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From this parent's point of view, using laptops in school doesn't have much to do with computer science. My kids in elementary school use their Chromebooks for

by lacker 3y ago

From this parent's point of view, using laptops in school doesn't have much to do with computer science. My kids in elementary school use their Chromebooks for all homework. It seems very good for their computer skills. Word processing to write papers, learning to type, learning to use the mouse, using learning applications, using the internet to do research, and creating presentations. When you say "proper equipment", well, proper equipment for a professional software engineer is often just a Macbook. How does that differ from a Chromebook? Okay, they can't run Xcode on a Chromebook, but a 4th grader isn't going to be learning that anyway. The main thing for this generation is that so many of them are native touch screen users. They are used to iPads and iPhones and get very good at understanding those UIs. Which is great, but they will also need to learn how to use the keyboard+mouse+windows UI. Chromebooks seem great at that.

pathartl 3y ago
I agree for things like writing papers having access to a computer for research and word proccessing is a net positive, but I still believe that this is better handled by shared equipment contained within the classroom or lab. I may be a bit biased as I'm still not convinced that homework actually provides a ton of benefit, and I'm even more not convinced that homework should require a computer to be completed. However, to further your first point even more, having one laptop per student is a great way to bring computers into the home of those that might not be fortunate enough to purchase them. In the school district I worked for (very rural Wisconsin) we were able to secure hotspots for households that couldn't afford a broadband internet service. However, even though I've been out of the education sector for a number of years I haven't seen a real uptick in computing skills so I wonder how effective these devices actually are. I have nephews that entered the system about the time I started in the education sector (and actually worked in their district), but I can't confidently say their skills match or exceed the average student from the era of mid 2000's labs. Simply put without sounding like an old man, I'm questioning whether constant exposure to tech is replacing quality education about it. By "proper equipment" I mean traditional laptops/desktops that are spec'd to be shared by multiple people and have quality components, or even repairable components so we don't end up with these mountains of e-waste.

by lacker 3y ago

pathartl 3y ago

I agree for things like writing papers having access to a computer for research and word proccessing is a net positive, but I still believe that this is better handled by shared equipment contained within the classroom or lab. I may be a bit biased as I'm still not convinced that homework actually provides a ton of benefit, and I'm even more not convinced that homework should require a computer to be completed. However, to further your first point even more, having one laptop per student is a great way to bring computers into the home of those that might not be fortunate enough to purchase them. In the school district I worked for (very rural Wisconsin) we were able to secure hotspots for households that couldn't afford a broadband internet service. However, even though I've been out of the education sector for a number of years I haven't seen a real uptick in computing skills so I wonder how effective these devices actually are. I have nephews that entered the system about the time I started in the education sector (and actually worked in their district), but I can't confidently say their skills match or exceed the average student from the era of mid 2000's labs. Simply put without sounding like an old man, I'm questioning whether constant exposure to tech is replacing quality education about it. By "proper equipment" I mean traditional laptops/desktops that are spec'd to be shared by multiple people and have quality components, or even repairable components so we don't end up with these mountains of e-waste.