News Classroom laptops fail to improve grades

You could argue that teachers don't need anything but the ability to stand there and talk. Sure people will will learn, but not all of them. That is because we all learn in different ways. I have a responsibility to engage all my pupils and their particular learning styles. My main aim is to get pupils thinking, discussing, and ultimately explaining things to each other to facilitate deeper learning. If ICT helps me do that. I use it.

I could talk about all sorts of initiatives like active learning, assessment is for learning, and so on but it's unnecessary . ICT isn't the sole way of delivering lessons in today's classrooms, used properly it complements strategies already in place. Which is a good thing.

 

"Did you have access to anything more exotic than a PC at school?"

When I was at school there was one computer. We had made it ourselves in an after school special interest group and when it was finished it had eight lights on the front as a read out. Think something like an Altair.

We might not have been like future generations who are experts on word processors and spreadsheets but we knew more about computers and how they actually worked than anybody. We had to learn to program using toggle switches, non of this Visual XXXXX rubbish.

I still make all my machines today but putting together today's Lego kits isn't half as much fun as learning to use a soldering iron before you can start .

Yes, I wear my "Old Fart" badge with pride.

 

When I reached 5th grade, we got to go to the computer lab once per week. We had to carry our floppy disks down the hall ("Keep it in the paper cover, kids, and always hold it by the paper label, or static will erase the contents!"). We learned simple things such as using BASIC to make a message appear, or drawing a simple picture using coordinates and color codes. At the end of the hour we got to play Oregon Trail for a few minutes.

In 6th grade, we learned basic keyboarding on typewriters. We all had to type along to the beat of polka music, and at the time I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard. Who knew that in time I would learn to appreciate good German music? In 7th grade we had a computer literacy course, which again featured simple BASIC commands and Oregon Trail.

In high school we had to take an introductory business computer applications class, in which we learned how to create and manage simple databases, create spreadsheets, and use word processors.

That was the extent of my exposure to computers in school. At the end of the computer hour we all walked back to our regular classrooms and learned things like long division and reading comprehension. I think those lessons turned out to be far more useful.

 

they need to hire more teachers instead of investing in more technology.. it doesn't make sense to have one teacher teaching 40 students when you could cut that in two by hiring another teacher instead of laptops or even the extra computer classes in elementary

now in high school.. if there's an elective for computers then yeah- put the computers in those classes.. same for college but by then you can afford your own.. trouble is we have idiots making the rules

the kids need basic skills before middle school.. english, math, science.. they don't need to know how to make a facebook page