DCI: Too much focus on tablets/devices?

[Anonymous]

I want DC to be able to type but suspect that this won't happen until closer to 8th. Also, want kid to have practice writing out essays first so primary focus on writing not on mastering how to type. Really feel that some kids might find it hard to do both at once.

[Anonymous]

Another article

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/19/readers-absorb-less-kindles-paper-study-plot-ereader-digitisation

[Anonymous]

So I was checking the DCI website to see if they had made any changes to the "paperless" policy and saw a link to the updated teacher bios. Some teachers have amazing qualifications but I noticed a few math teachers had a liberal arts degree and an Arts teacher with a degree in Religion.

Just wondering how common this is in middle schools. I thought teachers needed a degree, especially in math and science, to be qualified to teach it. Algebra I is such an important subject.

Thoughts? Maybe this is a pretty accepted practice. Can you request that your kids get the teacher who actually has a math degree?

BTW, never did check and see if school made any changes to tech policies. 'would love to hear from current families! thanks

[Anonymous]

At the middle school level I think I'd want math degrees out using degrees/teaching experience.

Also, The paperless policy is still on the website, buy in also Curtis how it's playing out after the first year.

[Anonymous]

Bad autocorrect. Should say but I'm also curious how it played out.

[Anonymous]

It was great being paperless!!! No changes planned for this year. Every kid gets a chromebook, does work on the chromebook, parents can choose to check out paper copies of texts from the library if they want and homework must be submitted through google classroom. Get over it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It was great being paperless!!! No changes planned for this year. Every kid gets a chromebook, does work on the chromebook, parents can choose to check out paper copies of texts from the library if they want and homework must be submitted through google classroom. Get over it.

Yes, I watched a middle schooler doing "homework" on a school issued tablet of some kind at the library in the spring. Not for my family, that is for sure.

[Anonymous]

What "homework" was this person doing, PP? This was a DCI student for sure?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What "homework" was this person doing, PP? This was a DCI student for sure?

No don't know it was a DCI student or a chrome book. She told her grandmother she was doing homework and they talked a little about it being a school tablet (she was telling her grandma in a huff that, yes, her teacher's giver her reading and homework to do on it). Then the grandma went to browse books and read and for the next hour straight the girl toggled between some school asisgnment she wasn't really reading and numerous other activities - chatting and playing some game was what I could see. Sure I know a middle schooler is distractable by any number of things (I remember starting a novel I was just burning to write during finals in 8th grade - wrote a whole outline of it instead of studying - and immediatly after finals were over, I had no interest in writing the novel at all), but I don't think handing kids ammunition is a good thing. She likely ended up skimming enough between her distractions to say one smart thing in class the next day - but there was no deep concentration or reading was going on. Do I think she would have faired better with a paper book or pencil and paper assignment? yes, I do. At least then she's need to look away from her work to chat, and at least then she's be mroe aware of what she was doing (as would her grandmother).

She also was really sassy with her grandmother, which added to my entire distate for teh situation. But that is likely not teh fault of technology

[Anonymous]

Do you all still work on paper? I do all my work electronically and it works perfectly. Are you that annoying old lady that wants me to needlessly print 300 pages?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you all still work on paper? I do all my work electronically and it works perfectly. Are you that annoying old lady that wants me to needlessly print 300 pages?

Yes - when I need to. When I need to get something right. Work and reading on a computer texts to be sloppier - for me at elast but I imagine for many.

When I want to really learn something and needs to focus/concentrate on it - I will learn it better in print because spacial mempory comes into play. There is emerging research from the London School (which tends to be pro-tchnology) about how people read more superfically when they read digital formats. They less likely to make new connections, more likely to focus on the material with which they that are already familiar rather than the new stuff. I know I rememebr much less of what I read online and much more of what I read in print (and I forget most of what I hear in a books on tape though I was listening to every word).

I don't often need to read (really read, not skim) 300 pages and neither do you, so, no, lets not needlessly print a 300 page document.

[Anonymous]

Interesting story I heard on BBC. Here is the link

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34174796

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you all still work on paper? I do all my work electronically and it works perfectly. Are you that annoying old lady that wants me to needlessly print 300 pages?

Yes - when I need to. When I need to get something right. Work and reading on a computer texts to be sloppier - for me at elast but I imagine for many.

When I want to really learn something and needs to focus/concentrate on it - I will learn it better in print because spacial mempory comes into play. There is emerging research from the London School (which tends to be pro-tchnology) about how people read more superfically when they read digital formats. They less likely to make new connections, more likely to focus on the material with which they that are already familiar rather than the new stuff. I know I rememebr much less of what I read online and much more of what I read in print (and I forget most of what I hear in a books on tape though I was listening to every word).

I don't often need to read (really read, not skim) 300 pages and neither do you, so, no, lets not needlessly print a 300 page document.

Don't know about you but I read and write electronically almost nothing on paper anymore. I am a lawyer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you all still work on paper? I do all my work electronically and it works perfectly. Are you that annoying old lady that wants me to needlessly print 300 pages?

Agree. There is always some old lady/man or agency with antiquated computers who still wants it on paper. Sort of the dying last hoorah for the paper manufacturing industry.

Yes, all those old records on paper gets scanned so people can more easily do searches instead of borrowing through old file boxes. It is called progress.

At least, DCI is preparing kids for jobs in the 21st century instead of the 20th.

[Anonymous]

The story from the BBC discusses more about how computer can be used in the classroom in a way that promotes learning but isn't distracting.

I spend a lot of time at work using the computer but sometimes it is easier to read paper documents, so I print them out. Still, the physical act of writing for kids can be helpful for kids who are learning new skills, mastering spelling words, etc. Same with reading. Some kids just might do better with paperbooks and they should have that option. The answer to this argument isn't "computer or paper" but how you can use both new technology and more traditional approaches to maximize learning.