You would not believe how much the teachers in this story whined about 'We are Microsoft Country. Why don't we get new comuters every two years?'. Now they have them, but they aren't smart enough to know how to use them.
"When kids go back to school next month, odds are good that their classrooms will have computer technology in them. But odds are equally as good that teachers won't be prepared to effectively use that tech."
"Great strides have been made in outfitting classrooms with PCs and Internet access since the first NetDay in 1996. That seminal event put volunteers in schools around the country to wire classrooms to the Web. Combined with local technology levies and federal E-Rate discounts for Internet connectivity, the absence of an Internet- connected PC in a classroom today is unusual. Washington schools boast 3.5 students per PC�and 8.6 students for each computer located in a classroom instead of in school libraries or computer labs. Statewide, 93 percent of schools had classroom Internet access in 2002, according to research firm Market Data Retrieval. All are slightly better than national averages."
My opinion on this may not sit well with some parents, but that's just too bad.
Millions upon millions of kids who are now adults made it through school with out 'desktop internet access'. It was called an "Encyclopedia". All kids need is a damn word processor. And that isn't until junior high.
"But my child will need computer skills to be able to get a job!", I hear parents scream. Well then tell your district that you want classes on those subjects. Or maybe your district can team up with local businesses for some type of 'Off Campus Schooloing'. This is how I started in the automotive field. We didn't have enough money for our own auto-shop facility. So I started doing oil changes at a lube shop. Credit for school plus minumum wage. Talk about a sweet deal.
Otherwise, all your doing is wasting money. For one, the 'computer skills' your child is learning will be out of date by the time your kid graduates. And two, what do you do at work with internet access? That is all your kid will be doing when he/she is supposed to be paying attention.
Posted by AnalogKid at August 06, 2003 09:14 AM | TrackBackI can see a (as in 'one') computer in each classroom for the teacher's use along with a projector. For the student's use keep em in the library/computer lab/studyhall. Lose the calculators too, at least until they've demeonstrated an ability to perform mathmatical calculations at some level of competency.
Posted by: John S Allison on August 6, 2003 10:26 AMAgreed, I finished High School without a calculater, and never owned a computer till 98. I still do math on a scratch pad, and while computers still give me some pause, I function fine with them. The trick is a grounding in the basics and teaching them that adapting is where their survival is best served. The one computer science class I took was in Jr. High, 73. The computer was a Texas Instruments, the size of a VCR with no hard drive, no keyboard, no screen. It used magnetic cards and held 114 lines of memory, Hell this was even before DOS.
How much good does that course do me now?
Posted by: puggs on August 6, 2003 12:09 PMAbout as much good as my expertise with mimeograph machines and the Underwood 5 typewriter does me. Though the combination definitely gave impetus to the drive to learn to spell. And on that note please to take the second e in 'demeonstrated' in my first post and place it between the h and m in 'mathmatical'. There, I feel much better now.
Posted by: John S Allison on August 7, 2003 11:28 AM