NYTimes Report on Schools Dropping 1:1 Laptop Programs - Classroom 2.02024-03-28T23:52:37Zhttps://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/649749:Topic:11062?commentId=649749%3AComment%3A18781&x=1&feed=yes&xn_auth=noThere is a scene in the Harry…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-05-18:649749:Comment:187812007-05-18T05:42:53.252ZSaundra Hopkinshttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/sjeh07
There is a scene in the Harry Potter 3 in which a maid knocks on the door, while announcing HouseKeeping! The door opens, and a loud growl with a massive blast of air rushes out almost blowing the maid over. The door slams shut and she says, "I think I'll come back tomorrow." I think schools are that maid. Technology changes rapidly, demands on the school's resources and time increase, decisions about networks-laptops-handhelds-web filters-IWBcurriculumteachingmethodologyvideo hit schools and…
There is a scene in the Harry Potter 3 in which a maid knocks on the door, while announcing HouseKeeping! The door opens, and a loud growl with a massive blast of air rushes out almost blowing the maid over. The door slams shut and she says, "I think I'll come back tomorrow." I think schools are that maid. Technology changes rapidly, demands on the school's resources and time increase, decisions about networks-laptops-handhelds-web filters-IWBcurriculumteachingmethodologyvideo hit schools and teachers the same way as that scene. Gary Stager has been around a long time.He has taught, traveled and fought the good fight many, many, times in his articles and speeches. His points make me think, but like the participant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, I want to poll the audience, call a friend. I want to know what's the right thing to buy, to use, to teach, to learn. I just don't want to feel like, "I think I"ll come back tomorrow." This is not a web 2.0 respons…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-05-15:649749:Comment:167212007-05-15T18:59:09.347Zben reynoldshttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/BenReynolds
This is not a web 2.0 response. It's more like a 1986 response. This quotation in the article intrigued me:<br />
“Where laptops and Internet use make a difference are in innovation, creativity, autonomy and independent research,” he said. “If the goal is to get kids up to basic standard levels, then maybe laptops are not the tool. But if the goal is to create the George Lucas and Steve Jobs of the future, then laptops are extremely useful.”<br />
<br />
I know this sounds almost luddite, but one job the…
This is not a web 2.0 response. It's more like a 1986 response. This quotation in the article intrigued me:<br />
“Where laptops and Internet use make a difference are in innovation, creativity, autonomy and independent research,” he said. “If the goal is to get kids up to basic standard levels, then maybe laptops are not the tool. But if the goal is to create the George Lucas and Steve Jobs of the future, then laptops are extremely useful.”<br />
<br />
I know this sounds almost luddite, but one job the computer is great at is record keeping. Teachers hate record keeping because it eats their time. Some updated PLATO math drills would help teachers cluster their kids for error correction, etc. A subject area specialist and a clever programmer could design multiple choice questions so that certain answers indicate a common mathematical error. You, over here for factor of 10 errors. You over there for multiplying when you should have divided.<br />
<br />
Teachers only adopt tech when it lightens their load -- think telephone and two way p.a. system. I wouldn't take much to imagine a few innovative record keeping things a 1:1 program could do. Take attendance & report it to the main office, for one, while also allowing the teacher to monitor just what the kids are looking at. Allow non-intrusive messages to get to kids ("Jerry, your mom is picking you up at 1 for the Dr. appointment"). It's an upgrade on the progra…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-05-10:649749:Comment:136812007-05-10T20:25:45.903ZChris Lehmannhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/chrislehmann
It's an upgrade on the program we started at Beacon 10 years ago. A group of us sat down and came up with it at a summer workshop that was a tech staff development around a grant to bring a T1 line into Beacon. Beacon had streamed classes and a progressive educational outlook, so just making the technology elective serve that just made sense.<br />
<br />
Still does.
It's an upgrade on the program we started at Beacon 10 years ago. A group of us sat down and came up with it at a summer workshop that was a tech staff development around a grant to bring a T1 line into Beacon. Beacon had streamed classes and a progressive educational outlook, so just making the technology elective serve that just made sense.<br />
<br />
Still does. :)
Linda--I agree, what a gr…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-05-10:649749:Comment:134422007-05-10T11:55:53.295ZCarolyn Footehttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/Technolibrary
:)<br />
<br />
Linda--I agree, what a great idea!<br />
<br />
And I completely agree with your comment about the questions we are asking students to answer.<br />
<br />
We have to work with students to design questions that ask for the deeper answers.<br />
<br />
A hidden issue here is that the district perhaps did not come together as a community and look for the deeper answers to their own problems with laptops. It's easier to blame it on the technology, rather than the implementation, but it is short-sighted, and then no one learns…
:)<br />
<br />
Linda--I agree, what a great idea!<br />
<br />
And I completely agree with your comment about the questions we are asking students to answer.<br />
<br />
We have to work with students to design questions that ask for the deeper answers.<br />
<br />
A hidden issue here is that the district perhaps did not come together as a community and look for the deeper answers to their own problems with laptops. It's easier to blame it on the technology, rather than the implementation, but it is short-sighted, and then no one learns from the experience, other than to "put the technology away." It would be excellent if you…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-05-10:649749:Comment:134412007-05-10T11:49:03.534ZCarolyn Footehttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/Technolibrary
It would be excellent if you and Chris Lehman wrote letters to the Times about your schools. The article was very one-sided, and it'd be great to hear the other point of view!
It would be excellent if you and Chris Lehman wrote letters to the Times about your schools. The article was very one-sided, and it'd be great to hear the other point of view! This is a great program in my…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-05-10:649749:Comment:133682007-05-10T04:17:03.751ZSteve Hargadonhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/SteveHargadon
This is a great program in my mind. I spoke to a group of technologists last night and mentioned what you were doing and I could see the wheels turning in folks minds.<br />
<br />
Chris--had you seen something like this before SLA? Did you model it on another program?
