Posted on 04/08/2011 10:51:03 PM PDT by Swordmaker
I wonder what the life expectancy of one of these devices is in the hands of your average five year old.
On average less than 15 minutes or so.
Don't bet the children's education on it.
How does this allow the teachers to work one-on-one with the students?
““It probably would take four teachers to do what the computers can do with one teacher.” “
Correction:
“It probably would take four teachers to do what the computers can do with one lazy a$$ teacher.”
Idiocy marches on.
“We live in a sea of thoughtlessness, informing ourselves to death.” (from a letter to the editor in this morning’s WSJ.)
“I wonder what the life expectancy of one of these devices is in the hands of your average five year old.”
Touch screen devices are much overrated, they can be a pita.
Can you imagine all the jelly encrusted fingers all over these ipads. I hope Apple makes a Nerf iPad.
It is an updated version of “cut and paste” which I considered nothing more than busy work when my kids were that age.
The calculator in itself is applied incorrectly in your example, simply because you don’t regard time when calculating (the first half of the trip took twice as long as the second half; with this, you arbitrarily assign a time).
The calculator will give you ‘45’ if you solve it incorrectly.
But yes, it is not a substitute for thinking, and a tool can hurt the user if used improperly.
Our school, and I bet most others, send sends the students to reading and math labs. The kids hate it because they’re bored to tears. All they do for the class period is sit in front of a computer and work on math and reading lessons. There is no teacher interaction. But of course, my tax dollars pay for a teacher to sit in there full time and for the other teachers to bring their kids in so they can relax and read a magazine or gossip with the lab “teacher.”
“I think Swordmaker just posted the article, I don’t think he made the purchasing decision.”
No, but he probaly has stock in Apple. Or at least a black light velvet painting of Steve Jobs. :-)
I think the taxpayers are the ones who are really falling behind.
It just reveals the level of thinking that goes into purchasing decisions. This is going to cost $200 K? Auburn isn’t the richest of communities in Maine. I could understand the Camden school district doing this, but not a declining mill community. You can see on the picture what they’re using the device for. “Which is A” Push the A. Good job.
The ipad, the xoom or whatever top of the line android tablet there is, they all have a tremendous amount a powerful. They’re the most powerful tablet devices that exist right now.
Kindergardeners need something very very close to a toy, which should not cost $500.
But I agree entirely that computers can and should be used where appropriate, and I agree that teaching music would be a good use. The educational market is potentially a huge one. Every kid, everywhere, gets a new one every year? That’s a huge market. But the idea that kindergarders are getting a $500 ipad which has so much stuff they don’t need, and no one thought about alternatives to $500, like $50. It just shows they’re putting much much less thought into the process of getting computers than I would’ve hoped.
Okay, what could possibly go wrong?
I have a mental image of at least one thing...sort of like a junior version of the current Southern California Honda dealer ad, where the helpful Honda sales rep lets the guy borrow his “tablet computer” and the guy promptly takes off to the men’s room for a nice long...read. And the helpful sales rep goes...”Keep it.”
The Apple iPad2 is like a tablet computer, only smaller, lighter, easier to use and less expensive. “There’s no mouse. You use your finger,” King said. “Everyone knows how to use their finger.”
That’s Former Maine Governor Angus King.
“like a tablet computer” “less expensive” wow? Less Expensive? I thought the argument was that the ipad was the best? Now it’s the cheapest? Perfectly fine for 5 year old s android tablets are available for $67. with flash 10.1.
memory foam. that actually could work. cut a piece of memory foam out. remove the section above the screen, a big piece of foam with a touchscreen in the middle.
http://techland.time.com/2011/04/08/must-be-nice-kindergarteners-in-maine-getting-free-ipads-now/
time mag on this
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