What do we know so far about Norway? That it likes
electric cars, has buses
powered by poo, and offers so much snow even its
billboards are filled with the stuff. Now we're learning something else: that it's in the middle of a pilot program that would put a laptop (a real one, not one of those
OLPC toys) into the Bedazzled rucksack of every 16 - 19 year old. The trial is currently underway in a single county, Nord-Trondelag (site of the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030), where 6,000 lappys have been distributed featuring Big Brother-like software. The stuff, provided by 3ami, captures screenshots and keystrokes when students take quizzes and exams electronically. If all goes well Norway will expand this program nation-wide, and since each laptop comes with a copy of Photoshop we're expecting a whole new generation of expert image manipulators.
[Image courtesy of
mrsviennau]
posted May 1st 2009 8:29AM
I can tell they are learning much about the internet and that this is money will spent.
From some of the pixels, obviously.
just wait till they discover /b/ i hear 'expert image manipulators' are very sought after there.
there's serendipity and there's an engadget staff writer with too damn much time his hands to find that friggin' viking cat
http://users.wolfcrews.com/toys/vikings/
http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/2/9/vikingcatpill128470517310937500.jpg
Yea it took me all of 10 seconds to go to icanhascheezburger.com and look up viking. It's the first one that comes up
http://www2.printshop.co.uk/RatherGood/Shop/Toys/Viking_Kitten_soft_Toy/Product.html
"Nord-Trondelag (site of the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030)"
Was that even necessary? After all, everyone knows that Nord-Trondelag was the side of the Battle of Stikelstad!
That should read "site." F****** comment system!
i'm from norway and we got laptops from our school whit the full cs3 master collection :D
Trønderlag øøøøøøøøøøøø!
Viking Cat shall rue this day!!
whats with the big brother spyware, what happens if someone within the government is a peadophile, could they not watch any child at any time?
Is a peadophile someone who is sexually attracted to legumes? :D
And I wouldn't call 16 to 19 year olds children, especially when the age of consent in Norway is 16.
no its just for tests i think, used something like it a couple of years ago, when you take a test on the pc it takes screenshots when/during your answering a qestion, so the teacher can you know help:)
yeah... that's the catch. they data-mine the kids' homework/exams. the kids might receive an email from the government telling them to study and then the computer automatically shuts down the games they're playing :P
p.s. it's "pae-" not "pea-".
lol my good old days of high school reminds me of that smartboard...
I'd like to say that it's not really a good idea to teach kids, especially maths, on laptops because you never learn. i've tried it. yeah, until you put that machine away and get out a book and a pen, maths and computers are a terrible couple.
For the teachers it's really inconvenient -- our teachers were really struggling with the accuracy and response time of the board, and then it was crashing here and there... but for the students, you can't really draw and label diagrams as freely as paper... and to do revision on laptops is not a good idea either... and then you get distractions to go on LOLCATS.
anyway. I'm in uni now :P
PS. Engadget... don't comment on that Photoshop thing... you guys already started with that girl's laptop screen :D
Smartboard? Man, you must have had it rough. Back in the late 90s, we had to learn through spoken word and interpretive dance.
I think math would be a ton better if tablets were more common. The T101h would be the perfect computer for this, com on Asus!
@absinthe party
you guys danced your way through maths. wow.
@ Jon
Well, it _was_ the 90s.
I thought the Swedes used Linux...
It's a good thing Norway and Sweden is seperate countries then...
This happened in Cory Doctorow's great book Little Brother. The protagonist had been given a laptop called a SchoolBook which ran Windows Vista4Schools, and it was full of spyware and keyloggers.
I figured that Little Brother would be one of those books that seems almost prescient, but I'm surprised it's happened this fast.
Well, this is old new...I live in Norway and this have been going on the last four-five years. Samma faen egentlig :P
County of Hordaland has already been doing this for two years, if the students finish high school, they keep the laptops.
Don't think there's any big brothering on them either.
according to my Wii, they dont wash their hair that much. it seems that people in warmer climates do more often.
just saying...
Go Rockets!
Australia is given a Lenovo netbook to every student in the country...
If they finish high school, they keep it.
I know, i miss out on 1 by 2 yrs :( :(.
There is a nation wide-spread laptop distribution program operating in Portugal, but it includes all kids from 5-18 (1st to 12th grade).
It's a very ambitious program and is accompanied by school modernization(new generation schools) also widespread.
No big news for the Portuguese.
Forget Norway.
Lions and tigers are only in Kenya.
But look at the fjords, man, look at the fjords!
Grrr, why didn't they hand out laptops back in my schooldays?
*Grandpa mode*: "When I was a young nipper, we had to ask our parents to buy us computers..."
Man, if us Americans were actually good-looking like the Norwegians, we'd probably get laptops too.
I love Norway! I lived there for three years back in the 90's when my dad was in the Air Force. Definitely my favorite place that I've lived. The perople are nice, the country is clean and beautiful, and their way of life is very laid back and enjoyable.
I'd retire there in a heartbeat if it wasn't so expensive :(
Instead I have to get my Norway fix everytime I visit Epcot at Disneyworld.
Near me, the local school system just announced that they will renew their contract with Dell for providing laptops to every HS student.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/education/article/LAPS28_20090427-222833/264355/
This year is the 4th year with Dells, preceded by a similar 4 year contract with Apple for HS students to take home laptops. The Middle schools foe the county have a similar "1 to 1" laptop deal, and their current provider is Apple as well. That one is up for renewal next year.
In total they hand out over 24,000 laptops to students. For people that want more info - http://www.henrico.k12.va.us/administration/instruction/technology/technology.html
Still... to hear whole nations doing it is impressive.
It looks like the Norwegians have far too much oil money sloshing around, even after bailing out Iceland.
*sigh* that could have been Scotland, we could have been a contender... if it wasn't for Thatcher and those meddling kids.
No way, you guys wear kilts!
Loved the shop!
In my hometown Umeå in Sweden we've been giving free lappies to kids 16-19 for a year. No spyware though, just regular ol' XP. Hardware-wise it's a dual core 2ghz intel processor, 2 gb ram and 120gb hdd. The graphics card is the main bummer though, integrated intel one, can't remember it's name.
Software is dependant on what you're studying, so only the design, art and media students get adobe cs3 suites, everyone else only gets like MS office and that's about it.
it's amazing what governments can supply when they're not running around trying to "police" the entire world.
We're doing that too, just on a 'slightly' smaller scale than the US! ;)
I cast mine eyes unto Norway, from whence cometh my cat macros.
This article is seriously full of it. Firstly, the laptops don't have any spyware. Secondly, I live nowhere near the place mentioned, and I am typing this on a lappy the school gave me, without Photoshop (with GIMP, however). And this is a regular Dell Latitude D531 with a regular WinXP install.
I don't know what the hell kind of bullshit bigbrothering is going on up north in Nord Trøndelag, but I sure don't like it. I would rather not have a computer than have a PC with straight out, one hundred percent SPYWARE pre-installed.
Fun to read - although I think that many/most Norwegian high schools have had a laptop scheme for years. It has not been (fully) paid by the Govmt though, students have had to lease the laptops.
BTW, I went to primary school a few hundred meters/yards from the site of the Battle of Stiklestad...