Who woulda thunk it? Giving WiFi to fidgety students on a bus actually makes them
more productive. Nearly three years after an Arkansas school
launched a trial that delivered laptops, iPods and wireless internet to a bus, an Arizona school district is discovering the merits of such a system -- though with this one, there stands a good chance for it to go well beyond the "pilot" phase. Students in Vail, Arizona have been able to handle school assignments, engage in research and even update their Facebook status on the lengthy rides to and from school, and the suits responsible for hooking Bus No. 92 up have stated that mischief has all but subsided and the bus has magically morphed into something of a "rolling study hall." As you'd expect,
Autonet Mobile is responsible for the technology (the same company
equipping select GM vehicles with in-car WiFi), and it has already sold similar tech to schools or districts in Florida, Missouri and Washington, DC. We always dreamed of being whisked off to another lousy school day on the
GamerBUS, but this ain't a half bad alternative.
[Thanks, Nate]
posted February 14th 2010 9:42PM
@Brent1700 Well then I certainly feel for you and your friends. I hope that one day you'll see that picking fun at someone is more than enough to damage a person. At the extreme edge this damage can cause death. And though you'll probably reply "He'll never see this...", it's still always possible. I mean he does have Wifi on his bus you know and government provided laptops. Just think of someone else besides yourself.
Vote for Pedro...
@Steve Jobs Jr
Picture = WIN!
@Steve Jobs Jr
What are you gonna do today Napoleon??
@Vol
They're going to surf for pron. That tends to focus kids rather quickly.
Gosh!
@bighap
string + action figure > wifi ?
Stupid New York public school system. You gonna' take this from Arkansas!?
@spade
No, but it looks like they'll take it from Arizona.
Kids nowadays are so spoiled, they have no idea how amazing this is.
No No this is complete BS....I had to ride the bus and this is spoiling these kids and depriving of the learning experience of having to ride public school transportation. I had endure constant abuse from upper class men. Random punches to the abdomen, stolen items and pissed off school bus drivers who threatened to stop the bus give us a "whooping"...Damn this MTV generation and their perks!
Ohhh could I steal WiFi next them while in traffic?
@southern78
Are you like 50, or just really scrawny? I never had to put up with any crap from the seniors in my school. I was bigger than most of them though.
@Prevacator HA not 50...just went to a large inner city school due the district I was in..it was not bad though but had its times. I was glad I hit a growth spurt at 10th grade and went to 6'3 but still doesn't help riding a bus being the only white kid for an hour...it was interesting. Good times :-)...... I still feel bad for the kid in the article as it appears someone has stolen his soul...
@southern78 Think of it as giving the bully something to do other than beat the kid next to him. Thus the advancement continues. Be mindful that if 50% of the kids use it for absolute corruption then the other 50% are actually bettering themselves with the service.
And no stealing wifi from them might be next to impossible. They could simply require cafe style logons or MAC limited wireless since all of the machines are gov't sponsored. And I'm sure there is some type of wireless encryption. Though you may be able to crack it it would take time and close proximity to the bus. And yes I know it was a joke I just don't want someone else reading this and thinking of trying it and end up running the bus off the road out of shear stupidity.
@Heratiki
When there is a will, there is way.
Imagine waking up in the middle of the night, and THAT kid is standing over your bed looking at you... No weapons, nothing in his hands... But that evil, twisted expression is enough to make you scream in terror...
@XciteMe id punch his front teeth out. then steal his ipod.
Updating Facebook status != "rolling study hall"
@Commentator There are a couple schools out there that use Facebook as a communication connection between students in the same class. Being that Facebook is free and reliable I could see this being used quite well. Although most of the kids would just end up playing Farmville until their brains melted.
@Nerdtalker
I'm sure that they'd use the same net nanny programs they do in the physical school
I'll take Ms. Frizzle's bus over wifi buses any day,
That poor child...
The WiFi is pretty cool though. Now they can decrease their physical interaction even more! Facebook chat to others on the bus ftw, oops, I mean
for the f-ing loose.
As long as they're not bouncing off the walls, what's not to like?
@superdx it takes precious profit away from pfizer and other companies who market adderall for kids (now in a sugar coated-caffine,B vitamin and taurine containing chewable bear!)
