Schools ditching laptop programs en masse

We know deans, principals, and presidents -- it sounded like such a terrific idea at the time, eh? Apparently, the notion that throwing a portal into the world laptop in front of easily distracted and technologically savvy kids doesn't look so rosy anymore, as the NYTimes is reporting that many schools across America are finally ditching one-to-one laptop programs after seeing "literally no evidence it had any impact on student achievement." Of course, a good deal of teachers already had beef with the idea, and schools have subsequently found out that allowing DAPs or even WiFi in a supposed learning environment just might cause more harm than good, but in a particular New York high school, students tended to "crash the network" during study hall rather than actually complete work. Interestingly, studies also insinuated that in-class laptops proved more of a hindrance than a learning liaison regardless if the school was considered affluent or low-income. And these overseas officials really think its youngsters are going to utilize the OLPC for learning purposes. Right on.

[Rick @ May 4th 2007 9:01AM]

The Zoo called....One of the monkeys escaped....

[zoara @ May 4th 2007 9:05AM]

The young lady appears unimpressed

[ogman @ May 4th 2007 9:29AM]

Nah...just mildly amused and pleased that they joined HER porn site.

[Joseph Matt @ May 4th 2007 9:13AM]

As a byproduct of Henrico's initial iBook program, I can tell you they suck. It's an easy way to make a splash and look impressive to your collegues when you roll this out, but to your kids, you might as well not buy them text books and spend it on 5-star dining, atleast we'll get some good food out of it...

[Adam @ May 4th 2007 9:31AM]

Having just graduated from a high school with plenty of computer resources last year, this does not surprise me at all. Students were far more interested in playing internet games and harassing each other than doing anything productive. I actually knew some kids who would see how much junk they could put into the CD drives of the desktop computers before they stopped working. It is a terrible waste of money for the school.

[MichaeLC @ May 4th 2007 9:35AM]

quote ogman:
>Nah...just mildly amused and pleased that they >joined HER porn site.

Suicidegirls.com?

[toppgun @ May 4th 2007 9:47AM]

I want that shirt

[Danielle @ May 4th 2007 9:56AM]

As a student I witness people playing games , watching movies/tv shows , browsing the net , etc in lecture. I don't understand the point of attending a lecture where attendence isn't mandatory just to watch a movie. It's also very distracting when the person in the row in front of you is watching the episode of greys you missed last week.

I have also seen the plus side , using a laptop allows for precise neat notes to be made and well it doesn't happen that often I have seen students look up info the prof has talked about in class or even seen profs ask that students look things up.

Personally my laptop has helped me with classes, but I've been called a keener so I don't know if I would be considered the norm.

[tiuk @ May 4th 2007 10:20AM]

Yeah, laptops definitely come in handy for looking up concepts while in class. Or viewing the course notes/lecture slides.

They can be very distracting, though.

[dgandy @ May 4th 2007 9:58AM]

Maybe that guy's shirt indicates why they havent seen any improvements...

[captain_sunshine @ May 4th 2007 10:04AM]

I work in a "laptop school" as a history teacher in an urban district. I agree that there is a HUGE issue of the students not utilizing the technology properly. You can't just put a WiFi enabled laptop in front of a kid and expect him/her to become a better student. However, I think that with proper student *and* teacher training, having a laptop can be a great benefit. You just have to use it in the proper way. Imagine the class as being one giant mobile video lab, or students as a crew of bloggers at the Constitutional Convention. Laptops are a tool like any other. You can use a pencil to write a paper, or stab someone with it.
The problem is that a lot of people who hold the purse strings do not understand what it take to roll out this much technology in an entire school. You need specific training, follow up trainings, upgrades, tech support, monitoring...I could go on.
To dismiss laptops in the classroom outright is a mistake. With careful consideration, they can be a true asset to the students and teachers.

[Olivier @ May 4th 2007 10:12AM]

It's simple really...
Teacher gets an ON/OFF WIFI switch for the classroom, and shuts things off at the beggining of the class.
Video cameras (the ones in the little black domes so people can't tell where they are pointed at) are installed in the classrooms with a recording device the teacher can access to after classes, and/or a link to central surveillance.
Anybody caught watching a movie in class or watching random holiday pictures etc.. gets a fail in my book.

Any more questions?

