Laptops for every HS student

Parents Forum
21

<p>The D’s private high school has 1:1 laptop learning using Mac books. They are issued in September and returned at the end of the school year. One of my very good friends is on the Board of another local independant school, which instituted 1:1 IPad learning in Septmeber, with “the cloud” enveloping the campus.</p>

<p>The D is not distracted using the laptop for note taking and other educational functions. In fact she uses her notes taken in EverNote or Word and imports them into a software program which creates digital flash cards, study guides and practice tests. She finds this very helpful in preparing for her tests and exams.</p>

22

<p>

My son’s school is doing that. My son said he thinks laptops would have been a better investment, as then they’d have keyboards to type papers. I bought him one of those cases with a keyboard, but it’s not really a good substitute.</p>

<p>I recently suggested that his iPad experiences might make an interesting college application essay.</p>

23

<p>We had an ancient, slow family PC in the common area. My mom bought D a MacBook her sophomore year when it became apparent that she really needed something handy and modern. We borrowed it for our uses and little brother did as well. Mom bought brother a mac laptop as well at the start of his freshman year. D has so much homework that there was no way to do a computer share. Both kids have limited schedules due to music and sports so cannot stagger homework. Son’s laptop is now the default family computer. D camps out in her room on the floor amongst books, notes, calculator, etc and will move out to common area if she’s working on something that doesn’t need too much focus.</p>

24

<p>Threesdad,</p>

<p>your daughter is using technology as it was designed. Not all kids do that (especially immature 14 year old boys)!</p>

25

<p>My son will be starting high school in the fall at a school with 1:1 using iPads. I have serious concerns about distraction, but on the other hand, his major academic issues are poor note taking and organizational skills. He learns best by listening, which he does well, but when the variable of note taking is thrown into the equation he actually does become distracted and his test grades suffer, but since notes are a large part of the grade he has to do it. The high school does note taking on the iPad via apps and by providing presentations and prepared notes to go along with the lesson so there will be no more notebook checks!!!</p>

26

<p>Lerkin: You have no idea what proud I am of what you just wrote about the D. Thank you. She is a new student in her school and the transition from middle school to high school where she is a new student was not easy. She is working very hard to assimilate academically and socially (athletically she has already proven herself on the field).</p>

<p>D’s school instructs the 9th grade students on how to deternmine what’s important, hjow to properly take notes and how to prepare and study for exams. For these reasons (and the schools repuation for instructing the student body with their writing skills), D attends the school she does.</p>

27

<p>

</p>

<p>That’s not quite right. They are provided only for 7th and 8th grade students. My daughter is in 8th grade and has one. My older son had one, also. I thought I would hate the program, but I ended up liking it, as far as it goes. The problem is that the state does NOT pay for high school students, so it’s frustrating for the kids to get to ninth grade and suddenly not have a laptop! Some school districts are able to fund the program for their high schools, but our district doesn’t.</p>

<p>Last year, the middle school did a survey. They found that 100% of the 8th graders had internet access at home. That seems impossible, but that’s what we were told.</p>

28

<p>

I’m told that’s what we can expect next fall. I hope it’s true. The school has a fantastic reputation and I can’t imagine that there aren’t other boys who are note challenged. Although I don’t think notes should be graded or forced to conform, but that’s just me.</p>

29

<p>Actually, some High Schools in Maine do provide Macbooks to students. High Schools had the option to continue the Apple Grant into High School three years ago. I work in a High School that did just that. My son attends High School in a district that chose not to have the Macbooks in the upper grades. The district I work for is not at all affluent, in fact the thought was the Macbook would allow all family members have greater access to technology. As the OP wrote, the kids can often figure out ways to circumvent the firewall system, and this happened the first year. The district has become more savvy, and can block social networking sites, and monitor the student’s usage remotely.</p>

