I have seen a few, but not many students with laptops.
Now, it isn't each individual student has a laptop, but more a shared grade system.
For example, all the 5th graders (there are 93 5th graders in the school) have one cart of 20 laptops for them all to share. They stay at school, but each student has a flash drive that the teacher keeps with all thier work on it. The laptops are scheduled out for certain days for each of the 5 5th grade classes but can be rearranged carefully.
My daughter (in the same school) has been using the laptops for each grade since kindergarten. Its a wonderful thing! They started using the laptops so they could utitlize classroom space. They got rid of the computer lab and the laptop carts get locked up at night in the office or AP room.
However, some special education students have thier own DANA. DANA is not a laptop however, it does look like one. It is basically a "dumb terminal" --sorry thats the technical name (its not PC), which coordinates with the desktops computers hard drive. The DANA has limited if any hard drive capacity, and very minimal functions. Basically a student has to download DANA work into the another desktop so it can be printed.
I sub at a high school, and I have seen a few, but not many students with laptops.
KrnB
<font color=6600CC>Baseball Nut<br><font color=FF3
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- 1,735
My step-DS's school issues Mac laptops to kids at least as young as 4th grade (his first year at that school). DH and I found out about that when step-DS, who lives with his mom, got in trouble in class when his laptop had problems and he was unable to turn in an assignment. We were shocked.
I think it's crazy to trust kids that age with a machine they need to bring home with them. And in our area, where there are constant complaints about state funding for education being cut, with teachers losing their jobs and art/music and other programs being cut, I think this is a total waste of taxpayer money.
It's a great idea to have computers available for all students to learn how to use them and the software on them - it's a very important skill in today's world. But laptops aren't cheap, not as cheap as a desktop computers, and they are more open to problems - particularly in the hands of kids that don't handle much of anything delicately.
I think it's crazy to trust kids that age with a machine they need to bring home with them. And in our area, where there are constant complaints about state funding for education being cut, with teachers losing their jobs and art/music and other programs being cut, I think this is a total waste of taxpayer money.
It's a great idea to have computers available for all students to learn how to use them and the software on them - it's a very important skill in today's world. But laptops aren't cheap, not as cheap as a desktop computers, and they are more open to problems - particularly in the hands of kids that don't handle much of anything delicately.
Puffy2
DIS Veteran
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- 3,248
In Georgia , Cobb county looked into getting lap tops for all students in middle and high school - then it was discovered that the school system planned to use funds from a special option sales tax when it wasn't disclosed to the voters that that was the plan (bait and switch)...then Superintendent Joseph Redden was found to have accepted a bid with Apple Computers that was higher than the other bids put in by Dell and IBM. There was also an indication based on witness testimony that "a school system employee hinted before the final bids were in that leaders wanted Apple Computer as the supplier."
The program has been scraped, Redden has resigned and it's all being investigated .
Personally, I think it's just another way for corrupt elected officals and corporations to steal millions from the tax payers. The laptops were to cost - initially - $69.9 million to provide 63,000 wireless laptops - with an expected cost of $88 million.
Parents were to pay $50 for insurance for the laptop.
The program has been scraped, Redden has resigned and it's all being investigated .
Personally, I think it's just another way for corrupt elected officals and corporations to steal millions from the tax payers. The laptops were to cost - initially - $69.9 million to provide 63,000 wireless laptops - with an expected cost of $88 million.
Parents were to pay $50 for insurance for the laptop.
Puffy2
DIS Veteran
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/29/national/main626663.shtml
At Greenwich Country Day, a prestigious Connecticut private school, computers have all but replaced pencil and paper. Typing instruction starts in second grade, and laptops are mandatory by seventh. Essays are typed, and often class notes are, too.
"As an adult in today's work world, you don't write anything," said Carol Maoz, head of the upper school (grades 7-9), adding she couldn't think of an occasion students would write out a longhand essay. "You type everything. There really is no need for proper handwriting."
Maybe not -- indeed, even notes get passed in class via text message these days.
But next spring, many of Country Day's alumni, along with millions of other high school juniors, will have to write a very important, 25-minute longhand essay -- as part of the new SAT. Nearly as many will write a new optional essay on the ACT.
The new tests are causing general anxiety for the high school class of 2006, guidance counselors report. And some students who think they'll write a good essay are worried scorers won't be able to decipher it, raising the question of whether penmanship should be getting more attention in the classroom.