[narco @ May 4th 2007 10:38AM]

yeah, but who's going to pay for that?

[Tommy @ May 4th 2007 10:13AM]

Wow those high schoolers look older than me. what do Yankee children eat that makes them grow into such oddballs?

[Woolly Mittens @ May 4th 2007 10:16AM]

I didn't notice the laptop in the picture until I stopped looking at the cleavage.

[lol. @ May 4th 2007 2:39PM]

you call that cleavage? I call it pale.

[Matt @ May 4th 2007 10:50AM]

The difference between this and the OLPC, is that these kids all have ample access to other computers. There's probably a computer lab in the schools, and I'd assume most of them also have computers at home. The OLPC's are supposed to be for kids who have no other access to a computer or the internet, which is why those laptops might actually succeed when these ones don't. It's kind of like when Oprah built that school in Africa, we don't appreciate things here like they do in underprivileged countries.

[jasenj1 @ May 4th 2007 11:00AM]

So the schools discovered that rather than using the laptops to learn what was being taught (history, English, economics) the students were learning to use the technology to do what they wanted (watch movies, interact with each other, play games) and how to mess about with the tech in general - crash the network, etc. Sounds perfectly logical to me.

While these kids may not have learned what was being taught, they certainly learned to be good computer users. And that may be just as important in their future as any of the other stuff the school intended to teach. Lets see some surveys/tests of computer skills amongst those given laptops vs those not.

And I'd be interested to know how integrated the laptops were in the teaching process. Was curriculum designed to use the laptops? Or were they just glorified notepads?

Just because they didn't get the results they wanted - higher scores on standardized tests, doesn't mean no good came of it.

- Jasen.

[DT Jacobs @ May 4th 2007 1:47PM]

Yeah, I'm sure they get very good at using a computer, but that's hardly the only skill HS kids will need upon graduation. So perhaps a better way to teach them computer skills would be giving out laptops that they CANNOT use during regular classes. And fine them if they break due to negligence, just like if they destroyed a textbook. That should keep support costs down a bit.

[tetu81 @ May 4th 2007 11:09AM]

Thank goodness they came to their senses. This is clear to anyone who attended any college class in the last five years...why anyone thought high school (or younger) kids would be more responsible with the technology has always befuddled me.

[SubGenius @ May 4th 2007 11:59AM]

The problem is that the instructors don't know how to use the computers as well as the students.
The second problem is the lack(availability) of class management software.

Apple has a great solution called Apple Remote Desktop.
While I am lecturing I can see thumbnails of all my students desktops.
If they are doing other stuff, I can lock their screen.
If a student is doing good work, i can take his screen and show it all the other students screens.

Unfortunately most instructors have no idea how to control the computers or aren't given the tools to do so.
I couldn't tech effectively without Apple Remote Desktop.

[mister falcon @ May 4th 2007 12:10PM]

Unfortunately, most school districts won't allow teachers or administrators to use Apple Remote Desktop to check on students. After all, we don't want to invade their privacy. Even if it is on hardware that is owned/leased by the school district and they are using the district's power and network facilities.

As someone who once worked as the onsite technician at a One to One initiative school - 90% of the kids don't appreciate what they have, and feel entitled to the computers provided. Needless to say, I'm glad that I no longer work in that environment. Between the whiny students (gee - if you don't drop your computer - the screen won't crack), the administrators (who are caught between a rock and a hard place), and the computer manufacturers, something is bound to go poorly. It doesn't matter what manufacturer or platform you use - Mac, Windows, IBM, Apple, Dell, etc. - the fundamental problems are still there.

As for the OLPC, I honestly think it won't make any difference. People are still going to starve and die of diseases in those developing countries. I highly doubt that a laptop is going to change that.

With regards to the charges of hacking lodged against the students of Kutztown school district for hacking the computers and the network - they fully well should have been prosecuted - those computers and the network did not belong to the students.

There is no magic bullet to solve the ills of the American k12 education system, but I can tell you that issuing laptops to students is not one of them.

[kaztm @ May 4th 2007 2:03PM]

"After all, we don't want to invade their privacy. Even if it is on hardware that is owned/leased by the school district and they are using the district's power and network facilities."

That's an interesting contrast to what US employers do to their assets and employees. 40-60% of US companies monitor or restrict the usage of e-mail and Web, and use access logs to fire employees.

