<p>I live in a fairly affluent school district. At least 90% of the students have computers at home with internet access. Our HS currently has a 1:2 ratio of laptops to students. These laptops are kept on carts and can be used by classes on an as needed basis. There are also classrooms that have desktop computers that are used for mandatory tech classes and also in classrooms where computer programming is taught.</p>
<p>The lease is about to expire on the laptops and it's expected that at a board meeting there's going to be a presentation on replacing the laptops on carts with laptops for every student - Mac laptops. This is supposed to be less expensive then continuing to lease the ones we have. I don't have all the details. I also don't know if the committee (assume it's the tech committee) looked into changing out the current laptops, which are Mac, for PC's. </p>
<p>I understand that no new programs would be allowed to be downloaded without school consent. There are filters at the school currently but kids learned to get around that with proxy servers. Not sure how that would work on the new computers.</p>
<p>Does anyone have experience with a school doing this? Does anyone know of a PC company that offers good deals to schools?</p>
<p>My D’s public middle school does it with netbooks. It seems to me that what they’re really doing is pushing the cost of having computers onto parents, since we have to pay an $80 fee each year of middle school (4 years) for the netbooks, and then have the option to keep the then-obsolete netbook at the end of the 8th grade. Since my D already had the identical netbook and has since gotten a laptop at home, I don’t like it. The school netbooks are very limited, since they’re not allowed to download anything onto them (including the driver for our home printer!). And while I agree with the idea of getting the kids computer literate, familiar with online research and tools and very comfortable with technology, I think they’re losing something by doing everything on the netbooks, not to mention when the technology fails (as it does from time to time) assignments can take much longer to do and be incredibly frustrating.</p>
<p>In our districts case, the overwhelming majority of students have computers with internet access at home, so I don’t understand the purpose of providing something that’s not needed. I also don’t understand the advantage of lugging laptops around all day. Where do they put them when they’re in gym?</p>
<p>Laptop or tablet requirements are becoming very common at privates. Kids keep them in their lockers during PE (which for many states is only a one year req’t). Laptops have gotten so much lighter that carrying them isn’t an issue. </p>
<p>The kids often have their textbooks loaded onto their laptops so their backpacks are actually LIGHTER…because that big chemistry book isn’t in there. :)</p>
<p>My son’s school is a 1:1 laptop school. All the kids are issued Macbooks but turn them in for the summer so that any software upgrades and hardware issues can be completed. None of the classes use textbooks. The focus is on using primary sources to learn about subjects whenever possible. My son has become an excellent researcher. So other than any notebooks the kids carry, the laptop is all they really need. We have to pay $80/yr for insurance and there is a tech lab in school where you can get minor repairs done and get things like chargers and batteries replaced. They have a program that will pay for internet access at home and/or the insurance for students that can’t afford it.</p>
<p>His school is big on presenting what you know so the students have become very savvy regarding various methods to demonstrate knowledge. The laptops are loaded with tons of programs for the students to use. Anything that isn’t loaded can be requested and is usually approved. My son has become very adept at using numerous computer applications. </p>
<p>I much prefer the laptops, and so does my son. It beats lugging around textbooks like he did before.</p>
<p>Our school district experimented first semester by providing Ipads to half of the 9th graders (randomly selected). My son was not the one selected. His complaint was that because of the size of the school he had to carry all his books in his backpack all the time and it was too heavy. We actually had to buy him new backpack with lifetime warranty in January, because the first one got ripped from all the weight.</p>
<p>Fast-forward to second semester, now every 9th grader has IPad, because the school district analyzed the performance data and they said that the grades of IPad students were better in statistically significant way. So now my son has an IPad, however he does not want to return his books to the library because he likes reading them more than using an app on the IPad. </p>
<p>Anyway, about a month and half later I realized how his grade had slipped as compared with first semester. He was claiming that he did not know why. During parent-teacher conferences it becomes clear that IPad is a problem. My son (and other students) are constantly distracted by youtube, facebook and other web-sites (the Apple store is supposed to be disabled, so the students cannot get access to unauthorized IPad). It used to be that my son would work on his homeowork while waiting for me to pick him up after school. However with IPad he was spending time browsing internet and participating in message boards. Moreover, whenever the administration performed IPad check, about 80% of the students had it confiscated to disable the Apple store again (students found a way to work around this problem). So now my so is not allowed to bring IPad to school (I made a deal with the teachers that they will work with him by providing him paper copies of the worksheets). Guess what, the grades improved in just 2 weeks! </p>
<p>P.S. Many teachers asked me if I provided feedback to administration through a survey I sent. My sense is that the teachers are frustrated by the student body being distracted by the Ipads.</p>
<p>Our school has gym one semester for all four years of HS. Gym lockers are tiny but they do have locks so I guess books + laptops could fit. </p>
<p>Do students really use their laptops in class? I know in College, my kids only used them for maybe one of their classes each per semester. My current college freshman may use his more since he really likes his tech toys.</p>
<p>There’s also the assumption that the teachers are all going to be fully trained to integrate the technology in the classroom. As far as I’m concerned, if they aren’t using them in the classroom then there isn’t a reason for them since they have them at home. There has not been a hue and cry from teachers, parents or kids for this.</p>
<p>I do like the idea of having the textbooks on-line, but I understand that’s available now for many subjects, and again, they can pull them up on home computers and use the books in the classroom.</p>