"People like myself, who don't have good handwriting, are wondering if some anonymous person is going to think I spelled stuff wrong and not understand what I'm trying to say," said Lucas Rohm, a 16-year-old Country Day alum who is now a rising junior at Greenwich High School. "I definitely feel handwriting is something I need. Country Day just kind of brushed that out."
The school says it still emphasizes handwriting in the early grades; this year, younger students were assigned to write longhand notes to classmates over the summer. Nationally, with a renewed emphasis on basic skills, handwriting is probably getting more attention than a decade ago, said University of Maryland education expert Steve Graham.
But that's still far less than it did during the pre-computer era. Teachers may view penmanship as less important, or simply have more material to cover.
"When there really were only three 'Rs,' they could spend more time on it," said Richard Northup, a vice president at Zaner-Bloser, an educational publisher that revised its handwriting teaching products several years ago. Teachers told the company they needed to get through the topic more quickly.
Still, many educators aren't ready to declare penmanship and the longhand essays lost arts. The National Handwriting Contest, sponsored by Zaner-Bloser, saw entries jump 30 percent to 130,000 last year.
Northup insists that, while educators may be spending less time on handwriting, they are teaching it more efficiently, and have come to appreciate the important role of letter formation in helping students read. He also welcomes the new SAT essay.
Graham said he's found 90 percent of elementary teachers he surveyed were teaching handwriting, though about three-quarters didn't think they were adequately prepared and very little is taught after third grade.
"Handwriting's not going to disappear for a good while, unless something radical changes in schools," he said.
One factor suggesting that's true is a developing appreciation of the limits of classroom computers. Indeed, many colleges, law and business schools that wired their lecture halls for students discovered the technology was more likely to be used for surfing the Web and e-mailing.
That's also what happened at Country Day, said Rohm, the student with sloppy handwriting.
"Half the kids are looking at Web sites, playing games in class," he said. "Computers are great, but there are so many hours spent working on computers that haven't helped me."
Administrators of the SAT and ACT insist students won't be penalized for poor penmanship, and say their readers -- all experienced teachers -- have lots of practice deciphering the most "chickenesque" scratches.
Students with poor penmanship also are unlikely to pay too heavy a price for bad scrawl in college. While some professors maintain the written in-class essay exam, students do most of their formal work on computers. Professors are generally more interested in evaluating a revised, polished product than in how well a student composes on the fly.
"As far as we can tell, our kids have not been hurt in any way," Maoz said of Country Day's technology emphasis. "We talk a lot about technology and some of the downsides, but honestly, (penmanship) just is not one of them."
As for the new SAT, she said: "the curriculum is not going to change just so kids can take this one test."
At Greenwich Country Day, a prestigious Connecticut private school, computers have all but replaced pencil and paper. Typing instruction starts in second grade, and laptops are mandatory by seventh. Essays are typed, and often class notes are, too.
"As an adult in today's work world, you don't write anything," said Carol Maoz, head of the upper school (grades 7-9), adding she couldn't think of an occasion students would write out a longhand essay. "You type everything. There really is no need for proper handwriting."
Maybe not -- indeed, even notes get passed in class via text message these days.
But next spring, many of Country Day's alumni, along with millions of other high school juniors, will have to write a very important, 25-minute longhand essay -- as part of the new SAT. Nearly as many will write a new optional essay on the ACT.
The new tests are causing general anxiety for the high school class of 2006, guidance counselors report. And some students who think they'll write a good essay are worried scorers won't be able to decipher it, raising the question of whether penmanship should be getting more attention in the classroom.
"People like myself, who don't have good handwriting, are wondering if some anonymous person is going to think I spelled stuff wrong and not understand what I'm trying to say," said Lucas Rohm, a 16-year-old Country Day alum who is now a rising junior at Greenwich High School. "I definitely feel handwriting is something I need. Country Day just kind of brushed that out."
The school says it still emphasizes handwriting in the early grades; this year, younger students were assigned to write longhand notes to classmates over the summer. Nationally, with a renewed emphasis on basic skills, handwriting is probably getting more attention than a decade ago, said University of Maryland education expert Steve Graham.
But that's still far less than it did during the pre-computer era. Teachers may view penmanship as less important, or simply have more material to cover.
