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News PSP to be used in UK Schools

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by CardJoe, 3 Apr 2007.

  1. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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  2. whisperwolf

    whisperwolf What's a Dremel?

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    ohhh looky a new staff member,

    PSP does seems an odd choice but I suppose it does have a nice screen. surely the touch screen input method on the DS might have been more useful?
     
  3. BioSniper

    BioSniper Minimodder

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    I agree, I personally think that the DS would have been a far better choice, or a pocket PC, or a laptop, or a PC.
    I wonder if that school is funded by Sony? :p
     
  4. TheoGeo

    TheoGeo What are these goddamn animals?!

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    I agree, touch screen would be better, but then again i'm also sure that they didn't consult anyone who actually knows anything about technology when making the decision.

    btw the "drop by the forum and let us know" link goes to the main forum page and not this thread
     
  5. Jamie

    Jamie ex-Bit-Tech code junkie

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    Well spotted, I've updated the link.

    I can see all the kids sat at the back of the class room bringing in their games from home and having a bit of a multiplayer session while the teacher isn't looking.
     
  6. Tim S

    Tim S OG

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    brings back memories of me and my friends getting Civilization II installed on the school network so we could play during lunch times. :D
     
  7. David_Fitzy

    David_Fitzy I modded a keyboard once....

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    Games consoles do seem a very stupid choice, they're more desirable to steal, small enough to be easily stolen, they're a lot harder to lock down to specific (school) tasks, a lot harder to monitor activities and despite the largness of the PSP screen it's still squintsville compared to a textbook or sheet of paper.

    A tablet PC would be so much more practical. Central management is easy, locked down interfaces are simple, their largeness creates a better digital workspace and makes them harder to steal and being PCs they have a massive software base.
     
  8. r4tch3t

    r4tch3t hmmmm....

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    Our school network and computers blocked practically everything. We played paint.exe, oh the FPS fun we had. (DOOM renamed as paint so we could run it. Only certain .exe's were allowed to run)
    As for PSPs for the classroom?
    I can see were they are coming from, it is more powerful AFAIK than Palms or D the DS, but is that extra power actually going to be used?
     
  9. David_Fitzy

    David_Fitzy I modded a keyboard once....

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    I had an administrator password at school :p
     
  10. Nature

    Nature Minimodder

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    My students would hack games on them:D
     
  11. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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    Me and a friend organised a Quake 3 LAN event for charity and just 'forgot' to uninstall it afterwards. It made ICT A-Level a lot more interesting from that point on.

    On topic: I agree that they'd be easy to steal from the school, though the thing that amazes me most about all this is that it took the staff two weeks to learn to use a PSP. I'd take that as a great reason not to use them in school - if you're going to take that amount of time to learn a system then why not learn to use something open source so you can do more with it? Eh?

    Like this.

    Ps: w00t! Second post! And thank you to those who've been saying hello.
     
  12. Ramble

    Ramble Ginger Nut

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    Stupid idea.
    A tablet or pocketpc would be so much better.
    Or, maybe a good teacher? Electronic solutions to teaching are shite; they always have been and they probably will be for a long time.
     
  13. DXR_13KE

    DXR_13KE BananaModder

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    hello to the new slav..... staff member :D
    A pocket pc, DS, tablet pc, normal pc with linux...... etc.... would be a lot better.
     
  14. Edenalig

    Edenalig What's a Dremel?

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    I went to a conference about this, its being pushed by the likes of BECTA and the Pathway Trust.

    I think its another misguided attempt to use the in technology to aid learning.
     
  15. Djpuk

    Djpuk What's a Dremel?

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    Given how we are told that exams are so easy now I guess that they have to give the kids some way of filling their time in lessons when the five minutes of learning are over?
    Or maybe the teachers can attach cameras and record the physical and verbal abuse they now suffer.
    Is getting PSP's in to schools really where the effort should be focussed? It is not as if the user interface is widely used in industry is it?
    Are there not more fundamental problems in education to be solved that Sony's little brick are hardly likely to address and IT money could be far better spent giving the kids something that prepares them for a life outside of school?
     
  16. Jipa

    Jipa Avoiding the "I guess.." since 2004

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    Well I'm glad it's not happening on our tax-moneys ;) I have no idea why they chose PSP, first thing to pop into my mind is that some of the teachers or who ever that decided about this had recently purchased one to her/his own kid.

    Why the heck do they need consoles/PDAs anyway?
     
  17. Firehed

    Firehed Why not? I own a domain to match.

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    What a game :)

    But this idea is just a stupid waste of money, and I'm sure there's some idiot at Sony behind it. FFS, let's just fire all the teachers and use the savings and buy more PSPs with them...:idea:
     
  18. crayfish

    crayfish Amazing scenes!

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    Pah! In my day we had one BBC Micro for the whole class!
     
  19. Veles

    Veles DUR HUR

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    Ahh I remember them, spelling words incorrectly so the tomato man would explode, those were the days.

    EDIT: Is there a competition going on or something on who can waste the most tax payer money?
     
    Last edited: 3 Apr 2007
  20. ajiKaBooM!

    ajiKaBooM! What's a Dremel?

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    Its flippin ridiculous kids nowadays in schools are spoilt with so many forms of technology and resources yet its not pushing up the standards of grades..yet this gov't seems to believe splashing out on more will help better the situation. I believe money should be spent and focused upon one main thing: TEACHING. F' sake!

    EDIT: its not a late April fool's day joke is it?
     
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