<p>^^^^
In my son’s high school teachers in core subjects were trained to use Ipad and they are using them in class. However, both core subjects and electives teachers complained about students being distracted by the extra stuff on Ipads.</p>
<p>That is exactly what is happening in my son’s school. I do not like it. Plus, the very day my son got his Ipad (two weeks after the rest of his school because he was a transfer student), someone stole it. He hadn’t had a chance to download the tracking software, but I’m not really sure if it’s reliable. Several have been stolen from the boy’s locker room because the boys will leave them unattended for a few minutes. We made my son go without for a couple of months. When asked why he didn’t have much homework during those months, he admitted that he was able to do it in class, while most of the other kids just surfed the net. Only about half of their textbooks are online, so he still ends up carrying around a heavy backpack.</p>
<p>I do think that ipads/tablets are going to play a more prominent role in the classroom in the future. It would be very beneficial if the manufacturers would provide a “stripped down” model that would remove the distracting apps and not allow for additions without consent. </p>
<p>I think that providing the tablets is only part of the issue in some areas. LAck of internet access for the tablet may be a big issue as well.</p>
<p>Toledo,
LOL. My son also left his IPad unattended while getting lunch couple of times. His friends used his IPad to download inappropriate content, change his status on facebook, etc. The thing is, he never learned. It happened couple of times to him. Yet the only thing he did is change his password (he used to have easy to guess password).</p>
<p>Anyway, as of two weeks ago my son is not allowed to bring IPad to school. I immediately saw results of this restriction. In fact, my son told me that I have to take away his IPad, because he would not be able to resist the urge to play on it, instead of doing what he is supposed to do.</p>
<p>the way school district deals with the issue of downloading unapproved apps right now is setting up a profile that prohibits it. However, about 80% of students deleted that profile almost immediately. The IPads were repeatedly by school confiscated to put the profile back on. My son told me that the school administration warned the students that next time the IPads without profile will be confiscated permanently. It remains to be seen if it will work - as the warning was issued last week. I believe the only reason my son’s ipad was never confiscated is because I checked his every day (acted as a deterrent). </p>
<p>The least thing a school can do about internet access is firewall some of the common distraction websites. Facebook comes to mind.</p>
<p>It seems that it would be hard locking down a product that was designed as a general-purpose tool.</p>
<p>I was wondering how the textbook companies were progressing on e-textbooks - the information here indicates that they are making good progress. My kids would definitely have liked not hauling books all over the place.</p>
<p>My kids did NOT have laptops or access to them until they started college. They had desktops in our living room, which limited their interest in going to questionable and time-wasting sites. (They still did have a GameBoy to waste their time with games anyway).</p>
<p>Their private school had computer lab, library & other places where the kids could use computers as needed.</p>
<p>The rival private schools force all kids to “rent” MacBooks from middle school or earlier. Never felt that our kids were deprived from not having to lug around MacBooks in addition to all the other things they had to carry around at school. They are very comfortable with Mac & PCs (we have the latter at home).</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t like schools forcing people to “rent to own” tech, but can see how it could be convenient from an administrator’s point of view.</p>
<p>My D’s high school required laptops. I have mixed feelings about it. There are some clear advantages, as others have highlighted, but the thing that has occasionally driven me nuts is that, since she supposedly needs her laptop for practically everything, there’s no way to tell if she’s doing her work or just goofing around on the internet. </p>
<p>Then there’s the fact that when most of a kid’s work is on a computer, the siren call of the net is pretty much omnipresent (unless one completely pulls the plug-i.e. the kid gets lashed to the proverbial mast). I’m not convinced it’s a great thing to encourage high school kids to be nearly perpetually plugged in when they’re “doing their homework”, but maybe I’m just howling fruitlessly into the relentless winds of change.</p>
<p>They can block the fun stuff on an individual basis if needed, but the general idea is that they need to learn to put off the distracting stuff and get the work done or suffer the consequences. I don’t know what my son’s grades would be like if he were in a typical school, but I figure once in college, youtube is going to be the least worrisome distraction. The only time my kid seems to get away with that kind of stuff though is when they are working independently, which is not the majority of the time.
And they have no textbooks, not even online versions. The teachers develop the lessons and use resources available online or produce their own reference material. For Spanish, they use Rosetta Stone and read Spanish websites. They chat to each other in Spanish using ichat. In history, they search for, examine, and discuss documents published at the time like letters, speeches, newspaper articles, and court documents.</p>
<p>there is a way to check what kids are doing on their laptop. Look at their browsing history. I know that I go to an extreme, I check my son’s history every day (and he is not allowed to delete it). Also, if it is possible practically, he has to be in the common area while using his laptop (not always possible, since I also have a daughter, who sometimes engages in noisy activities while my son is trying to concentrate). </p>
<p>I know, I sound like a control freak, but my son repeatedly admitted that he needs this kind of supervision in order to keep himself from getting into trouble.</p>
<p>I really felt it was good that they only had computer access in a common room thru their HS years. Time management can be tough enough without the siren’s call of the web & facebook & other distractions.</p>
<p>I figured once they started college was soon enough for them to be able to use laptops anywhere other than in common rooms where we frequently would walk past or sit beside them at OUR computers. My nephews admit that the web temptations are really a lot to handle in middle & HS.</p>