Reply to DCI: Too much focus on tablets/devices?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]^^^ PP here who actually had a child in a 1:1 device program for three years so I've seen it be incredibly successful with my own skeptical eyes...

but anyhoo, re: the environmental component, the kids would have had a variety of computers anyway, BESIDES the paper.  Some would have had laptops at home for their use, or a tablet or a family desk top; the school would have had multiple carts of laptops, and rooms full of desk top computers.  So the chromebooks just replace a bunch of computers that would have been around anyway, and lets those kids have one who would NOT have had one at home, plus removes a bunch of paper and textbooks.  The uniformity of the style of computer and the software make it much much easier for teachers to plan computer use.  Otherwise it's so ragtag.

My DC is now in a DCPS HS where they don't have a 1:1 device program and I see all kinds of problems that she did not have in middle school.  For one thing, there are carts of laptops which must be configured, powered up, used, powered down by multiple classes.  Work gets erased, thumb drives are lost.  There are some classes which do have etexts and the computers require a flash application which neither our home desk top nor her mac laptop for home use has.  She went to the public library and it didn't work there either.  She can only do the assignments on a handful of computers in the school's media center.  This is so antiquated and such a time waster.  It would be much better if all the kids had the same technology so its use could be streamlined and planned.

And when you child gets to college, won't he/she be fully dependent on a laptop by then?  DCI's approach just gives the kids a head start on what will be their technology life in a few years anyway.  My DC is now regularly turning in work on notebook paper written with pencil -- yes, just like the good old 1950s, unlike middle school where almost everything was written on a tablet and either printed or emailed to the teacher.

[b]You all are thinking of your kids as elementary school -aged.  In a few years they will be more than capable of a 1:1 chromebook program.

Your kids will be captivated and obsessed with technology, and even if they don't have a chromebook for use at school they will still be obsessed.  This way at least they can start to learn to manage its both its capabilities and its detractions.[/b]   [/quote]

You are completely wrong that we are all thinking of our kids as elementary school students.  I'm not the PP who identified as an educator, but in another capacity I work with kids are who mostly middle and high school aged, and I am very aware of developmentally what is occurring at those ages.  And I am clear that being glued to a tablet is a bad idea for the 7 years of middle and high school.  Seriously, think about that: 7 years where just about everything you read, write, and process is on a computer.  A wireless computer.  Never mind that every.single.spare.moment is probably filled with whatever the equivalent of Facebook or Instagram will be in 2+ years.  There are everything from health concerns to social isolation concerns to ADHD concerns to emotional and physical health concerns about this model.  My concern is definitely from the perspective of someone very familiar with 12-18 yr old development and who also can see some of the negative behavior trends occurring in older kids as technology gets more and more universal.[/quote]

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