Posted on 04/11/2011 9:46:09 AM PDT by pillut48
Does your 5 year old need an iPad?
School officials in Maine certainly think so, where the Auburn Schools Committee voted unanimously to provide all kindergartners with a brand new iPad 2 next year -- with the process repeated for each new incoming class.
It's a move that will ultimately cost the school system about $200,000 next year, including Apple's $25 discount from the designer tablet's regular retail price. While the thought of a bunch of grubby kindergartners running around with $500 equipment may seem ridiculous, school superintendent Tom Morrill is a staunch believer in what he considers "a game changer."
"This is truly redefining how we're going to teach and learn," said Morrill, speaking to the school committee. "We're talking about a new tool, the iPad 2. You begin to watch how young people jump on, jump in and figure this out. It has great potential for leveling the playing field for all students."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Paragraphs.
My four year old loves it and he even managed to rack up a $130 bill on my credit card with it.
I’d give them each a sound thrashing, then lock them in a quiet room with no television and a stack of books. But then, I don’t have doctorate in education.
I’m thinking that most teachers could be replaced with a computer.
Think of the money we would save. No pension for a computer, no health care, no going on strike, no liberal agenda.
I bet you could replace half the teachers, which would mean you could lay off 80% of the administrators.
I concur, I am all for this idea.
I predict most of these “free” iPads will be broken in short order.
How did he get your credit card number?
People used to lambaste me for saying that every American born in this country should have a firearm given to the parents for his/her use at the appropriate age. That firearm would provide training, teach responsibility, increase youth awareness of our Constitutional rights, enhance awareness of surroundings, and provide a tool for protection of life and sustenance of health during war or famine.
Now they want to give kids electronic devices that, in the wrong hands, as shown by your example, could be costly, require power from those dastardly coal-fired power plants, expose children to online smut and predators if unsupervised, and turn our society into technology-dependent drones.
I asked a young 20-something what would happen if power was out, cell towers were down, Internet was unavailable, and your iPhone died? The expression was that of a child who’d lost a puppy.
That’s not to say there aren’t positive aspects to these devices, but I believe our social evolution is focusing on the wrong stuff anymore.
I disagree.
Children should be taught to think independently, not to become reliant on machines; expecially those that will likely break within a year and become obsolete within 5.
Apple is probably behind this ant are looking at profits that this will generate; especially when these become n=mandated by the schools.
Ran into the same thing several years ago with my kids. Our schools mandated that all children taking Algebra be provided with a TI-50 programmable calculator (at $120 cost to parents). Turns out that TI developed lesson plans based solely on this unit and the administrators bought into this whole hog.
My son was struggling with a problem one evening and I sat down with him and did his homework on a notepad. He was dumbfounded that I could solve equations without a calculator.
WE ARE NOT TEACHING OUR CHILDREN TO THINK!!!!!
It sounds nice, but at this point its just too expensive for the taxpayers to put in the hand of a young child.
I can see it for high schooler replacing physical books. But a child that young can be home using a computer.
It may be a good choice when the price drops and a sturdy version could be made for young fingers. And if it replaces a certain number of teachers. But the way the world is now, teacher’s jobs exist for the benefit of the teachers, not the kids. The union would never allow that.
I predict a large number of these i pads will come up “missing” “lost” or “stolen.” What are they going to do then, give them a new one?
I have been teaching in an all laptop college for more than ten years. While I embrace the new technology and find many times it enhances my teaching, I have found myself more often resorting to using a whiteboard and engaging my students in discussion. From my student’s comments they prefer this to death by Power Point and say they learn more. I do think I-pads are a game changer and could replace paper text books and offer even more new ways to teach. However, I doubt that kindergarten students would have that much much benefit and could be a distraction.
An incalculably stupid idea. We`re training kids to press buttons to get answers when we should be teaching them to THINK which this machine cannot do anymore than Sesame Street teaches kids anything but that education must be `fun`. Were I running a private school one requirement for attendance would be that none of these machines could be used. Kids don`t spell they spellcheck, they don`t write they cut and paste from Wikipedia, they don`t do math they use a calculator. That teachers like these doesn`t surprise me, as one recently told my friend concerned about his daughter`s poor spelling `Don`t worry, they all just use Google`—by her spelling teacher. Teaching kids to be good machine-playing drones—how ashamed teachers should be.
Interesting enough, I thought the thing would be much more fragile, since my 2 y/o’s drop it several times a day (found a great deal on Amazon.com for a faux leather cover) and other than a few scratches from before putting the cover on it, it’s fine...one of the things I’ve been teaching them is to handle it gently and they do. IIRC, there is a company that makes lap tops for kids with some kind of unbreakable case on it, that would work for iPads as well, I think.
I won't be surprised to see a ruggedized version issued to each school child beginning at kindergarten or first grade. They are a perfect substitute for the overly priced and often obsolete text books and they are a way for each teacher to ensure that notes are taken and/or made available, all homework and in class assignments are completed, and tests and quizzes are done such that minimal cheating is possible.
Sorry, teacher! I noticed that after I hit post, too bad FR doesn’t have an edit button for correcting already posted posts! ;-)
One advantage to paper textbooks and handouts is that it can be taken home, where the parents can see it.
With an iPad or similar device, the school could control what material is stored locally on the device, and what is only available from the school's wireless network, preventing parents from seeing "controversial" content, but still making it readily available to the students while they're at school.
“what would happen if power was out”
That very thing happened as I was making a purchase at the cash register. Sad to say this is a true story.
Power went out.
The cute 16something yr old girl clerk valiantly tried to figure out my bill - long-hand. But she got stumped.
She hollered out to her fellow girl clerk, “How much is 3 X 5?”
Fellow girl clerk hollered back, “I don’t know, but I think it’s the same as 5 x 3”
Funny yes, but still a cold shudder ran down me knowing these kids are our future.
I am all for iPads replacing administrators in education.
Extra bonus - iPads run on batteries.
WE ARE NOT TEACHING OUR CHILDREN TO THINK!!!!!
This can’t be said enough.
Do we really want to turn our children over to preprogrammed leftist drivel?
Do we WANT them to NOT know what a book is?
DO we really WANT them to be dependent in this manner at such a young age?
My daughter has a cousin who was given a calculator in first grade to do math. The kid went along fine until she got to a Calculus class that required you know your math facts. This kid in college DIDN’T know her math facts. AND her mom was a teacher.
This is not good. Let them learn the basics other ways, when they are more mature and older, THEN let them in on the tech. It would be more relevant to them because it will be newer by then. Let them be kids, please. Isn’t it bad enough that a whole generation grew up on gameboys?
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