ALL NY Schools may dump Textbooks

[Brother Nero....Wolfe]

Jan 18, 2013 13:36:33 GMT -5 h said:

Oh yeah, and you can't take lack of reponsibility into account when giving a mark, so you can't punish the student for breaking, losing, or forgetting his or her tablet.

Why shouldn't your grade be determined by that? In University, lack of responsibility absolutely matters to your grade and honestly...that also happens in some high schools already. Why shouldn't responsibility affect your grade? It seems like a good way to teach kids how to be responsible.

[Orange]

That's the way of the future, IMO. I maintain the opinion that in 5-10 years' time, there'll be no more textbooks at school at all in favor of tablets and such as the article pointed out.

I think we'll also get to a point where there's no physical schools - and classes take place over Skype.

[h]

Jan 18, 2013 13:39:42 GMT -5 Brother Nero....Wolfe said:

Why shouldn't your grade be determined by that? In University, lack of responsibility absolutely matters to your grade and honestly...that also happens in some high schools already. Why shouldn't responsibility affect your grade? It seems like a good way to teach kids how to be responsible.

You're asking the wrong person. I agree with you completely. The reality, however, is that work habits cannot be factored into a measure of the student's achievement. The class mark can only reflect the student's mastery of the concepts. Work habits are also noted on the report card, but separately from the actual grade.

[Error]

Jan 18, 2013 13:36:33 GMT -5 h said:

Jan 18, 2013 13:25:33 GMT -5 Error said:

1. Those textbooks stay horribly out of date and students shouldn't have to share because they need to learn responsibility. For the cost they are spending on replacing textbooks they can get tablets. This is no excuse whatsoever.

2. Again responsibility. Be ready. If you're not, you fail. They are tablets, general, normal, everyday, go to Walmart and drop a few hundred dollars and walk out tablets. No special equipment needed.

3. Most schools have those now and I know this will shock you but there are these wonderful things call backup they can access from their computes and print things if necessary.

4. Again, a student would have to wipe the whole iPad to get around the measures that are put in place.


These programs have been around for years. These problems have been seen and there are solutions to them.

1. If they're spending $100,000,000, they should be buying updated textbooks. If not, that's a problem to look into. You're talking about out-of-date textbooks, but a textbook for any core academic class (history, science, math, etc.) has a longer lifespan than a tablet.

2. Laptops are also the sort of thing you can buy at WalMart. I can charge my home laptop by plugging it into a wall. At a school, you have to plug a laptop into a cart with a power supply. You can't use it while it charges. Who's to say that these tablets won't also have a similar charging system (no cord to plug into a wall)? Oh yeah, and you can't take lack of reponsibility into account when giving a mark, so you can't punish the student for breaking, losing, or forgetting his or her tablet.

3. First of all, sarcasm like that from a moderator is inappropriate. That aside, you seem to have missed the fact that you're going to have problems printing without server access.

4. You absolutely do not need to wipe the system to get around security controls. You don't need to wipe anything. You need to disable some settings. Either someone in your school figures it out within a week and shares it with everyone, or students simply go online and find a site that teaches them how to bypass the security settings.

1.That figure being for the whole state is reasonable. Texas and Cali. spend far more at $500 and $400 mil respectively. You don't need the latest state of the art tablet to run stuff. The average tablet will last 4 to 5 years and can be constantly updated for a fraction of the cost of a textbook which would be out of date and replaced once by that time.

2. No you don't. From 2002-2011 I never saw any school use special equipment to charge anything. From run down the decades old high school I went to, to the new college I went to no special equipment to charge anything and you can use things while they charge with no issue. The Apple program alone issues two charges per device, one for school and one for the student to carry home.

2a. Yes you do punish student for not being responsible. You don't take your textbook home, lose it or destroy it and don't do your work, you get a 0. You break your tablet because you didn't take care of it or forget it, you get a 0. I had that 6th grade all the way through college.

3. You don't need server access to use a backup or print. Nor do you need server access to read or use a book stored on a tablet either.

