The questions about one-to-one computing in classrooms is something I have not thought very much about. My initial reaction to any kind of technology is that though it is useful and fun, it should not be what all of education is about. There needs to be a great amount of variety in teaching, and technology can just be a tool for overall learning. Therefore, I would suppose that I would not be a proponent to one-to-one computing. Though netbooks and computers do open the classroom up for a wide variety of exploration and tools, learning is still about collaboration, problem solving, and communication, as the chapter mentions. Yes these things can be achieved on computers, and yes the world we are living is becoming more and more technology oriented, I still believe that computers need to be just a small tool in the wide expanse of education. I could see netbooks being a station where a few kids go to work on them at a time. I could also see netbooks being used for internet research and websites for reenforcing learning instead of the sole way of learning. It will be interesting to see what become of the netbooks and whether ipads will over take them in the educational setting.
With the talk of two similar technological equipment, the netbook and the ipad, it is interesting to compare and contrast the two. For pro's I see the netbooks being used for research and word processing features. I could see an easy use of the internet as well as more things to do that is similar to a computer including typing skills and web browsing. For cons I see the netbook as limitless. Because the internet is used on it, I feel it is more difficult to control a student's viewing on the netbooks. While the ipads, I feel like are more easy to control what the student does on it. The teacher downloads the apps and choses for them to be on or off of wi-fi. The student only has a limed options of what to do. A con for ipads would be the typing. Not being used to typing on them I see the pad as being very sensitive to the touch. My finger also starts to hurt after using the ipad for long amounts of time. The machine heats up and it becomes cumbersome for me to use it. I may be old school so it will be interesting to see which the younger generations choses as their choice of technology in the classroom.
Tongue in cheek: Will you also limit older technologies like pencil and paper, or textbooks, or desks and chairs, so that education does not become overly dependent on these technologies? Some teaching does spend a lot of time learning the mechanics of books, like indexes, tables of contents, appendices, etc., rather than just using a search box.
ReplyDeleteNot really trying to give you a hard time. We do need to limit studying the computers (netbooks, ipads, whatever) for themselves. But arbitrarily not using them as tools, just because they are computers may not be justifiable in the long run. I mean one can poke an eye (ear, skin, etc.) with a pencil, get a paper cut, fall off a chair (or desk), drop a book on a toe, etc., so these technologies are not "safe" either.
You do not have to support one-to-one computing. For many of our schools it may not even be an option for quite a while, yet.
You make your case well. :-)
Thanks!