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My opinion: kids don't need laptops to learn. Old school concept/understanding based learning works fine! I even think having a laptop then can be a distraction

My opinion: kids don't need laptops to learn. Old school concept/understanding based learning works fine! I even think having a laptop then can be a distraction or a hindrance to actual learning. By the time they are in 8th or 9th grade, they can use normal computers. No toy devices required.

mburns 17y ago
The whole point from the beginning was that it has nothing to do with being a laptop. It is a matter of efficient delivery of information. Paper books are too expensive in a bang-for-buck sense. Purely an economics problem.
bjelkeman-again 17y ago
"Don't need", true. But can potentially really benefit from. Sugata Mitra had a cracking presentation at Activate09 in London the other week, where he showed how dropping computers in front of (illiterate) children could really make them go and investigate and learn. The trick (he said) was not to give one computer per child, but to have them work in groups. The Guardian (event organiser) said that the videos of all speakers would be up within a month, so maybe you can see this very inspiring presentation as well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugata_Mitra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugata_Mitra
- GHFigs 17y ago
  Here is is presenting on the same subject in 2007: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_themselves.html http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_ki...
stcredzero 17y ago
It's not the "toy" part that's signifiant. It's the "tinker" part. Think of a 50's automobile with a carburetor and a distributor. You can take apart and tinker with those. In a 2009 car, the distributor and associated parts are a throwaway lump of plastic with metal tabs coming out. "Explorable" is perhaps an even better term. Squeak had the same aims. Skip to 8:20. You'll see kids using the software to explore robotics and do physics of gravitation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg_ToU7m1MI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg_ToU7m1MI
basu 17y ago
By the time they are in 8th or 9th grade they would have spent a large portion of their early years using crappy software or playing games that may be of high quality but don't teach them much about computers. And old school learning arguments works depending on the field. You can teaching computing without a computer, but only up to a point after which it becomes tedious to all but the most dedicated.

mburns 17y ago

The whole point from the beginning was that it has nothing to do with being a laptop. It is a matter of efficient delivery of information. Paper books are too expensive in a bang-for-buck sense. Purely an economics problem.

bjelkeman-again 17y ago

"Don't need", true. But can potentially really benefit from. Sugata Mitra had a cracking presentation at Activate09 in London the other week, where he showed how dropping computers in front of (illiterate) children could really make them go and investigate and learn. The trick (he said) was not to give one computer per child, but to have them work in groups. The Guardian (event organiser) said that the videos of all speakers would be up within a month, so maybe you can see this very inspiring presentation as well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugata_Mitra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugata_Mitra

GHFigs 17y ago
Here is is presenting on the same subject in 2007: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_themselves.html http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_ki...

stcredzero 17y ago

It's not the "toy" part that's signifiant. It's the "tinker" part. Think of a 50's automobile with a carburetor and a distributor. You can take apart and tinker with those. In a 2009 car, the distributor and associated parts are a throwaway lump of plastic with metal tabs coming out. "Explorable" is perhaps an even better term. Squeak had the same aims. Skip to 8:20. You'll see kids using the software to explore robotics and do physics of gravitation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg_ToU7m1MI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg_ToU7m1MI

basu 17y ago

By the time they are in 8th or 9th grade they would have spent a large portion of their early years using crappy software or playing games that may be of high quality but don't teach them much about computers. And old school learning arguments works depending on the field. You can teaching computing without a computer, but only up to a point after which it becomes tedious to all but the most dedicated.