This is a great program in my mind. I spoke to a group of technologists last night and mentioned what you were doing and I could see the wheels turning in folks minds.<br />
<br />
Chris--had you seen something like this before SLA? Did you model it on another program? Yep, that is Marcie's course.…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-05-10:649749:Comment:133632007-05-10T04:10:48.980ZChris Lehmannhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/chrislehmann
Yep, that is Marcie's course. And essentially, here's our equation for doing it.<br />
<br />
1) Stream classes so that kids take as many 9th grade courses as a cohort. (At SLA, it's English, Biochem, History and electives.)<br />
2) Give the kids a semester long 9th grade tech class.<br />
3) Identify a bunch of tech skills you want all kids to have.<br />
4) Have the 9th grade tech teacher work with the core stream teachers to identify content and projects that could be used to teach those skills, and have the tech…
Yep, that is Marcie's course. And essentially, here's our equation for doing it.<br />
<br />
1) Stream classes so that kids take as many 9th grade courses as a cohort. (At SLA, it's English, Biochem, History and electives.)<br />
2) Give the kids a semester long 9th grade tech class.<br />
3) Identify a bunch of tech skills you want all kids to have.<br />
4) Have the 9th grade tech teacher work with the core stream teachers to identify content and projects that could be used to teach those skills, and have the tech teachers use her class time to teach the skills.<br />
<br />
Here are the benefits:<br />
1) Classroom teachers don't have to be the experts at teaching tech.<br />
2) Students are taught tech "just in time," learning tools that are applied to their learning, so that kids can see how the tool transforms their experience as students.<br />
3) Helps to create a spirit of interdisciplinarity and collaboration among faculty.<br />
4) Helps to create "teacher-leadership" role as tech teacher (Marcie, in our case) really has the ability to work with many different teachers to help infuse technology / teach new literacy tools. Great idea, Linda - can't wai…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-05-09:649749:Comment:131932007-05-09T18:12:50.461ZSylvia Martinezhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/smartinez
Great idea, Linda - can't wait to see them.<br />
<br />
By the way, Gary Stager (author of the article Steve linked to in the original post) is having a good conversation with David Warlick (and others - I saw Carolyn's name go by, yeah Classroom 2.0!).<br />
<br />
Post <a href="http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2007/05/06/whats-good-about-the-may-4-ny-times-article-about-laptops-in-schools/">yesterday</a> (be sure to open the comments) and…
Great idea, Linda - can't wait to see them.<br />
<br />
By the way, Gary Stager (author of the article Steve linked to in the original post) is having a good conversation with David Warlick (and others - I saw Carolyn's name go by, yeah Classroom 2.0!).<br />
<br />
Post <a href="http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2007/05/06/whats-good-about-the-may-4-ny-times-article-about-laptops-in-schools/">yesterday</a> (be sure to open the comments) and <a href="http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2007/05/09/of-course-i-think-it-matters/">today</a>. One of the teachers in my lea…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-05-09:649749:Comment:131842007-05-09T17:45:53.482ZLinda Loderhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/lloutback
One of the teachers in my learning community decided to take this discussion to the learners! His sixth graders, who have had laptops for the past two years, are writing their own responses to the New York Times, and to us in our learning community. When they hit our classroom blog site, I'll post some of them out for you to read.<br />
Our response as educators to "The art of thinking is being lost," is, "What are the questions that you are asking students to answer? Whether or not they have laptops…
One of the teachers in my learning community decided to take this discussion to the learners! His sixth graders, who have had laptops for the past two years, are writing their own responses to the New York Times, and to us in our learning community. When they hit our classroom blog site, I'll post some of them out for you to read.<br />
Our response as educators to "The art of thinking is being lost," is, "What are the questions that you are asking students to answer? Whether or not they have laptops and ubiquitous access, the answer to deep learning is directly related to the depth of the questions you want students to be able to answer!" My pencil analogy seemed to h…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-05-07:649749:Comment:124462007-05-07T23:18:30.420ZJohn Tannerhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/REMC39
My pencil analogy seemed to hit a button with some, no offense taken by the way. You all have a valid point. A pencil is not a computer. But there is more to it of course. It is all about the process of adopting a new technology which the pencil was at one point. If you read Larry Cuban's book "Teachers and Machines: the Classroom Use of Technology since 1920". In Amazon a reviewer writes: "Cuban reviews the attempts to adopt technology into American classrooms throughout the 20th century.…
My pencil analogy seemed to hit a button with some, no offense taken by the way. You all have a valid point. A pencil is not a computer. But there is more to it of course. It is all about the process of adopting a new technology which the pencil was at one point. If you read Larry Cuban's book "Teachers and Machines: the Classroom Use of Technology since 1920". In Amazon a reviewer writes: "Cuban reviews the attempts to adopt technology into American classrooms throughout the 20th century. Moving pictures, radio, TV, and other technology-based improvements were loudly acclaimed to herald a new paradigm for education. All attempts failed to make a dent in established curriculum and teaching. Cuban analyzes these failures, and applies his ideas to the current wave of technology edu-euphoria, the computer."<br />
Now you can debate whether his premise is valid or not ( the book has a copyright of 1986) and that would make for a good discussion but my point is that there is a process surrounding adoption of new technologies that sometimes have little to do with the "box" but with the interest groups, vendors, culture, educators, parents, boards of ed, community values, teenagers, government and a whole set of societal and institutional barriers. Just saying it is more than about the teaching because if it were that simple we would have achieved true technological integration before this.