In elementary school, how does a Chromebook help teach a student how to think? Isn’t a Chromebook primarily an internet access tool?
So, you’re saying your daughter gets less out of a tablet than, say, a bunch of illiterate, subsistence-farming Ethiopian kids? The problem isn’t with the tablets, it’s with the people using them (the teachers, in this case - why no e-textbooks?)
I am surprised that the publishers went along with that.
They make a boat load of money on paper books.
Do the publisher provide the updates for free?
E-textbooks wont necessarily be cheaper, textbooks aren’t expensive because of the paper…
Some thoughts and responses (ignoring the Steve Jobs hijack):
Ca3799: Familiarity with computers, internet access, and the other items mentioned in your post is not an issue with Sophia - the child has made movies using Windows Movie Maker since the age of 9, has a 98 average in her Flash programming class, has no problem doing research or entering information into forms, etc. And this is likely true for the large majority of her classmates given that they attend a relatively well-heeled private (Catholic) school.
even sven: The games I find Sophia playing tend to test her knowledge in already-learned subjects, not expanding her knowledge in new subjects. While they might be fine for review, a geography quiz, played repetitively in an effort to better your friends high score… I don’t know, is that a proper way to spend 2 hours? Or would her time be better spent learning more about the subject than worrying about the fact that Maddie scored a 188 and you would’ve beaten her if you only remembered the flag for Kazakhstan? (Not a made up example.)
MrDibble: Not really concerned about comparisons to Ethiopian kids. What I’m worried about is the effect on Sophia’s education. Here is a spreadsheet of her ITBS scores from the 1st-6th grades.) Currently, Sophia is scoring a composite (expressed in percentiles, meaning she is in the top X% of the students in her grade):
Reading: 88
Language: 95
Math: 85
Core: 93
Social Studies: 83
Science: 85
Sources of Information: 78
Composite: 89
The second page shows her 5th grade scores against the rest of the school. As there is no subject where the school scores less than a 50 %ile, there is no subject where Sophia scores less than the school. (We did not receive this info for the 6th grade, which is why 5th grade scores are shown.)
This is the standard that we’re concerned may be negatively affected by iPad usage, not the standard of "illiterate subsistence-farming Ethiopian"s. As Czarcasm hinted at above, iPads/Chromebooks, etc are media consumption devices, better suited for the playing of games and watching of videos and are ill-suited to the rigors of sustained academic concentration that is necessary for Sophia to be among the higher-achieving persons in her class.
I have serious doubts that the iPads will maintain, much less improve, those reading and grammar scores and while “Geoquiz” (or whatever) may help her knowledge of flags and bodies of water, I am trying to find out if the trade-off is worth it. Hence this thread (and my other education-related threads, some of which devolved into… well, not shouting matches, but some rather rude insults thrown my way. 
)
From my experience with teachers, they are not above copying any software or document if “it is for the kids”.
It seems that they would make more money from paper. I wonder how the profit on paper compares to ebooks.
- It is an ill-kept secret that teachers were not above using the office copy machine to further the use of paper textbooks.
- In a lot of cases you aren’t buying the e-textbook,you are buying limited access time to the e-textbook.
That will help them keep their profit.
Thanks.
I’m a bit surprised to see this discussion in 2014. My daughter is a Freshman in high school and has had maybe two actual paper textbooks in her entire academic career which included both public and private schools.
All of her information has been delivered via web sites, ebooks, pdfs, and word documents. She has just about worn out a Kindle which she loved because she was able to carry around all 30 “Battle of the Books” books on it while preparing for that contest (her team came in 2nd in the county). Finally she now has a cheap Chromebook that she uses for all of her note taking, in class assignments, and homework.
To use some current vernacular, I’m mildly surprised to hear that paper textbooks “are still a thing.” I had thought that ship had sailed.
I’ve seen no evidence that modern devices such as iPads or Chromebooks are “ill-suited to the rigors of sustained academic concentration” and believe this is an incorrect assumption.
And you have given us no evidence that they are superior as teaching devices are that they are cost effective in the long run-you have only shown us that they are widely used.
You realize, right, that test scores are proxies for learning? They test some things well, but are bad at assessing things like intellectual curiosity, inspiration and creativity-- and these things are vital to future learning.
FWIW, geospatial analysis is pretty hot right now. A healthy internet in geography is a smart thing to cultivate.
We learn by doing.
My daughter is also a Freshman in high school. Almost all of her assignments, texts, etc., are expected to be accessed and submitted on paper. She attends a public school in Seattle, which is obviously not a poor or generally backwards location.
They do have a system where teachers can post assignments and grades online, and students and parents can view the information and email the teachers, but many teachers don’t make much use of it (it’s better this year, but last year in middle school, the system was pretty much completely useless). My daughter is allowed to bring her laptop (purchased by me) to school each day only because she has a physical issue which can make make extensive writing somewhat difficult for her. The average student would not even have that option.
Anyway, I think there are definitely a lot of possible uses for laptops or tablets in school, but providing the technology alone is not necessarily going to do any good. The nearby school district where my little sister went to school has been providing Mac laptops for around a decade (probably a little less) and I haven’t really seen it make a huge impact. With time, I imagine (and hope) that schools will learn to use the technology in ways that will really be useful. Right now I think a lot are kind of stumbling around. I finished college in 2009 and, while not all of the instructors made full use of the technology available, on average it was still a lot better than the current situation in Seattle Public Schools, as far as I have seen.
True. Added expenses - putting ink on paper, binding and then physically transporting. Probably a few other costs too.
This is kind of my point, that you didn’t seem to get, and which the Ethiopians were just the best example of - tablets are not just media consumption devices, they are fully-functional computers, and it’s only if Sophia’s mentors (her teachers, the principal, you) treat the device as a fancy Gameboy, that she’ll only use it as such.
For instance - she seems to have not just the physical ability, but also the licence from her mentors, to load any app she wants - why is that? Why can this not be limited? You expect a 13yo to self-police that kind of thing? That’s a failure of mentors, not of student.
You also seem to think she’ll just be limited to the game-like education apps that are part of the program at her school. Why limit her like that? Why do you not investigate and install programs that meet your own standards of pedagogy. You’ve said the device is open to installing anything non-porn. Install a decent learning SDK. Install textbooks. Install Minecraft. Whatever. But the device is in the hands of your own minor daughter - don’t blame her for what is on it. Parent.
I guess somebody didn’t like what he said.
Oh! If only we could all learn from his mistake!
No they aren’t. You can’t do meaningful image editing on a tablet, or compile code or easily access the filesystem (if at all). You can write, but it’ll almost certainly be slower than writing by hand or typing with a real keyboard. The only roles in which they’re better than the alternative is media consumption. If a teacher is trying to get kids to do anything more than play games on a tablet, they’re teaching poorly because some other method would probably be more effective.
Of ideas, yes. And look at the ones that panned out.