Students Rally Against Computers
Grade 7-8 students at Glenrosa Middle School are staging a mini-protest against laptop computers, but their arguments have a few holes, says the vice-principal.
Several Grade 8s recently collected 114 signatures on an anti-laptop petition and plan to present it to administrators at the Westside school.
“They hurt our backs, and we also have to carry all of our textbooks with us.”
"They make us pay for little damages when it‘s their fault for stacking them on top of each other.”
“Over spring break last year, they stacked them on top of each other inside a cupboard. It left imprints on the screen and they wanted us to pay for it.”
A student was supposed to take a laptop permission form home for her mother to sign, but hasn‘t, so she didn‘t receive one. She used a laptop last year and found her writing is now sloppy.
Her backpack weighs about 16 pounds, including the five-pound laptop. “Now, we have textbooks for each day, so it‘s going to be like extra weight.
They were saying they were going to put textbooks in the laptops, but they haven‘t done that for us because it costs a lot of money.”Another student figured that her backpack was one-third of her 90-pound body weight. Some weigh as much as 35 pounds, causing backaches. She even dislocated her shoulder picking it up one day, so she refused to accept a laptop this year.
“We didn‘t use them at all last year, and I think we‘ve probably only used them for only one project this year,” she said.
One student claimed teachers want them to drop the laptops off at lockers between classes when they aren‘t needed, but the five-minute break isn‘t long enough, she said.
However, vice-principal Duane Thachyk, laptop program co-ordinator, responded the break is actually 10 minutes and students can drop off their computers at the library. “If the parents have a problem with the laptop being too heavy, we‘ll check it into the library.
We‘re trying to make it as easy for everybody as possible. We‘re not mandating anything,” he said.
Teachers and administrators regularly encourage students not to carry items in their backpacks they don‘t need that day, he added. “Kids are still carrying around all their notes from September. We tell them to keep them at home in a master binder. All they need for each subject is a little duo-tang and then their backpacks are light.
The laptops are the least of it.” Grade 9 backpacks without a laptop are just a heavy as the Grade 8s with a laptop, he said. All of the Grade 7s and 8s have laptops, roughly two-thirds of the 650 students at the middle school, but the amount of damage has been minor.
The school is about to send in 12 for repairs. “Students are doing great work with the laptops, including PowerPoint presentations,” he said.
“Boys don‘t write neat that often, but now they are typing the same as everyone else, so they are not embarrassed to produce.”
Principal Greg Corry didn‘t know about the petition, but acknowledged there are similar concerns at every school on weight, damage and in-service training for teachers.“It‘s a new thing. It‘s a cultural change in our school system right now, and we‘re having to work through that. If we foreshadow probably five years from now, it will be commonplace,” he predicted. click to read about less costly innovative computer
School District #23 has ended the program that provided a free laptop computer to students. Wear and tear played a role as well as a budget shortfall unable to handle the $10 million cost. Trustee Chair Moyra Baxter said that ending was a better way to go. It was an abrupt stop to the plan which ex-superintendent Ron Rubadeau initiated before he retired. SD#23 found that 93% had computers at home so the need for the laptops was redundant and expensive.
Comments posted;
"You are kidding me, Right! First of all, most libraries now have computers for public use-go there. I cant believe this was even considered with all the cutbacks in education as well as schools. Our school in Mackenzie is not sure that it will be able to offer all courses the student will need to graduate- and yet SD#23 in the interior gives free computers to students. Is that using tax payers money wisely?"
"I'm not the least bit surprised that these computers were being damaged."
"The school board obviously had the wrong machine. There are small cheap notebook computers that are very rugged designed for children including XO and EeePC (which I use). Mine cost around $300 and has survived several hard knocks and lots of travel."
"Hooray! My daughter is one of the students who has a school laptop. There are far more issues related to these laptops than breakage and weight. All required research material was never made available in programming, so kids were still required to pack a number of textbooks home as well as the quite weighty laptops. The schools deal, on a daily basis with inappropriate email. If you don't set up a permanent wired connection in your home, you must use a wireless router. The computer can usually be used in the privacy of any room. This is not acceptable to many parents. Personally, I believe the laptops had as many disadvantages as advantages. I'm glad to see the end of the program."
"There are $300 laptops for kids which are "dropable" and offer OS features which are aimed at education in such a way that the teachers don't have to be experts. I've noted before that Canadian schools are adverse to computer science and are more concerned with the commercial brainwashing aspects which they seem to embrace. I suspect the school in question was using the wrong laptops to begin with, in which case they would be better off spending all that extra money on hiring a qualified computer teacher."
"Another poorly thought out program of ex-superintendent Ron Rubadeau that has failed big time costing the district around $5 million dollars. Another was the moving of student from George Pringle Secondary into Mt Boucherie resulting in severe over crowding which then needed an expansion he said would cost $4.5 million that ended up costing closer to $10 million. Good that he retired when he did. He was a disaster."
