ibook article in the NYT

[Jonathan Fletcher]

Good points all.

I just thought it was of value that the kids' grades were up and 
discipline issues were down. GOTTA learn more in that kind of 
environment. I'll bet if they had to use Dells or Gateways, there'd be 
more juvenile delinquency (more likely suicides) in those communities. 
I'd like to see a study on THAT!

;;-)

Brian Hodkin, the big difference here was that each student got to have 
their OWN iBook "to have and to hold 'til high school do us part." 
Maybe when they have to account for (and use daily) one assigned 
full-time to them they take better care of it. Seems to be what is 
going on, since someone was quoted in the article that such problems 
have been few.

Computer labs in school always made me uneasy. Lots of vandalism and 
then the kids fight over who gets to use the computers that aren't as 
badly trashed. Happens a lot to desktops, too, not just iBook carts. I 
have anecdotal evidence of it happening big time at both a public 
school (my daughter's) and a private school (my wife's). Of course, 
both institutions are PC ghettos, so that may have something to do with 
it.

Maybe Maine's on to something.

j.


On Wednesday, Mar 5, 2003, at 14:38 US/Eastern, iBook List wrote:

> From: "Brian Fish" <ifish at macosx.com>
> Subject: Re: [P1] [OT] iBook article in the NYT
> Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2003 12:39:00 -0500
> Message-ID: <OIEOJCGMBMIPBPAMDKBNOEPGCMAA.ifish at macosx.com>
>
>>> On Wednesday, March 5, 2003, at 07:00  AM, Jack Rodgers wrote:
>>>
>>>> While recognizing the worth of the computer, I wonder if 
>>>> computerizing
>>>> the schools makes the kids learn more? Have there been any 
>>>> independent
>>>> tests to compare the knowledge acquired by today's kids versus kids
>>>> from 40 or 50 years ago?
>
> In my opinion, as the Technology Coordinator of a private school,  the
> question is not so much learning more or learning less, but offering 
> another
> avenue for learning and also to prepare them for the outside world.  
> Chances
> are, most students of today are going to be expected to use computers 
> in
> their future jobs and careers.  IMHO, if computers are a part of 
> making the
> world go round, then we need to teach our children computers in school 
> so
> they can pick up where we leave off.
>
> -Brian
>
--
Jonathan Fletcher
jfletch at newmediaconstco.com