4. Yes you do. Again, I've seen this in action for 2 years. iPads bought for educational purposes have software measures available and the basic 4 digit passcode measure that locks up after 3 failures. You cannot change anything on them without access and the code. They have to be wiped or the school has complete control of them. Even if a student gets around those measures, the school still has complete control of them and can remotely reset/wipe them if a student abuses them.

[Cyno]

Jan 18, 2013 14:44:32 GMT -5 h said:

Jan 18, 2013 13:39:42 GMT -5 Brother Nero....Wolfe said:

Why shouldn't your grade be determined by that? In University, lack of responsibility absolutely matters to your grade and honestly...that also happens in some high schools already. Why shouldn't responsibility affect your grade? It seems like a good way to teach kids how to be responsible.

You're asking the wrong person. I agree with you completely. The reality, however, is that work habits cannot be factored into a measure of the student's achievement. The class mark can only reflect the student's mastery of the concepts. Work habits are also noted on the report card, but separately from the actual grade.

Of course work habits can be and overwhelmingly are factored into a student's achievements. If a student doesn't hand in work, they get a zero. If they hand it in late, they often get a lesser grade or if the teacher's a hardass, a zero. If a student loses their homework, teachers can be forgiving and give them a second chance but they also can punish the students for lack of responsibility and give them a zero or a severely reduced grade.

[xCompackx]

About the whole "distractions" thing... Couldn't you just either not have Wi-Fi or have it set to a teachers-only password?

[Widow's Peak]

Jan 18, 2013 13:20:33 GMT -5 h said:

Jan 18, 2013 13:18:07 GMT -5 kidglov3s said:

This kind of thing is inevitable. Sentiment and old ways shouldn't keep us in the past.

So, because trained adults can run hospitals, you assume that 7 year olds can run a school?

Most of the seven year olds I know (I work in a public school) already have tablets or smartphones. The ones that don't can pick up on it very quickly.


My only concern is how they are going to be able to ensure that the kids aren't just going to use the devices to play Angry Birds during class.

[Cyno]

Kids will find ways to get distracted. It's part of being a child. Surely I'm not the only person who snuck reading a comic or magazine into reading a textbook. Or notebook doodled. And I was an honor/AP student who got into the top 20 of my class by senior year of high school. Doesn't mean we should handicap technological advancement in the classroom.

[Malcolm]

As someone who suffered from back and shoulder problems during high school because of heavy text books, I approve.

[Deleted]

f*** man. I gotta get with the times. These NYC kids are gonna get tablets and I'm still using this laptop like a caveman.

[BK From WV]

This greatly depresses me. It makes me sad to think that 15 or 20 years from now,kids may not even know what a book is. As good as technology is,it is also the downfall of a lot of things.

[FinalGwen]

I forgot that 20 years ago, they decided that 2+2=7. All those maths textbooks were suddenly useless!

[willywonka666]

This is certainly an industry to get into-being able to work on tablets

[wildojinx]

I can understand replacing history and science books as those two keep progressing all the time, but replacing math books? Math is pretty much straightforward, unless the books were written around the time of the failed push of the metric system, you cant really have a "dated" math book.

[kidglov3s]

Jan 18, 2013 23:33:58 GMT -5 wildojinx said:

I can understand replacing history and science books as those two keep progressing all the time, but replacing math books? Math is pretty much straightforward, unless the books were written around the time of the failed push of the metric system, you cant really have a "dated" math book.

The root material itself might not change, but the presentation and methodology of instruction changes as frequently as the other subjects. It's essential to keep in mind that this isn't the world you went to school in. The world has changed radically in the past 20 years.

Jan 18, 2013 16:05:49 GMT -5 BK From WV said:

This greatly depresses me. It makes me sad to think that 15 or 20 years from now,kids may not even know what a book is. As good as technology is,it is also the downfall of a lot of things.

As someone who owns 300+ laserdiscs, I understand having an emotional attachment to old technology. But in a responsible future there is a very marginal place at best for paper books.