30

<p>My son’s private school bought notebooks and we paid a fee all four years. My son will graduate soon. I think that for about 90 percent of the kids they were a huge distraction. I would not be in favor of my son having one at school all day. To me, it becomes a game of how much the kids can get away with when they should be doing something else. There were a few good things, but I am not sure the distraction was worth it.</p>

31

<p>Two fairly recent news reports I remember:</p>

<p><a href=“Apple Woos Educators With Trips to Silicon Valley - The New York Times”>Apple Woos Educators With Trips to Silicon Valley - The New York Times;

<p>"But Apple in particular woos the education market with a state-of-the art sales operation that educators say is unique, and that, public-interest watchdogs say, raises some concerns. Along with more traditional methods, Apple invites educators from around the country to “executive briefings,” which participants describe as equal parts conversation, seminar and backstage pass.</p>

<p>Such events might seem unremarkable in the business world, where closing a deal can involve thinly veiled junkets, golf outings and lavish dinners. But the courtship of public school officials entrusted with tax dollars is a more sensitive matter. Some critics say the trips could cast doubt on the impartiality of the officials’ buying decisions, which shape the way millions of students learn."</p>

<p>[Suit:</a> Lower Merion School District Allegedly Spied on Students Through Webcams - Crimesider - CBS News](<a href=“http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-6223385-504083.html]Suit:”>http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-6223385-504083.html)</p>

<p>(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
PHILADELPHIA (CBS/AP) Was Pennsylvania’s Lower Merion School District secretly spying on its students with school-issued webcams?</p>

<p>Photo: Harriton High School in Bryn Mawr, Pa.</p>

<p>A federal lawsuit filed by Blake Robbins, a student at Harriton High and his parents, claims the school remotely spied on their son at home through a webcam on a laptop the school had given him. </p>

<p>They found out, they said, because assistant principal Lindy Matsko told Blake Robbins that he was engaged in improper behavior at home and claimed the school had the webcam photo to prove it. The behavior was not specified in the suit. </p>

<p>This was settled out of court and there is a wiki article with more details.</p>

32

<p>This is an interesting discussion. I have a good friend who works at a private school where they still ban the kids from using laptops in school unless they have specific permission (for certain learning disabilities). The kids can use the desktops in the computer lab or library, but that’s it.</p>

<p>Our public district bought a couple hundred netbooks and put them in the hs library. The kids can sign them out during the day or overnight the same way they’d sign out a library book. They store their papers on the school’s servers and just access them thru the netbooks. Or they can bring their own laptops to school, but almost no one does.</p>

33

<p>Our kids’ private school has had laptops (Macs) for all high school students for over 10 years. Here are a few observations:

  • It takes a while for the teachers to learn to use them as an effective tool in the classroom (I would estimate the learning curve was about four years for REALLY effective usage). But now they are a great extension in the classroom for activities and assignments. Most of the teachers now have blogs (extra curriculars, too).
  • Email communication is really important – they communicate announcements about school things, teachers can change or clarify assignments, extra curricular information can be communicated, etc. Since the kids have email access all day, this is very useful.
  • The 9th graders bury themselves in them and don’t come up for air for about a year. Just the way it is.
  • Our kids get in trouble if they DON’T bring their laptop to school; it is like forgetting your textbook or paper/pencil for class. They take all their notes on them, write some in-class assignments (even some exams, they make everyone turn off the internet connection), etc.<br>
  • The kids are incredibly comfortable using them as tools in school by the time they graduate. They are whizzes at PowerPoint and Word (not Excel as much, I have taught both my kids how to use it, but they are quick studies at new applications). They use GoogleDocs for shared projects, etc. D1 has found it to be an asset in her internships that she is fast and proficient on a computer.
  • When my kids visited colleges, one thing they looked at was whether students were using laptops to take notes in class. They REALLY didn’t want to go back to writing by hand, and I can’t blame them.
  • It is a constant war (mostly in good humor) between the administration and the students to block certain kinds of content and sites. Ironically, the school used to block Facebook… but then this year they started using Facebook a lot for school promotion, and decided it was hypocritical to keep the kids off it. So they opened it up.
  • The teachers are quite good at keeping the kids on task even with the laptops open in the classroom (again, a learned skill on their part).
  • They do a great job with tech support (again, that was sort of learned). But now you can get a loaner.</p>

