Why Hoboken is Throwing Away All of its Student Laptops

WNYC News -- The Hechinger Report ^ | 7-29-14 | Jill Barshay

[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.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Give me half a dozen and I’ll make a fine working one fromn the scraps.

[uncitizen]

They won’t be thrown away! They have value. Maybe they’ll be donated to the “migrant chilllllldren escaping sex slavery in Central America”.

[CharlesOConnell]

I have been intensively involved with computers, sometimes for a reason. I have a lot to say.

I read all the posts on the origianl article—unlike most of the ephemeral attention the information tsunami receives. All your comments changed my  mind—I was planning on teaching my 7-year-old granddaughter to use Adobe Illustrator to channel her constant drawing. Now I realize the mistake I was making. I'll keep her as far as possible away from computers.

TODDLERS BECOMING SO ADDICTED TO IPADS THEY REQUIRE THERAPY

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10008707/Toddlers-becoming-so-addicted-to-iPads-they-require-therapy.html

Children as young as four are becoming so addicted to smartphones and iPads that they require psychological treatment.

INFANTS ‘UNABLE TO USE TOY BUILDING BLOCKS’ DUE TO IPAD ADDICTION

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10767878/Infants-unable-to-use-toy-building-blocks-due-to-iPad-addiction.html

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers warn that rising numbers of children are unable to perform simple tasks such as using building blocks because of overexposure to iPads.

SLEEP PROBLEMS PLAGUE DEVICE DEPENDENT CHILDREN

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2014/03/03/Sleep-Problems-Plague-Device-Dependent-Children 

Cellphones and other devices emit the “blue light” that works against the sleep process by interfering with melatonin, the chemical in our bodies that promotes sleepiness.

Anecdote: When I was in the 10th grade in 1970, I shared a science-fiction short story I had read with my friends: Like the kids in Hunger Games, rural, disadvantaged kids lacking access to specialized calculating equipment were able to beat elite urban kids in math competition by using traditional paper-based cyphering techniques.

Hunger Games Kid

Life imitates art, as a recent news article shows: “FINNS BEAT U.S. WITH LOW-TECH TAKE ON SCHOOL”, Politico 5/27/14

http://tinyurl.com/lz8w69k .

"At the start of morning assembly in the state-of-the-art Viikki School in Helsinki, students’ smartphones disappear. In math class, the teacher shuts off the Smartboard and begins drafting perfect circles on a chalkboard. The students — some of the highest-achieving in the world — cut up graphing paper while solving equations using their clunky plastic calculators." (Read More… http://tinyurl.com/lz8w69k )

I trace a lot of this confusion to the indubitable Al Gore, Nobel Peace Prize winner. As Vice-President, he had enormous influence promoting the idea that the mere possession of computers automatically confers educational excellence. (Image: Al Gore as a traditional medicine man dancing with a little computer rattle. http://postimg.org/image/moxpm6ykz/ )

I'm very happy at Kim from Far Rockaway's comments, contradicting what I am saying here. I would love it if every teacher were sufficiently conscientious and skilled to be able to ensure her students' excellence. But I suspect that Kim would succeed with her students under any circumstances.

[jyro]

Every school has these in storage and more, the budget battles — use it or lose it every year causes useless purchases.

[Swordmaker]

so home much “Stimulus money” was laundered through education to make it to Apple to be donated back to Dems?

Look again, these were Dells. Apple as a company makes very few political contributions, and has a very small lobbying presence in Washington. Apple's Employees's PAC is more involved, but then so are most. Microsoft, Google, and Facebook give far more as companies, even in in kind donations.

[Jet Jaguar]

Thanks for the summary.

[rfreedom4u]

As to your number 8:

They should auction the laptops off. At least a small amount of money could be recovered that way.

[rfreedom4u]

My high school only offered Spanish for languages until my sophomore year. Then they offered French. I jumped at something other than Spanish.

Now I am attempting Spanish on my own since there are so many places in Houston where it is needed.

[ronnyquest]

"Like we used to have back one could learn something in public school. Although later some students required a slide rule or an abacus."

I would allow students to use slide rules. One has to know what one is doing to use a slide rule. Textbook, paper, pencils, eraser, charts, slide rule. That is all they need.

[Mad Dawgg]

Our local Catholic School gave all of the 7th and 8th graders very nice laptops with a swivel screen that also was akin to a tablet screen (you could write or draw on it with a stylus) My daughter was in 7th grade at the time.

In that entire school year they had only one computer that was damaged and it was because the poor kid fell out of the family SUV and landed on top of it when she got her foot caught in her sister's backpack.

Those computers lasted 4 years and were traded in for newer models.

Last I heard the program has been continued and the school deems it a success.

Of course there is some very strict discipline in the Catholic School and if any parents whine about it they are invited to take their kids someplace else.

[B4Ranch]

If Linux was that great every business in the world would be using it.

[refreshed]

Many are, and I know from first-hand knowledge that Walmart has switched some of its basic systems to Linux.