My son's high school has a new program where each student rents a tablet PC and uses it during their high-school years to take notes, email assignments to teachers, and write papers.
That's the idea, anyway. 
Because these PCs are automatically connected to the internet while in the school building, the students have found ways to access social-networking sites and YouTube during class. At lunchtime, they play computer games while they eat their PBJs. And I'm sure those PCs are magnets for every computer virus out there.
I've taught teenagers before, and this doesn't surprise me in the least. I'm amazed that the school hasn't found a way around this. But then again, I'm sure the teenagers are more computer-savvy than the administration--so the kids have probably hacked their way around any restrictions the school tries to put in their way.
Although my son's class isn't participating in the tablet-PC program (it started the year he was a sophomore and is only for incoming freshmen, who then keep the PC for their four years) it has affected him academically. This semester, his Spanish teacher is requiring all students to build a website that will contain all their notes and homework. My son may not have figured out that this means he will take notes on paper in class and then have to come home and type those notes into the computer--twice the work. And I'm not going to tell him, because as a language teacher I firmly believe that the more times and the more different ways a student "handles" information, the more likely it is that the student will retain the information. More power to the Spanish teacher for coming up with this idea to help the students reinforce their studies.
Even though he can't build his website during class like the underclassmen can, my son is pragmatic about not having a computer at school. "If I had one of those tablet PCs," he tells me, "I'd never get any work done at school. It's a good thing I don't have one."
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One Response to “Computers in Schools--the Downside”
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