Laptops for 7th graders?

[still learning]

Maybe it will create some more jobs in the IT industry ;-)

Those almost too old dell laptops, can be donated to schools and get some nice tax cuts

[still learning]

Porn (something a kid should not be looking at) fir minors, after that you choose

In 6th grade we used to have a class in school called sexual education. I seen a whole bunch of vaginas and cocks in the class. Dont think kids arent going to ever learn about the birds and the bees. Better to teach them how to protect them selfs from STD's and such then having a 16 year old pregnant daughter from some loser.

[Zimmer]

Ya I had that class to it wasn't in reference to sexual education.

[Metalwolf]

I like reading on the computer more because I dont haft to hold a book. Just sit and read. Don't really highlight stuff, but at least with the computerized version you can copy/paste into a notes doc to keep track of the material.

Desktops in every classroom with the bare minimum and exercises pre-loaded either on the computers locally or on a network share. No laptops. Too much trouble like said and since the students can use them for personal uses all of the stuff they use in their free time is available to them during school time. With locked down desktops, there wouldn't be.

With desktops in every classroom, there would be less need for computer labs as well, though one or two may still be useful for the occasional project.

You can always lock down the computer but there is no way to make it 100 percent foolproof. They locked down the computers at my old school but you were required to have a memory stick to save files on. I just used opera for irc and web browsing, and ultra explorer for other stuff. Ultra explorers built in command line sometimes came in handy. :P

Plus being friends with the teachers can have its benefits.

PS, I brought my laptop to school all the time in high school. Now my laptop hardly leaves my side.

[vector]

jesus i see so many fail posts here its not even funny. first of all no one said that these kids were going to have internet access in class, no one even said that these computers would be capable of accessing the internet period so all the fail talk about admin this and admin that is stupid. second of all i see someone talking about tax money for laptops. when was the last time you checked the price of 6+ textbooks for 3 years for a middle school kid? think its more than 300 bucks??? probably and kids tear the shit out of textbooks write in them destroy so they arent any better than toting around a netbook, also kids tend to not carry the books they need because it fucking sucks carrying around 50 lbs of books in a fucking backpack all day long. a laptop with a small case of textbook cd's or all the textbooks on the harddrive makes more sense. in case some of you didnt notice alot of schools dont have lockers. this is a great step forward because wether you want to belive it or not our kids kids wont be using books in the future. they just wont, of course as someone said "they dont need laptops to learn" thats obvious but who says that laptops are not effective learning tools. ive learned so many things using a computer, far more than ive ever learned from any book i read. think about that for a second. libraries, textbooks, hell most books will be replaced eventually by ebooks and digital content. it just will happen. so again i think this is a great thing for 7th graders i think its a great beta test and i fully support kids learning tech and being exposed to it early on. either master technology or be mastered by it.

[h3%5kr3w]

hmm... I agree with all of you but then I definitely have to side with vector. Why not have laptops. Hell make them without ANY internet access. Make them without any extra ports, wifi or ethernet. Shit there were enough that were made like that before the internet went crazy.

I remember all the books and etc. you had to carry around, and it sucks ass. If you added something like a highlighter style stylus for highlighting and note-taking and etc, then it would be all good. Make them with 1 usb 1.1 port for printing, and for usb drives. If the kid has a wifi plug, let him, just dont implement wifi @ school and it will be all good. They are going to look at what they want but make it to where it would have to be off school campus. This way the only thing that could distract them is the only thing that distracts them now, and to be honest if you used something such as the aspire one, it would be no different to them than if they played games on their phones, so it would not be any different.

Also on school security this would be a godsend. No more bookbags! at all! have a pen/pencil/and highlighter slip built into the laptop, and give the kid a clear flexible plastic bag to put it in with a zipper and flap so if it's raining it wont get wet and kaboom! LOT's of problems solved.

Vector the more I think about it the more I agree with you on this.

[h3%5kr3w]

hell I thought about it like this too.. It does not have to be windows. Use linux.

Here's my idea on it.

Laptop such as the aspire one.

Only ONE usb port.

Integrated linux solution on chip (like asus does) with only open office, printer support, PDF viewer,micro sd support, stylus support, and a photo editing program (for art class er to make their own background).

512mb of ram should be more than enough to view one or two pdfs at once and it doesnt have to be fast ram either.

2 MicrosSD slots built in for storage.(tucked away under a cover on the bottom with nintendo style screws)

2gigs should be sufficient for all books in pdf, and for low resolution videos to suppliment. And a second one @ 512mb will be more than enough for any papers to do in high school.

Hardwired stylus for highlighting and making notes in the pdf files.

