I believe that students can learn without electronic devices. I'm a huge fan of clay, Play Dough, cardboard, math manipulatives, colored pencils and other non-techie things. I also have a one-to-one device to student ratio. And as much as I say that students should easily be able to share supplies, devices are made for the individual. I wouldn't want to share my teacher computer on a rotating schedule. We don't ask for students to share pencils, paper or textbooks. Why are we asking them to buddy-up with technology in the name of "collaboration?"
Just posted on this same topic: http://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/3516
ReplyDeleteWe must be on the same wavelength, George. As usual, you're the early adopter, though.
Deleteamen. i have one teacher laptop and one ipad. RIDICULOUS!
ReplyDeleteIt's a joke. And the notion that they'll simply bring their own devices is just as much of a joke.
Deleteoh...and 32 students
ReplyDeleteFour years ago I had the pleasure of spending 3 glorious days touring schools and attending sessions in Quebec at the Eastern Townships School Board. It was their 5th year as a 1to1 district. Senior administration had figured out a way to equip each and every student with an iBook. I visited a high school of 1000 strong where every student had one. Until public school districts find ways to do this, we'll be sharing computers and invoking BYOD plans for a long while.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the decreasing cost of tech over the years will lead to more realistic one-to-one plans.
DeleteI get this. Tools are an extension of the self, I think, and the more the tool fits your hand, so to speak, the more efficiently you can use it. Because the goal is not to notice that you're using the tool at all.
ReplyDeleteBut since everything is moving into the cloud, having the same physical device day after day might not be as big of a deal. My laptop runs Windows and Linux, which are very different experiences, until I open up my browser and Chrome/Chromium syncs up to make everything look the same. That lets every user have a custom experience, even when you have 150 kids sharing one laptop cart.
I agree that computers aren't built to be used by more than one person at a time, though, any more than pencil and paper can be easily shared. In my experience, "collaboration" around a computer consists of a passenger giving directions and a driver ignoring them!
I'm with you on this. What one owns is often in the cloud. I'm just thinking that asking people to share can be unrealistic when it's not how the adult world works at all.
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