(no subject)
I stumbled apon this old article on digg and it got me thinking about something that was discussed at school yesterday. The article itself was a fairly decent read and it was interesting to see young kids getting so involved in deep issues. That said, the level of socialist bias within the school was somewhat disturbing. Damn lefty teachers!
Yesterday I got stuck at school till 5:15 thanks to a meeting after school that seemed to drag on forever. One of the issues discussed (I withheld my 5c) was the possibilty of students who own their own laptops at home bringing these to school. It was argued that these machines were an untapped resource that could be made use of in classrooms and that a significant proportion (around 2/3) of students straw polled had their own laptop. This idea proceeded then to be shot down under the banner of equity and social justice as students who did not have their own laptop might feel less of themselves when they were not able to bring a laptop to school like their peers. If everyone can't have one then nobody is going to have one.
I am currently undecided on this issue. There is certainly an argument to be made for the benefits of being able to leverage more technology in the classroom. Though, at the moment this would require significant investment in upgrading the schools networking infrastructure. The equity argument seems weak to me. Mainly because I think that students have a fair idea of their relative means anyway. Are we doing the right thing by those that could utilise personal laptops at school by denying them this access?
There are other arguments against that I feel could be stronger. There is certainly a hefty security concern if you have students carrying around expensive electronics in a school environment. Feedback is welcomed.
Off topic: Google maps does zooming with two finger trackpad scrolling. This was unexpected and an awesome surprise.
Yesterday I got stuck at school till 5:15 thanks to a meeting after school that seemed to drag on forever. One of the issues discussed (I withheld my 5c) was the possibilty of students who own their own laptops at home bringing these to school. It was argued that these machines were an untapped resource that could be made use of in classrooms and that a significant proportion (around 2/3) of students straw polled had their own laptop. This idea proceeded then to be shot down under the banner of equity and social justice as students who did not have their own laptop might feel less of themselves when they were not able to bring a laptop to school like their peers. If everyone can't have one then nobody is going to have one.
I am currently undecided on this issue. There is certainly an argument to be made for the benefits of being able to leverage more technology in the classroom. Though, at the moment this would require significant investment in upgrading the schools networking infrastructure. The equity argument seems weak to me. Mainly because I think that students have a fair idea of their relative means anyway. Are we doing the right thing by those that could utilise personal laptops at school by denying them this access?
There are other arguments against that I feel could be stronger. There is certainly a hefty security concern if you have students carrying around expensive electronics in a school environment. Feedback is welcomed.
Off topic: Google maps does zooming with two finger trackpad scrolling. This was unexpected and an awesome surprise.