Writing < Typing, Schools Need To Impliment A New System

brainet

Feb 27 2006, 01:26 AM

Schools have been making people write things down and write essays on lined paper and all that jazz for years and I want to put an end to it. If laptops and computers would be allowed in schools to be worked on, the productivity and grades would higher significantly. I say this because...

1. Students are usually faster typers and even if they are not they can still easily read everything.
2. Lined paper is easy torn or ruined, unlike computer data, usually.
3. Students could access classroom files such as word documents that a teacher is talking from and would not have to copy everything down.

All I am saying is even though pencil and paper is more traditional, students could be much, much more effective on computers and laptops. All this funding is put towards raising test scores, while it could be done to buy a laptop for every student. I mean, there are 100 some computers in the library, probably 200 in a school. Why can't the school just offer up getting some 400 mghertz systems and we can run from there.

michaelper22

Feb 27 2006, 01:54 AM

I belive what you say about papers being torn (I speak from experience, papers in my binders generally don't live too long in there before being ripped out). But not every school can afford laptops, or the specialized software they would need to put on them. And I don't think Bush is about ready to give a couple of billion dollars toward adding computers to the classrooms of America.

KuBi

Feb 27 2006, 02:49 AM

Well I agree with this, and disagree.

For the most part, if stupid had laptops at there desk, they'd be tempted to go out and surf the web while the teacher is talking. Or even get on some chat programs. It's easy to get by filters so there isn't much stoping people, espessialy on a wireless network.

Though it would make the teachers life easier, not having to try and read the chicken scratch some kids produce. The only way a teacher wouldn't be able to read a paper if the student made the font to small, or didn't even print it!

Then again, most students don't know hwo to use a computer fluently, there will ofcourse be some issues, and maybe data loss on someones part.

rvalkass

Feb 27 2006, 07:32 PM

Can you imagine the insurance costs of having that many laptops? At my school we have around 1,500 pupils, if each one had a laptop costing around £500 that would be a total of £750,000 just on laptops for students, when the majority of departments have trouble finding enough money for new textbooks every 10 years. Most of the people in my classes spend their time making documents look pretty, which takes them even longer on a PC as they are not all exactly computer literate. Also, some seem to think the best use of their time is playing Flash and JavaScript games during ICT lessons, so there would be some problems.

electriic ink

Feb 27 2006, 08:01 PM

I wonder how much the schools would fine parents in their son/daughter lost theirs. For books it's around 50p but for laptops. I can imagine what some people would do the laptops of people whom they hate.

Anyway, carrying them round between lessons wouldn't be convenient. And imagine 1000 people trying to log on to the school network at one time, five times a day.

Razor

Feb 27 2006, 08:40 PM

I find this a cool idea...now as most of you are saying...about the price it would cost...
think about it...simple purpose built lap-tops..just fast enough to cope with text writing programs...
0.2ghz machine would be needed ( LMFAO probably)..so basically just a machine for a text typing program..and thats it really..means other programs cannot be used..they do not even have the option to not have a diff program..you switch it on..enter password...then you get a word processor that appears ..and/or a folder of text files.
it would be cheap if you think about it..infact probably the price of a V-tech kid machine things or somthing

brandice

Feb 28 2006, 10:47 PM

I don't agree at all. I think that schools put too much of an emphasis on getting computers in schools already. Computers are just a distraction. If all students had computers, teachers would wind up spending most of the time teaching how to work and how to fix the computer, and trying to see who was goofing off instead of doing their work.

Plus, it would be way too easy to fudge your way through school. Think about it- your computer could do your math for you- it could fix your spelling mistakes. You might think, "Really though, when we get out of school we are just going to use a computer for everything anyway."

You need to know the basics in life, though. What if the power goes out? lol

There's something to be said for good penmanship as well.

no9t9

Mar 1 2006, 04:48 AM

i don't know what schools you people go to... but I don't see why your schools still require you to hand in reports that are hand written and on lined paper. Hand written reports... wow. All sudents use computers to do their projects and homework. The only time pen and paper are used is during class for note taking. And in university, even note taking is done on the computer.

NDPA

Mar 1 2006, 05:28 AM

I totally agree with this, in fact I am trying to get myself laptop privilages just for these reasons.

