Laptops For Everyone
April 28, 2004
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Posted by Aubrey Turner
The school in Forney is going to issue ThinkPads to every fifth and sixth grade student at one of their elementary schools.
As the superintendent of a fast-growing suburban school district, Mike Smith faces a textbook shortage every fall.
This year will be a little different at the Forney Independent School District.
Every fifth- and sixth-grader at Johnson Elementary, 100 to 150 students, will receive a $1,350 IBM ThinkPad computer loaded with digital versions of state-approved textbooks and 2,000 works of literature. If the experiment works, the program will be expanded to other grades.
“We think this is better than simply going out and buying more textbooks,” said Smith, who expected a shortage of 600 textbooks in August. Enrollment is projected to rise 20% or more at the district, and it takes three months to get new books.
It’s an interesting idea, at least in that having them preloaded with the textbooks and a variety of other literature it could eventually be cost effective. If would also be good if it could reduce the amount of weight these kids are carrying around. There’s an intermediate school near the park where I walk the dog in the afternoons and it’s hard not to notice how heavy the kids’ backpacks are when they’re trudging home after school.
I just wonder how well these laptops will survive the experience, though. Even with the technology that IBM is building into laptops to help them survive drops, I’m sure the technology can easily be overcome through the inventiveness and sheer destructive capability of 10 and 11-year-old boys…
Categories: Technology
I have a hard time with the backpacks are so heavy thing. Mine carry large heavy backpacks… until you clean them out and ask questions:
Why are you carrying all this blank paper around?
Why do you have graded papers in here that I haven’t seen?
Why are you carrying all these textbooks you tell me you don’t have homework in tonight? Is there a problem with your locker?
What is (pick some item) and why is it in here when you know I have told you not to take this to school?
Two nights ago they decided to clean their backpacks out… suddenly (for reasons I have not yet discovered, but the interrogation will resume) all their required materials fit in a mesh backpack about the total size of 2 3-inch thick binders. Amazing. And the little backpack isn’t even full.
I suspect it’s a matter of not wanting to go to the lockers between classes (or at least to take time from ‘hanging out’ to do so).
Of course, I have little room to speak. I’m paranoid about not having some item I think I’ll need, so I’m constantly overpacking.
Should have bought iBooks. They should have talked to Maine—of course, we’re entirely too cosmopolitan to listen to Maine here in Dallas.
So what did Maine discover that made them decide iBooks would be superior to ThinkPads? Are they more rugged? Easier to use?
Just curious, since I haven’t heard about Maine’s experience.
I think its a good idea if you can kid-proof the laptops so they’re reusable. My 13 year old daughter regularly lays waste to our computers. She’s an honor roll student and all but somehow you would have to lock the OS down so tight that the only thing they could do was the school work. And I do agree that the backpacks are getting too heavy for whatever reason.
What I want to know is how are they going to prevent these laptops from getting stolen. I’m sure most thieves, knowing now that these kids are carrying hardware that is worth over $1,000 bucks, would have a hard time resisting the temptation of taking this expensive candy from these “babies”.
A better idea would be to issue hardware that has one purpose only – Displaying books. While it still might cost the same, there would be no market for stolen textbook viewers.
Another idea, assuming each kid has access to a computer at home, is to issue them each one of those memory sticks with the textbooks pre-loaded. Of course, you would have to have a PC on each desk in the classroom. However, you would not have to worry about theft or damage, and could require the parents to purchase the memory sticks as a basic school supply.
This would probably not fly in poorer school districts, where too many students would not have access to a computer at home.
My guess is there will be some software to lock the operating system. Also, even though they are laptops, some places the computers stay at school – others the kids carry them – but parents end up taking out insurance and paying a maintenance fee (about $50 per year) in case something happens.
My kids got laptops at 10 and 11. There was the initial rush of games, then that died. Then the rush for email and internet surfing when they were allowed to go wireless. Then that died. The younger one now plays the infrequent game, parent approved web sites, email, or chat. The older one likes chat, email, parent approved web sites, internet games on those sites, and does homework. Both ended up liking America’s Army (the US Army recruiting game) a lot. The desktop in the house still gets the most use since—- it has the printer! Who would have thought the humble printer would make the difference?