[BobL]

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.

[Varsity Flight]

Should have forced them to build them themselves, just for starters. (Facebook for ____hours for successful task) Then, in order to use them, pass the ABCs of programming, and/or component building, or interelated tasks.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

It began five years ago with an unexpected windfall of stimulus money from Washington, D.C.,

Loot from the working stiff becomes free money from the politicians.

[BobL]

Actually, I have to ADMIRE those kids for trashing their laptops...they seem to be the ONLY PEOPLE to realize that computers are USELESS as learning tools and they want NOTHING to do with them.

Even the one lady to vote against them thinks it’s only a problem of implementation, and therefore not endemic. Sounds a lot like what the Communists (in the US) said about Communism...one you get it right, all will be wonderful.

[cloudmountain]

Laptops only work for the literate. That shut out a BUNCH of students.

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Problem 1: Accepting “free” money.
Problem 2: Not having any idea how to use the computers before they were purchased.
Problem 3: Not analyzing the capabilities of the machines required to meet the needs identified in the nonexistent plan/idea/concept on how to use the computers.
Problem 4: Purchasing a raft of computers that were inadequate to the ill-/un-defined requirements.
Problem 5: Failure to identify training requirements for the teachers and the students.
Problem 6: Giving a computer to each teacher who apparently were not skilled enough to know how to use them.
Problem 7: Not implementing a robust enough network to support the computers because the school system had no idea what the requirements were.
Problem 8: Giving a computer to each student when the average student in the school system had no respect for property.

[A_perfect_lady]

Each year, a new crop of seventh graders were outfitted. Crocamo’s small tech staff was quickly overwhelmed with repairs.

We had “half a dozen kids in a day, on a regular basis, bringing laptops down, going ‘my books fell on top of it, somebody sat on it, I dropped it,’ ” said Crocamo.

Screens cracked. Batteries died. Keys popped off. Viruses attacked. Crocamo found that teenagers with laptops are still… teenagers.

Yep. Seen this.

“We bought laptops that had reinforced hard-shell cases so that we could try to offset some of the damage these kids were going to do,” said Crocamo. “I was pretty impressed with some of the damage they did anyway. Some of the laptops would come back to us completely destroyed.”

Yep. Seeing this here in LAUSD.

Hoboken school officials were also worried they couldn’t control which websites students would visit. Crocamo installed software to block pornography, gaming sites and Facebook. He disabled the built-in web cameras. He even installed software to block students from undoing these controls. But Crocamo says students found forums on the Internet that showed them how to access everything.

“There is no more determined hacker, so to speak, than a 12-year-old who has a computer,” said Crocamo.

Yep. My students have shown ME things on the internet. Things I was like "Wait... how did you... OH, MAKE THAT GO AWAY!!"

All this security software also bogged down the computers. Teachers complained it took 20 minutes for them to boot up, only to crash afterwards.

Yep. Exactly my experience. Tech is a nightmare to work with. You have to have a full-time tech support guy in the room with you or it's just more trouble than it's worth. I tried at first, I really did, but eventually I was just like "Nope. We are returning to the land of whiteboards, books, papers, and pens."

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Liberals will learn nothing from this.

[Alas Babylon!]

My two kids here in Alabama... The High School is giving every kid an iPad. The school makes them by a case/cover for it, for $50. So I’m out $100.

[theneanderthal]

For some students puters are a huge and beneficial advancement.

My son graduated HS in 2001. He started his freshman year in
a computer lab. Learned two programming languages, self taught himself several other languages, opened the first website dedicated to the truncated Windows software driving PDAs and caused the inevitable call from a nitwit ast. principal complaining that my son had destroyed their entire system.

He had caused all text entries to appear white.

The doofus started in on me with the cost to repair their
trashed system and the consequences yada yada.

I thought it was a great end of the year prank. It was hard to be stern while biting back the giggles. Son fixed their system with a few key strokes in the lab.

I guess I should have hidden my DOS handbook rather than pointing out it’s location to the little snot.

Makes his living as a heavy equipment operator, go figure.

[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.

[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.