NYT article: Schools drop laptop programs

[Yishay Mor]

Saw this last week, and couldn't resist throwing in my 2p:

http://www.noe-kaleidoscope.org/people/yish/blog/start-0_-2007-05-08_read-87
Stop press: Shlepping a chunk of plastic and wires does not improve your
grades.<http://www.noe-kaleidoscope.org/people/yish/blog/start-0_-2007-05-08_read-87>
Winnie
Hu from the NYT writes about schools ditching their laptop programmes for
lack of results
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/04/education/04laptop.html>. A must
read.

When the school tightened its network security, a 10th grader not only found
a way around it but also posted step-by-step instructions on the Web for
others to follow (which they did).

Wow. Talk about problem solving. Collaborative learning. These kids are
obviously learning something. Well, the school, and the reporter, where not
that impressed

Yet school officials here and in several other places said laptops had been
abused by students, did not fit into lesson plans, and showed little, if
any, measurable effect on grades and test scores at a time of increased
pressure to meet state standards.

That is surprising, given the reports from Maine

Attendance is up. Detentions are down. Just six months after Maine began a
controversial program to provide laptop computers to every seventh grader in
the state, educators are impressed by how quickly students and teachers have
adapted to laptop technology."

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/05/nyregion/05LAPT.html?ex=1179268008&ei=1&en=469140e27abd5a63

 "You hear kids say: I feel smarter now", "some say it has transformed the
relationships between students and teachers"

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4660781


The answer is at the end of the article. A teacher is quoted:

"Let's face it, math is for the most part still a paper-and-pencil activity
when you're learning it," she said.

In the early 19C schools in America and Europe introduced slates and number
frames <http://americanhistory.si.edu/teachingmath/> as means for maths
instruction. Until then, the standard method was - a teacher reading out of
a text book, and students chanting after. Exams were oral, and students were
expected to recite textbook proofs down to variable names. I can see the
Winnie Hu of the day quoting a teacher:

"Let's face it, learning maths is still for the most part repeating after
the teacher. A slate just gets in the way."



___________________________
  Yishay Mor, Researcher, London Knowledge Lab
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