The school bus is the last place I'd want to use my laptop, I'd be afraid some psycho would take it from me and smash it!!
@Virus Cannon This tends to not be a problem in smaller cities which this would be the perfect case. Vail, Arizona is quite remote and nothing like a typical School District thus the reason they have wifi on the bus. Most smaller towns and districts of this size tend to know everyone else in the town which makes problems like most larger cities experience almost nonexistent. With a population of only around 2500 people it would be pretty hard to steal anything and get away with it completely.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vail,_Arizona
http://vailaz.com/
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=&vps=1&jsv=206b&sll=35.056901,-80.848142&sspn=0.010328,0.01929&ie=UTF8&geocode=FQ6V6AEd2dhm-Q&split=0
@Heratiki Actually, the Vail School District currently has an enrollment of 10,000+ students. We include parts of Southeast Tucson, as well as the communities of Vail and Corona de Tucson. By land area, we are one of the biggest districts in the state. Some students have bus rides of over an hour due to the spread of our district.
Wish this existed when I was in school taking the bus, that may have prevented me getting hit by papers or empty soda cans in the head.
@Somber
I doubt it
I wish our school bus had WiFi... then again, I live in Mexico and we rarely use the school bus...
I agree with the boy's ugliness... but I've seen uglier...
@skyblaze Most likely they are firewalled from doing anything other than what the school district wants. Instead of allowing someone to view all but certain sites most schools nowadays simply block all sites but those they deem necessary. This prevents all forms of access beyond what they allow as long as the access is walled through a local server instead of client side which can be "broken" rather easily.
I remember the mischief that would ensue at the back of the bus...it was so much fun, it seems almost unfair to take that away.
@B3astofthe3ast
I completely agree.
@Heratiki
no. I do this in real life too.
What are you gonna do today, Napoleon?
Cool.
@Nerdtalker
Wow. You all are a cynical bunch. I don't know about you, but kids are going to get to porn and unproductive websites whether or not wifi is provided. Honestly, what kid would look up porn on the school bus. Unless he sits in a section of like-minded students. Peer pressure works in reverse also.
Secondly: what's the matter with Facebook? You know that it's possible to open more than one internet page, right?
Missouri? Me like. Ahh poor overpopulated, underfunded, and ill equipped Farmington High School. Too bad I'll be forty before my school gets this :\
@geniusdog254 If your school is as good as you say it is, you'll probably still be attending by the time your forty.
@spade
Lol probably not. I'm headed to be valedictorian. I'm a sophomore & I've maintained an 11.0 GPA thru the 3 full semesters I've had of AP classes so far since I started my freshman year ;)
@geniusdog254 Uh, do you even know how to calculate GPA? There's no such thing as an 11.0. And I'm trying to figure out how many AP exams you could take in 3 semesters...especially as a freshmen where there's very few available.
@ticookie Most schools don't really care how if you can come up with the money for the test.
@ticookie Some school districts give an extra .5 for every AP class taken (i.e. an A in AP English would be weighted as a 4.5 in the GPA) and/or a .25 for honors classes. But it's pretty stupid; any decent college ignores weighted GPAs.
dollar to a donut they are watching Pron
@Nerdtalker Don't forget this isn't some big city that most people are used to. This is a remote town in one of the most rural states in the US. Just because it happens in "insert city here" doesn't mean it happens everywhere. You'd be amazed at how some school districts are throughout the US. It's not all craziness and lude people. Some places are down right quaint and nice. I'm not saying it's some kind of Pleasantville or anything but much better than the cesspools that fester in large cities.
I have a feeling this wouldn't exactly work in all school districts. In some, I'm sure you'd sooner get beaten up and your laptop stolen at knifepoint.
More productive. I smell just more YouTube and facebook.
Those seats look a lot more comfortable than my school bus. Were those bucket seats? GTFO
@juanvaldez Bucket probably wrong word in retrospect, but individual seats rather than a 3 wide where the person in the middle has both knees touching.
@juanvaldez
that kid is sittin in the back seat thats only for two people. or one big ass dude
Cell phones and iPod Touches were just banned from all buses in my school district. Thanks Board of Ed, great to see our town move backward in time while a school in the middle of Arizona gets mobile Wifi on their buses!