Battery capable of 6 hours of uptime w/o charge. (no hard drives will use way less power)

I say done to the maximum extent. This type of setup (when mainstreamed across all schools) should cost no more than $200 per laptop if that. Have the parent sign a form stating that the system is at the cost of the parent for any apparent damages, but that the school will pay if it is any hardware failure damages not linked to the child.

The child could carry the same laptop from 7th grade to 12th grade. The cost would minimalize TONS of funds used on books and etc.

Since it would be an instant on solution, they could use it anywhere and have it fast. Make the teacher get up and check the work, hell we are paying them for something anyway.

I'd say were done here.

oh crap.. sorry about the doublepost.

[vector]

hell I thought about it like this too.. It does not have to be windows. Use linux.

Here's my idea on it.

Laptop such as the aspire one.

Only ONE usb port.

Integrated linux solution on chip (like asus does) with only open office, printer support, PDF viewer,micro sd support, stylus support, and a photo editing program (for art class er to make their own background).

512mb of ram should be more than enough to view one or two pdfs at once and it doesnt have to be fast ram either.

2 MicrosSD slots built in for storage.(tucked away under a cover on the bottom with nintendo style screws)

2gigs should be sufficient for all books in pdf, and for low resolution videos to suppliment. And a second one @ 512mb will be more than enough for any papers to do in high school.

Hardwired stylus for highlighting and making notes in the pdf files.

Battery capable of 6 hours of uptime w/o charge. (no hard drives will use way less power)

I say done to the maximum extent. This type of setup (when mainstreamed across all schools) should cost no more than $200 per laptop if that. Have the parent sign a form stating that the system is at the cost of the parent for any apparent damages, but that the school will pay if it is any hardware failure damages not linked to the child.

The child could carry the same laptop from 7th grade to 12th grade. The cost would minimalize TONS of funds used on books and etc.

Since it would be an instant on solution, they could use it anywhere and have it fast. Make the teacher get up and check the work, hell we are paying them for something anyway.

I'd say were done here.

oh crap.. sorry about the doublepost.

well hexscrew youre smarter than the average cat it seems. i mean theres things you can do with laptops that you just cant do with a textbook. most people are visual learners and you can fit much much more content on your history class cd/dvd than any history book could ever hold, in addition to that you can have interactive media to go along with the reading so it could show animations of how the bombing of peal horbor went down for example. teachers could put together power point presos that kids could follow along with etc etc the possibilities are almost endless, this could also help in southern states with childeren that dont speak english that well because you could have the content in different languages for example, this would help because the teachers wont have to slow down and help non english speaking students as much and take attention away from the english speaking kids. i mean the rest of these people are just failing to think outside the box, and thats not the hacker mindset if you ask me. i am and always will be in support of technological advancement wether it be in the school in the workplace at home or anywhere, call it what yuo want but its my technolust. AND I TRUST IT

[h3%5kr3w]

w00t!

Also I just thought of one more thing. Lectures and audible content. A text to speech generator for the pdf files so if the kids learn more by listening than reading they can do so, and Also you can have it setup with a 'what we are going to do today' section on the laptop for all classes. Didnt make it to school? no free ride for you. You had everything @ your house you needed. Tests could be written, and if it's something that needs to be done on a computer, they could have portable labs for the students that are just super cheap computers.

This would also free up resources for more hands on material, such as dissection labs and shop class and etc.

[vector]

w00t!

Also I just thought of one more thing. Lectures and audible content. A text to speech generator for the pdf files so if the kids learn more by listening than reading they can do so, and Also you can have it setup with a 'what we are going to do today' section on the laptop for all classes. Didnt make it to school? no free ride for you. You had everything @ your house you needed. Tests could be written, and if it's something that needs to be done on a computer, they could have portable labs for the students that are just super cheap computers.

This would also free up resources for more hands on material, such as dissection labs and shop class and etc.

yeah see if everyone opened up thier mind to the possibilities instead of the nonexistent drawbacks this world would be a better place. it goes back to being the solution not the problem type of thinking. think of how we can make this work better instead of thinking this will never work better. *sigh some people will never get it.

[ssmithisme]

I think that students should have access to laptops.

This will work 100% if implemented properly. Textbooks should not be completely aband0ned.

The teachers should keep eyes on student to make sure they are not playing games and instant messaging.

You would have access to the web and then this becomes a big problem which i think needs to be fixed anyway:

I always find that the worst thing with school is the internet filters. They are COMPLETELY outrageous. They interfere with browsing anything. I think the only thing in schools that should be blocked is sites dedicated to games, and porn.