"When there really were only three 'Rs,' they could spend more time on it," said Richard Northup, a vice president at Zaner-Bloser, an educational publisher that revised its handwriting teaching products several years ago. Teachers told the company they needed to get through the topic more quickly.
Still, many educators aren't ready to declare penmanship and the longhand essays lost arts. The National Handwriting Contest, sponsored by Zaner-Bloser, saw entries jump 30 percent to 130,000 last year.
Northup insists that, while educators may be spending less time on handwriting, they are teaching it more efficiently, and have come to appreciate the important role of letter formation in helping students read. He also welcomes the new SAT essay.
Graham said he's found 90 percent of elementary teachers he surveyed were teaching handwriting, though about three-quarters didn't think they were adequately prepared and very little is taught after third grade.
"Handwriting's not going to disappear for a good while, unless something radical changes in schools," he said.
One factor suggesting that's true is a developing appreciation of the limits of classroom computers. Indeed, many colleges, law and business schools that wired their lecture halls for students discovered the technology was more likely to be used for surfing the Web and e-mailing.
That's also what happened at Country Day, said Rohm, the student with sloppy handwriting.
"Half the kids are looking at Web sites, playing games in class," he said. "Computers are great, but there are so many hours spent working on computers that haven't helped me."
Administrators of the SAT and ACT insist students won't be penalized for poor penmanship, and say their readers -- all experienced teachers -- have lots of practice deciphering the most "chickenesque" scratches.
Students with poor penmanship also are unlikely to pay too heavy a price for bad scrawl in college. While some professors maintain the written in-class essay exam, students do most of their formal work on computers. Professors are generally more interested in evaluating a revised, polished product than in how well a student composes on the fly.
"As far as we can tell, our kids have not been hurt in any way," Maoz said of Country Day's technology emphasis. "We talk a lot about technology and some of the downsides, but honestly, (penmanship) just is not one of them."
As for the new SAT, she said: "the curriculum is not going to change just so kids can take this one test."
Laptops not required here. However, I did read that many districts are considering going to text books on laptop because of ability to have the most current version.
I know that my boys would benefit from the use of laptops at school but I don't about the logistics of it.
I know that my boys would benefit from the use of laptops at school but I don't about the logistics of it.
Boy, that insurance comes in handy. We've had two laptops stolen - one from home (accidently left in the backseat of a locked car overnight) and one from school (left with other student laptops in a training room that was supposed to be locked by staff, but wasn't). The students are really drilled about laptop safety, but it can happen and every year there are a few!!
That article makes me glad my children live in the time they do. They were taught D'Nealian handwriting in K-1, with handwriting practice complete with homework sheets. Then, in second grade, they learned cursive writing, again graded on neatness and precision. But they both will also grow up with the full benefit of technology. I know parents of kids who don't have good writing (or who have fine motor isuues) see laptops as a godsend, though. They really can help a student get to the "meat" of an assignment without something standing in the way.
That article makes me glad my children live in the time they do. They were taught D'Nealian handwriting in K-1, with handwriting practice complete with homework sheets. Then, in second grade, they learned cursive writing, again graded on neatness and precision. But they both will also grow up with the full benefit of technology. I know parents of kids who don't have good writing (or who have fine motor isuues) see laptops as a godsend, though. They really can help a student get to the "meat" of an assignment without something standing in the way.
BethanyF
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- Feb 17, 2002
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our school loans iBooks to all 4th, 5th and 6th graders. Im assuming the Jr High has a similar program. All I really know is the parents have to pay $50 a year for insurance. The laptops are internet ready, although they arent supposed to use the internet at home (I think they use it at school). The kids do a good portion of their work on them and have to carry them back and forth every day.
This is in suburban Chicagoland
This is in suburban Chicagoland
Chim Chiminy
stale marshmallows sting when they hit you
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- 1,861
DS's middle school issues them to all 7th and 8th graders.
He took his training classes last week I believe and this coming week they will be able to start bringing them home.
Not sure if the laptops are a state program or school district program.
He told me he thought this would be the last year of the program. I am sure it is quite costly, but what I hear from neighbors it is a very good program for the kids. The do a lot on the computers. They are internet ready.
He took his training classes last week I believe and this coming week they will be able to start bringing them home.
Not sure if the laptops are a state program or school district program.
He told me he thought this would be the last year of the program. I am sure it is quite costly, but what I hear from neighbors it is a very good program for the kids. The do a lot on the computers. They are internet ready.
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