Posted on 01/02/2012 11:05:32 AM PST by MichCapCon
But you have to know what buttons to push and in what order. That requires thinking.
Well, the students are supposed to be providing the devices.
We went through this some years ago when schools were asking that students bring in hand held calculators. The same people hollered. Life continues.
But you have to know what buttons to push and in what order. That requires thinking.But not much.
Let me give you an example. Somebody I know claimed once that I didn't know whether 100! (the factorial) was a prime number, unless I were allowed to use a computer. I said:
“Duh! It is obviously divisible by every integer from 2 to 100!”
So, he said:
“Ok, but you don’t know whether 100! + 1 is a prime number!”
And I said:
“Duh! It is obviously divisible by 101 because of Wilson’s theorem!”
Guess which of us was in favor of using calculators in highschool? ;-)
Learning to use a calculator, or even a computer, is easy. Learning to think is hard. And computers won’t help you there.
I’d like to know what a “wireless device” is in this context. My first thought, from the article, was that it is some kind of tracking system so that the school knows where every kid is at every moment.
“Well I think that parents certainly can find a way to come up with the money. Lose the cable, stop eating out, going to movies, etc. Trust me. People have money.”
When my daughter was 12 her school tried to force all the parents to accept laptops. A condition of acceptance was that there could be a $1000 replacement fee. My husband had been out of work and only recently had found another job. He didn’t qualify for unemployment. We definitely weren’t eating out or going to movies, and money for gas was a serious worry. We couldn’t accept the laptop, because there was no foreseeable way we could come up with that much money for something we considered an unnecessary luxury. No, not everyone does have money, and the school must have found that out because they ditched that idea.
here in the Philippines, the cheapest wireless tablet in our rural town’s mall is 4000 pesos (about 60 dollars) and they are interested in India’s plan to make a ten dollar tablet with wireless for their students.
You have to figure that a tablet is cheaper in the long run than the workbooks and textbooks used here. (Our kids have to take “roller bags” to gradeschool to carry the books/stuff and lunches with them).
a lot of work is done in copybook like work books which have to be bought and then thrown away.
Putting these on a tablet could be cheaper in the long run,, if they aren’t stolen.
The main problem with the cheap Chinese made tablets is lack of battery life (2 hours) and that some kids families don’t have electricity to recharge them.
Add in fuel oil for the furnace/hotwater heater and wood for the woodstove and you've described our family. Which is why we could afford a new Kindle Fire for our daughter for Christmas and a Ruger 9mil for me!
I started elementary school in 1966 and there were multiple choice tests even back then, they are nothing new. And I attended Catholic not public schools.
As I said, on paper you can write in an objection or a different answer not on the list.
I recall having to buy slide rules and drafting tools. Some students needed typewriters depending on their courseload, and that was pretty pricey in the sixties and seventies.
A pen and paper is slowly following the abacus and clay tablet off the stage.
The answer will still not count.
My point was multiple choice questions are not some new form of indoctrination of the public school system, they have existed for decades and are used in many different types of schools.
No kidding, you’re arguing a tangential point.
Paranoia is getting the best of you. A wireless device in this context would mean any tablet-like computing device that operates over a network. Essentially any android tablet or Ios device.
I’m not arguing anything. You threw a strawman into the discussion
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