[bigpat @ May 4th 2007 3:07PM]

Our current education system was designed to a large degree during the Great Depression to keep kids from entering the workforce and competing with adults for jobs and undercutting their wages. Think of children as equivalent to illegal immigrants that you can't deport.

Until we come to grips with the idea that our traditional education system, composed of grade levels and high scool is largely just day care for older kids, then we don't have any hope of changing things to actually help kids help themselves learn what it takes to make a living before their lives are almost half over.

Throwing facilities and expensive resources at our kids doesn't help them learn what it takes to lead a fulfilling independent life where they can support themselves. That college has become a required place where the elite must network, undermines the very core of a public education being a great equalizer of the classes.

[joelja @ May 4th 2007 6:55PM]

Technology without accompanying pedagogy is not likely to be useful. I say this as someone with 13 years supporting technology deployment in a reasearch university...

Primary school educators are no more capable of implementing Curriculum and measuring performance in technology assisted learing enviroments then they are anywhere else, which is to say not very.

Taking a broken educational system (US public education) and selectively adding technology without new ideas and instrumentation is doomed to failure.

[Juaquin @ May 4th 2007 8:17PM]

Duh. Here at UCLA we get wireless in almost all the classrooms, and everyone has a laptop (their own, school doesn't hand 'em out). About 90% of the people who bring their computer to class are just browsing the net most of the time. I'm not saying laptops or wireless should be banned, you just have to know how to control it. If you're browsing the net all through class and you fail, that's what happens.

Besides laptops being cheap enough (especially compared to the cost of tuition), not everyone wants the same dull piece of junk they hand out en masse. You can get a MacBook for less than a grand at the student store, which is about 1/14 of what we pay for housing anyways. I think if they gave away cheap HPs to everyone, a lot of people would still end up buying their own.

[danzabell @ May 4th 2007 10:32PM]

If a classroom is managed poorly without laptops, it will be managed poorly with them too. If students know the technology better than the teachers, of course the system is going to get hacked. In general, education has never really evolved. It is also about 2 years behind industry at any given time, when it comes to adopting current tech. Worst of all, teachers love magic solutions that solve everything immediately. When it doesn't work, they reach out for the next one. We can do better.

[Matt @ May 5th 2007 2:13PM]

Well I think the laptop does have a place in the classroom, however just having and open laptop is not the answer.

The OLPC solution is better though. The curtailed feature set with an academic focus would help. I also believe that the OLPC has a broadcast mode in which the teacher broacasts what is on his/her screen to the students screens, essentially locking them out of going off on a tangent.

They had this in computer labs at my university and it could be implemented here as well. Locking the screen to the current powerpoint presentation or to just note taking software from the teachers end.

[jjonesdtrt @ May 6th 2007 10:28AM]

This is a perfect example of confusing technology with behavior. If a student is distracted and off-task with a laptop in front of them, does that mean they were engaged and interested before? I doubt it. I am a student (albeit an old one) who would NOT take a single course if I had to take notes by hand, or could not look up references on the fly during lectures. For me, a laptop is a pivotal tool for my education.

But education and self-improvement was the first decision I've made. Certainly, if a student hasn't made that decision, a laptop will not help. But throwing them out is a little like throwing out a blackboard 'cause the students have failed to pay attention and learn from what's on it. Computers have become convenient scape-goats for our own failures to engage and challenge our students.

I would agree that spending money on devices which don't produce higher levels of learning isn't helpful. But as several comments above imply, if you've lost the war, there isn't a lot of point in quibbling over the state of the wreckage.

And the results of avoiding these programs is that students will continue to get their first exposure to productive technology use in college, or the workplace. They're abusing these resources now 'cause we're not teaching them anything different, and they're learning how (and why) to use these resources completely on their own. How will we teach them otherwise if we don't use them ourselves, or provide for their use by students?...wait for them to get fired from their first jobs for surfing eBay during working hours?

[Ricky @ May 7th 2007 9:56PM]

At my school, we currently use laptops. All standard inspiron dell notebooks. All I do is sometimes use it for school work, otherwise, I'm using bittorent, surfing the web, and on meebo.com. Even though, we are restricted from accessing our C:// drive or even installing programs or hell, using right click. There are many, many ways around.