<p>In general, I think it was a GREAT move on the part of our school. Very forward thinking, and they are way ahead of a lot of schools in figuring this stuff out. Our kids are still strong readers, public speakers, and critical thinkers, too.</p>

34

<p>

</p>

<p>They may need to learn to grin and bear it if they happen to have a Prof or few who bans the use of laptops in class. </p>

<p>Had two of those types of Profs myself during undergrad in the mid-late '90s and there’s been a trend of some grad/professional school Profs banning their use in class for various reasons ranging from their perceptions that it inhibits active class participation to finding them to be distractions to users/other students because they are using it to goof off on FB, IM, twitter, gaming, various non-curricular websites. And if one is sitting behind or close enough to the goofing off classmate in a given class…it can greatly detract from attention to the Prof and the class. </p>

<p>There’s also been discussion in some higher ed circles as to whether taking notes with a laptop is far less effective in facilitating the learning process into long-term memory than taking notes with pen and paper.</p>

35

<p>Notes with pen and paper don’t help much if they are illegible.</p>

36

<p>

</p>

<p>Odd. </p>

<p>They were still teaching penmanship classes to elementary school kids back in the late '90s…including two younger cousins of mine. One’s a second-year undergrad at an elite LAC and the other is an Ivy-bound graduating high school senior.</p>

37

<p>My oldest son, 19, had more instruction in cursive than his two younger siblings. My youngest, 13, has no idea how to write anything in cursive. I’m not sure what she’ll do for a signature. All three kids have pretty poor handwriting. But they can type fast as blazes!</p>

38

<p>I actually was speaking of my own penmanship. ;). I either take notes on my laptop or tape the lecture. Whatever works best for that class.</p>

39

<p>My 2 high schoolers attend a school that does not issue laptops/ipads. There are smart boards in every classroom, along wtih computers, a computer lab, and computers in the library. </p>

<p>I have often wished we could go to the ipad so we could save their backs from the heavy text books. </p>

<p>Both my kids are proficient in software applications (word, power point, and excel). My assumption is most kids these days are whether the school uses laptops/ipads as part of lessons. Kids just have this type of literacy today. </p>

<p>I would be concerned about theft (gym 3 times week and public transportation), breakage (very clumsy kids), and distractions. i think thE distractions are there already, however, with the smart phones.</p>

40

<p>Thank you everyone for the great discussion. There was a board meeting last night and a presentation was made. However it was apparent to most of the board members that the reason for giving out Mac laptops was not persuasive enough for a decision to be made. Yay! </p>

<p>Nellieh’s post above very much reflects my thoughts and our school. We currently have the smart boards and laptops available in school and our kids are very proficient in computer skills. They are taught how to do a power point in fourth grade and have mandatory tech classes throughout K-12. Nothing that is being done now would be much different (IMHO) except they would have the distraction of a computer in every class and they wouldn’t have to worry about losing a flash drive. Some of their textbooks are on-line now. You don’t need a personal Mac to access that.</p>

<p>Right now students are NOT allowed to bring in their own laptops but I do agree that for some students typing notes would be more efficient. I think there is a comprehension link between handwriting and processing though that is not the same as typing. I too find that my handwriting is much worse then it was ten years ago just because I spend more time with a keyboard then I ever do hand writing something. </p>

<p>Something that I think that is ignored by educators now is the importance of handwriting not only for reinforcing what is taught when you take notes, but also so when they take those all important tests BY HAND, that they can be read. How many of you worry how your kids will do on the SAT/ACT simply because no one will be able to read what they write?</p>