Re: Iowqa School to get Laptops

On Sat, 15 Mar 2008 13:42:36 -0000, Rick <none@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:39:30 -0700, Mayor Of R'lyeh wrote:

On Mar 14, 8:08 pm, Snit <use...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Mayor Of R'lyeh" <mayor.of.rl...@xxxxxxxxx> stated in post
61fcd1a2-8617-4851-be34-cc5d139e4...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx on
3/14/08 4:52 PM:



On Mar 14, 6:28 pm, Snit <use...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Mayor Of R'lyeh" <mayor.of.rl...@xxxxxxxxx> stated in post
0a5c21c0-3a9c-4ce2-a654-8c9c14397...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx on
3/14/08 3:18 PM:

On Mar 14, 11:56 am, Jim <j...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/16665216.html

"Central City Sets Laptop Standards
By: Claire Kellett, Anchor/Reporter

Story Created: Mar 14, 2008

Story Updated: Mar 14, 2008
CENTRAL CITY - Soon students in the Central City School District
won't have to worry about whether or not they'll have a computer
to use. Starting this fall, students there will have their very
own laptops.

Computer time is hard to come by for Central City students.
Finding a free keyboard during class time can be a challenge.

³You have to claim your territory,² says Sophomore Kolin Schmidt.

Claim a computer before someone else steps in. This fall, friendly
fights over tech time will fade. The district is making a hefty
purchase.

³A total of about 380 computers,² says Superintendent John Dotson.

Meaning classrooms will be littered with laptops. All students in
fifth through twelfth grades and their teachers will have their
own portable computers for use at school and at home."

More....

More taxpayers dollars wasted on the lasted educational fad that
has zero evidence to support that it does anything to improve
education, you mean.
The taxpayers of Iowqa should demand a recall election of these
fiscally irresponsible fadmongers.

Technology is a ... fad? LOL! That is darn funny...

Unable to comprehend what he read, Snit makes a gaffe by commenting
on something that was not said.

Technology in society is not a fad.

Snit runs to KMart to buy himself a strawman.

Technology in education is not a fad...

Snit will now produce evidence that using computers in education has
done anything objectively measurable to improve it.

in fact, to fail to teach technology would be a *huge* mistake.

When I was I grade school they used to have lessons on how to use the
telephone. Why? Because even then not everyone had them and they were
new to a lot of people. Do they still do that? No. Why? Because everyone
who wants one has a phone of some kind and kids learn to use them at
home practically in their cribs. For much the same reason teaching
computer use in schools is not necessary.

When you have spent a couple of years, full time, in classrooms your
words might be credible. Now they are aren't.

Rick will now produce the objectively measured evidence that shows
giving every grade schooler a laptop improves education. Until you can
your words lack credibility.


Some students know computers inside and out. Others know only what has
interested them.

You can say the same for every subject. In my high school they had
auto repair courses. Since some kids know cars inside and out and
others only know what interests them the state should give every kid a
new car by your logic.


There are classes on keyboarding because a large number of students
cannot properly touch type. There are classes on word processing,
spreadsheets and databases, because students need to use those in school
and when they get out into the world.

Obviously classes that require computers shold have computers in the
classroom. However, outfitting a couple of classrooms is nowhere near
the expense of giving each kid a laptop.


Students need to be taught how to properly use search engines to do
school related research.

Kids learn how to use search engines in their cribs.


Students can use the Internet to research needed in history, math and
science.

And they can also use the library that each school has. Or do you
think there's been some update on the fall of Byzantium that isn't in
the history books?


There are students that do very well with CAI lessons.

There are students who do very well with personal tutors too. That
doesn't mean the taxpayers should be obligated to give every kid one.

While those students are using the computers, teachers can be working with other
students.

While some students are doing almost anything the teacher can work
with other students? Or do you really think that teachers were unable
to give the slow kids extra attention before computers?

Teachers can easily change lesson plans and provide students with better
course handouts.

Yeah teachers spending a couple of hours redesigning their lesson
plans and handouts in a page layout program makes them so much better
than the notes they used to use.


After using computers in schools for 20 years there's no evidence - ZERO
- that they do anything to improve education.

It seems, by your standards then, there is no evidence anything improves
education.

Actually there's plenty of evidence that back to the basics things
improve education. Phonics smokes Whole Language for example.



Widespread insistence on
using something despite its total lack of efficacy is the hallmark of a
fad.

Go get some experience, then spout off.

Get some actual proof then get back to me.



--

Why settle for the lesser evil?
Cthulhu for president 2008.
.