Reply to What does Chromebook use look like in your kid's elementary class?

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Reply to "What does Chromebook use look like in your kid's elementary class?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Here's my problem. I call BS when teachers say they need the Chromebooks to control a class of 25 kids.

When I was in ES in the 90s, we didn't have classroom computers. We did have computer lab once a week, where we learned typing (which was more important to do in school then, since a lot of kids didn't have computers at home).

Anyway, our classes were just as big as the classes now, but somehow the teachers were able to keep things under control. I admittedly don't remember ES well enough to remember exactly what we did when the teacher was working with other kids, but clearly we did something.

If teachers could handle classes of 25-26 kids in the 70s/80/90s, why can't they do it now? [/quote]

The curriculum is really a lot harder now, and teachers are expected to teach a lot more, and to make sure that none of the kids are really falling off the curve (leave no child behind and all that).  I remember my E.S. in the 70's and 80's.  Teachers didn't do a lot of small group teaching. (I don't remember very much small group instruction after K.)  They just moved the whole class along relatively slowly. There were no "small reading groups" after K -- we all just read the same really boring basic stuff. I used to sit in a corner and read books out of my desk while the teacher was teaching because the class moved so slow.  Or I would get a hall pass and go the library, because the teacher knew that I was ahead.    Some of the teachers even gave me other kids' work to grade.  However, even with moving the class along super slowly, there were some kids that were totally just behind -- I remember a girl that was straight-up illiterate in 4th grade, and this was in a nice suburban school district.  When I do remember doing small group work, we did coloring (in the younger grades) or worksheets (in the older grades).  There were lots and lots of blue mimeographed worksheets.

I am not super crazy about the Chrome books.  But:  (1) It is way cheaper to buy chrome books for the class than to hire a second teacher (or even an aide).  You can get Chrome Books for the whole class for like $5K.  (2) It does allow the teacher the time to do more small group work that is tailored for the level of the students.  
Technology can be great, but it was really a failure on the part of whoever decided to get this particular technology that the school/teachers could not easily control.  Of course google wants them searching the internet -- that's google's bread and butter.  I'm not sure what type of parental controls you can do on chrome books, but they are not really set up for that.  The schools need a browser that can be set to only allow access to very limited sites -- like the old Microsoft OS allowed.
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