Only two problems:
1. What if the use of computers result in people being incapable to do work without them?
2. They would need to be constantly recharged - which becomes a problem when you consider there are 300+ students in most schools. It's not easy to charge 300 laptops at the same time...

DogEater008

Mar 1 2006, 06:48 AM

i do agree with you. .but only for high school students because we would want kids to learn how to write stuff on to paper so it could keep our tradition alive for many more generation.

Well.. what you said is true about torn paper and missing paper. whatever.. .but computer do crashes.. ..and when it does.. you will lose everything. Also.. kids could be doing so many other things in class while the teacher is trying to teach.. which can create a disruption..

And for now.. not many people are computer smart. They barely even know what a router is.. So if you are supposed to turn in your mid-term paper to your teacher through the local network (i'm assuming that's how you're going to do it)... it will be harder to figure out and config the network setting...

It would be great if the laptop then would come with a write pad... so you could use it to do your math and other stuff that is hard to use the keyboard for.

about the battery problem.. they are developing a next generation lcd screen that doesn't even use a friction of what the lcd we are using today. And flash harddrive that doesn't have movie parts .. therefore your laptop would last for days like your cellphone now.

But then this would create a big different between the rich kids and the poor kids.. .Rich kids probably get one of thos Sony viao laptop.. nice.. small compact.. while the poor kids get those old 300mhz IBM laptop.... That's one of the reason why in middle.. they made us (well.. me) wear uniform...

and of course.. i could imagine students with excuses like.. oh.. i got hacked.. or.. i got a trojan or virus that deleted my homework... or hdd crashed.

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beeseven

Mar 19 2006, 04:46 PM

After reading all of this topic, I have thought of many arguments against this. Here I will compile and expand on them:

It would be way too distracting in multiple ways. Typing is usually louder than writing, which would distract the teacher. The students would also be tempted to surf the web (something that can easily be done without a mouse) or use chat programs. My friend goes to a private school for which each student is required to use a laptop, and I frequently see her on chat programs during the day.
Not everyone is computer literate. Everyone should be, but unfortunately that's just not the case. People would spend too much time trying to get things to work. Students would also spend too much time formatting their writing. I've seen people spend upwards of 5 minutes formatting rough notes.
The network would be too bogged down. I don't know of a school whose network would be able to stand more than 1600 connections at once. Mine takes around 5 minutes to log in to, and we usually don't have enough computers for everyone who needs one during lunch or breaks, much less for the entire school.
The cost would be enormous, even if they were bottom-of-the-line laptops. Laptop technology is not cheap. After a short search, the lowest priced laptop I could find cost $500. Assuming I didn't search well, let's say $350. There are 1700 students in my school. 350 * 1700 = $595000. That is a lot of money. If four other schools in my county have that many students, that would cost almost 3 million dollars. That's not even all the schools in one county. Even those new laptops that are powered by hand cranks and cost $100 each would cost $850000 for those five schools.
It would be much easier to cheat. The other day in English, we had about one hour to write a persuasive essay based on a book we had just read. We could only use the answers to a few basic questions about plot that we had discussed in class. We didn't have access to the book. If we had been using laptops, we could have found the full text of the book online or even downloaded a complete essay. I could have asked any forums if anyone had written any essays about the same topic or know of any not-well-known essay websites.
Even though computers are a big part of our lives, everyone needs to be able to function without them. I don't have much to say about this, it's just common sense. You can't let a little box take over your life. Also see the next point.
What if there's a power/network/hard drive failure? You could miss deadlines, lose data you're working on, not be able to turn in things or access needed information, or even lose everything you've worked on. There's too big a risk associated with electricy-driven, not to mention man-made, technology.
QUOTE
All this funding is put towards raising test scores, while it could be done to buy a laptop for every student.
What's more important? Being able to think or being able to make a computer think for you? That's one of the biggest things and possibly the most important. No matter how good you are with a computer, you won't be successful unless you have the capacity to use it. You won't have this capacity if you spend all your time at a computer, because you need to do other things in order to stretch your mind. That's what school is all about. They're not just force-feeding us mindless information, they're making us stretch our minds. Think of how much of this stuff you'll remember, even how much you remember from last year. You're not learning information that a computer could teach you, you're learning how to learn.