Several Grade 8s recently collected 114 signatures on an anti-laptop petition and plan to present it to administrators at the Westside school.
“They hurt our backs, and we also have to carry all of our textbooks with us.”
"They make us pay for little damages when it‘s their fault for stacking them on top of each other.”
“Over spring break last year, they stacked them on top of each other inside a cupboard. It left imprints on the screen and they wanted us to pay for it.”
A student was supposed to take a laptop permission form home for her mother to sign, but hasn‘t, so she didn‘t receive one. She used a laptop last year and found her writing is now sloppy.
Her backpack weighs about 16 pounds, including the five-pound laptop. “Now, we have textbooks for each day, so it‘s going to be like extra weight.
They were saying they were going to put textbooks in the laptops, but they haven‘t done that for us because it costs a lot of money.”Another student figured that her backpack was one-third of her 90-pound body weight. Some weigh as much as 35 pounds, causing backaches. She even dislocated her shoulder picking it up one day, so she refused to accept a laptop this year.
“We didn‘t use them at all last year, and I think we‘ve probably only used them for only one project this year,” she said.
One student claimed teachers want them to drop the laptops off at lockers between classes when they aren‘t needed, but the five-minute break isn‘t long enough, she said.
However, vice-principal Duane Thachyk, laptop program co-ordinator, responded the break is actually 10 minutes and students can drop off their computers at the library. “If the parents have a problem with the laptop being too heavy, we‘ll check it into the library.
We‘re trying to make it as easy for everybody as possible. We‘re not mandating anything,” he said.
Teachers and administrators regularly encourage students not to carry items in their backpacks they don‘t need that day, he added. “Kids are still carrying around all their notes from September. We tell them to keep them at home in a master binder. All they need for each subject is a little duo-tang and then their backpacks are light.
The laptops are the least of it.” Grade 9 backpacks without a laptop are just a heavy as the Grade 8s with a laptop, he said. All of the Grade 7s and 8s have laptops, roughly two-thirds of the 650 students at the middle school, but the amount of damage has been minor.
The school is about to send in 12 for repairs. “Students are doing great work with the laptops, including PowerPoint presentations,” he said.
“Boys don‘t write neat that often, but now they are typing the same as everyone else, so they are not embarrassed to produce.”
Principal Greg Corry didn‘t know about the petition, but acknowledged there are similar concerns at every school on weight, damage and in-service training for teachers.“It‘s a new thing. It‘s a cultural change in our school system right now, and we‘re having to work through that. If we foreshadow probably five years from now, it will be commonplace,” he predicted. click to read about less costly innovative computer
School District #23 has ended the program that provided a free laptop computer to students. Wear and tear played a role as well as a budget shortfall unable to handle the $10 million cost. Trustee Chair Moyra Baxter said that ending was a better way to go. It was an abrupt stop to the plan which ex-superintendent Ron Rubadeau initiated before he retired. SD#23 found that 93% had computers at home so the need for the laptops was redundant and expensive.
Comments posted;
"You are kidding me, Right! First of all, most libraries now have computers for public use-go there. I cant believe this was even considered with all the cutbacks in education as well as schools. Our school in Mackenzie is not sure that it will be able to offer all courses the student will need to graduate- and yet SD#23 in the interior gives free computers to students. Is that using tax payers money wisely?"
"I'm not the least bit surprised that these computers were being damaged."
"The school board obviously had the wrong machine. There are small cheap notebook computers that are very rugged designed for children including XO and EeePC (which I use). Mine cost around $300 and has survived several hard knocks and lots of travel."
"Hooray! My daughter is one of the students who has a school laptop. There are far more issues related to these laptops than breakage and weight. All required research material was never made available in programming, so kids were still required to pack a number of textbooks home as well as the quite weighty laptops. The schools deal, on a daily basis with inappropriate email. If you don't set up a permanent wired connection in your home, you must use a wireless router. The computer can usually be used in the privacy of any room. This is not acceptable to many parents. Personally, I believe the laptops had as many disadvantages as advantages. I'm glad to see the end of the program."
"There are $300 laptops for kids which are "dropable" and offer OS features which are aimed at education in such a way that the teachers don't have to be experts. I've noted before that Canadian schools are adverse to computer science and are more concerned with the commercial brainwashing aspects which they seem to embrace. I suspect the school in question was using the wrong laptops to begin with, in which case they would be better off spending all that extra money on hiring a qualified computer teacher."
"Another poorly thought out program of ex-superintendent Ron Rubadeau that has failed big time costing the district around $5 million dollars. Another was the moving of student from George Pringle Secondary into Mt Boucherie resulting in severe over crowding which then needed an expansion he said would cost $4.5 million that ended up costing closer to $10 million. Good that he retired when he did. He was a disaster."
Click on...Less Costly Computers
Click on...Computers in the Classroom
posted by FlashNews @ 11/23/2007 09:09:00 AM
