Posted on 07/29/2014 5:14:55 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Inside Hoboken’s combined junior-senior high school is a storage closet. Behind the locked door, some mothballed laptop computers are strewn among brown cardboard boxes. Others are stacked one atop another. Dozens more are stored on mobile computer carts, many of them on their last legs.
That’s all that remains from a failed experiment to assign every student a laptop at Hoboken Junior Senior High School. It began five years ago with an unexpected windfall of stimulus money from Washington, D.C., and good intentions to help the district’s students, the majority of whom are under or near the poverty line, keep up with their wealthier peers. But Hoboken faced problem after problem and is abandoning the laptops entirely this summer.
“We had the money to buy them, but maybe not the best implementation,” said Mark Toback, the current superintendent of Hoboken School District. “It became unsustainable.”
None of the school administrators who initiated Hoboken’s one-to-one laptop program still work there. Toback agreed to share Hoboken’s experiences so that other schools can learn from it.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnyc.org ...
Excellent summary!
-——What a bunch of idiots. I know they do it at several schools around here and it works great.-——
The problem I believe is one of demographics rather than hiring idiots....
We are talking about Hoboken....
Vast numbers of the students are raised in a gibsmedat environment so taking care of an expensive laptop is not a “value” that is taught at home...
This school district is giving them all IPADS from grade 6 and up.
Crazy
Saw similar thing in Jersey City number years ago
Used grants to buy computers(desktop) for every classroom
Kids would vandalize them - break CD rom drives, cut kb/mouse
and other cables
Put Linux on those laptops and they’ll run like new. They can also kiosk-mode Firefox to lock down the browser.
The Catholic schools around here use iPads but they have a disciplinary system also and the ability to enforce it.
Huh? Hoboken is not exactly known for its “gibsmedat environment.”
I was in a situation where they used computers for testing an incoming Freshman class. It was a teacher-intensive mess to supervise.
It’s all in implementation and policy. Block You Tube, Facebook, etc. It’s doable. I set up an entire school with tablets with managed content. Even the teachers couldn’t buy anything without approval. Kids and parents sign a notice of responsibility and the kid keeps the same device through their time at the school. Lock them up in a charging cart until ready to use in class and then you have the kids sign them out. Parents are financially responsible for damage. You set up the appropriate filters and policies and they are a fantastic tool to supplement instruction. Notice I said supplement, not replace. Sounds like this district was clueless.
Really interesting, but not unexpected result.
You know... I stand corrected.... I was thinking Camden for some reason....
When the lights go out, 300,000,000 Americans will die within a month. Won’t have a clue what to do, nor how to get back to where they were.
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Computers, with rare exception, have amplified “income inequality”, in that they make smarter people more capable, and the...uhhh...”less smart” less capable. Even FR is a mixed bag, a time-suck, although it may have improved my writing and critical thinking skills. Perhaps it’s sharpened my wit.
Anyway, this school really, really should have used the Internet and consulted the best practices that a business would have maintaining a fleet of equipment. I’ll bet that instead, they gave $xxxx extra to the social studies teacher to help run the show. The article describes mistakes that a for-profit company would NEVER have made.
First thing, each student should have been made aware that having one was a “shared responsibility”.
Everyone in unison - DUUUUUUUUUUH!
Has anyone bothered to find out if kids are actually learning anything when they have a computer thrown at them?
My kids did JUST FINE (and by that I means years ahead of their age level) NEVER using a computer to learn on, even though all the losers around them had computers (and I-Phones).
We built Hoover Dam, got to the Moon, built the Space Shuttle, and the 747 with people that someone managed to get educated without the use of computers - it really can be done.
” and good intentions”
I would lime for somebody to tell me how taking money from some by force so as to give to others (while taking credit, power and glory for oneself) is “good intentions”.
My kids all get laptops from school. Not sure if they are allowed in class. They don’t have access to facebook, etc. I think google may even be off limits, or they have filters on it. (They often use their own computers for research, photos, etc.) All in all it works out okay, except once-in-awhile the teachers make them do something using some online software that is stupid and unwieldy. It wouldn’t surprise me if some of that crap the teachers get a kick-back on!
Two days before returning one computer my daughter put a heavy book on it and cracked the screen! $80 or something. Last year some key kept coming off right from the get-go. I saved it in a plastic bag and glued it back in place the day before turning it in.
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