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Mace wrote:
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As a teacher, I'm glad to finally see some 'objective' comments and results from the students and teachers themselves. I hope and think in a period of ten-fifteen years from now, teachers will be able to use the Laptops an all other IT-media much more learning-efficient.

Where now many teachers (cfe. my own school were I teach) have to learn and struggle (Windows ) with the new technology, and some teachers know already the advantage of IT, it's not very clear yet how exactly a laptop or computer can help, without interfering the learning/exploring process.

I think something like feedback is very important, and you still don't get it... yet, as good as from a live person.

The two main issues sited by the students are the same issues we see when we work with schools - reliability and teacher training. If the equipment isn't properly supported (even relatively trustworthy Macs), and if teachers don't understand how to take advantage of the computers, then they will get in the way more than help.

All that aside, computers still can't totally replace pen, pencil and paper. Paper technology can still do many more things (at far less cost) than computers. And I can't listen to MP3s with my composition book.

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edtekker wrote:
... computers still can't totally replace pen, pencil and paper. Paper technology can still do many more things (at far less cost) than computers.

"The difference between program's such as Maine's and university are that laptops become mandated and not optional, which automatically creates a number of problems...."

that is exactly the problem. certain tools will always be more comfortable than others to many different people. that's just being human.

No deep offense meant here teacher dude, but really, don't you think you should learn the English language in order to teach children?

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Anonymous wrote:
No deep offense meant here teacher dude, but really, don't you think you should learn the English language in order to teach children?

In most cases, not only match it, but better it …
As an example, I do a lot of translation work, and own a “translation“ program. It does no better (or little) than Babelfish, but that doesn’t bother me. The longest part of my translation work used to be entering text (on a typewriter) in the source language, doing the translation by hand and pencil on paper, then entering the text in the target language (on a typewriter again) and then faxing it to my customers … with no typing training, this is a huge PITA ! I’m still not the best-skilled typist (Ihardly improved in the many years since grad school ), but getting my text through email enclosures, I save one of these 2 steps, with the added benefit of formatting … A copy-paste of the text in my translation app. allows me to get a rough draft of a translation already typed, which I then have to re-phrase and otherwise edit in order to get nice-flowing, natural and understandable text, which is much easier than the 2-step procedure of old times and saves me a considerable amount of time. A copy-paste of the target-language text in the original ducument allows to now send my client a more polished translation which is already formatted for his/her needs … and that doesn’t even involve mp3 … just plain words ! With the additional benefit that SpellCatcher will usually catch my typos as soon as I made them (lousy typist that I am) and allow me to correct them on the spot.
How I wish I had had an opportunity to use an iBook as a learning aid when I was in High School !

OOOps ! SpellCatcher didn’t do its job … “ducument” … or I didn’t catch it

I was once the coordinator of 1st year French courses at a large Midwestern University. I had found a textbook which I really loved, because it put heavy emphasis on idioms as opposed to “basic” language. So 1st year students started learning fairly complex expressions instead of plain words … The book was written by a great French contemporary writer in collaboration with an American professor, and was extremely entertaining, because its whole basic design was a huge play on words.
What was the main problem that year ? Half of my staff of teaching assistants wasn’t fluent in French enough to know the idioms in question and thus to understand the level of language they were asked to teach. They could have come to me to tell me their problems (like most of the other half did at one time or another), but they didn’t. They hated the book, they hated the program, they hated me and bitched to the students about it …
Maybe a parallel could be drawn here … no ?

I feel obliged to comment. Although I do own the 'book through no involvement with the school, it has helped me a great deal. My notes during class are finally legible, and with the iBook I've been able to manage a blog keeping track of homework - http://greenibet.blogspot.com - in my (very limited) free time.

I love the iBook, and I know for a fact it's helped me in school. I do agree, though, that having mandatory laptops greatly increases problems - you're faced with explaining a complex tool to the lowest common denominator (teachers and students alike).

That's my musings at 12:41 A.M. on a school night... woot.

~stephen

http://slinky259.blogspot.com - my personal blog that i also maintain

It would also be interesting to go more in depth and discover which problems (lack of teacher training) would apply to all laptops, and which (logic board failures) are specific to the iBooks.

~stephen

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Guest wrote:
No deep offense meant here teacher dude, but really, don't you think you should learn the English language in order to teach children?

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Anonymous wrote:
No deep offense meant here teacher dude, but really, don't you think you should learn the English language in order to teach children?