Perhaps it shouldn’t be a radical idea, but it is – Internet access for every school child. That’s exactly what the British government is proposing, according to a story in theGuardian, and schools minister Jim Knight has been talking to technology companies about ways to make it happen. Currently about one million kids don’thave computers at home. It’s part of a greater IT initiative. The first leg will see parents of secondary school children (11-18) having access to real-time reporting of theirchildren’s progress, which could be extended to elementary school pupils in a couple of years. More important, though, would be ensuring that all pupils have computers and Internetaccess at home, which would help level the playing field between the haves and have-nots. "We need to get to a point where in the same way when they start school the expectation is you’ve[the parent] got to find a school uniform, provide them with something to write with and probably these days a calculator, and in secondary school some sports gear – well, you add to that someIT,” Knight told the newspaper. "Obviously you need to make that affordable, you need to make that universal otherwise you just advantage those who can afford it. To some extent that’s thecase at the moment, where 50% of homes have got IT broadband, but they are hugely powerful educational tools … we know from the research evidence the difference that information technology canmake." Recent figures indicate that the achievement gap between the richest and poorest families has widened by 10%, and this could help curb that. However, the government doesn’texpect to subsidize families without Internet access, since it will expect them to contribute to costs. It could certainly be a winning situation for technology companies, from software andhardware makers to ISPs, since the government will effectively be bringing them new custom.
Tag Archive: school
Govt. Wants All Kids To Have Net Access
Are Facebook Members Higher Achievers?
A new study shows that which social networking site you use can help show your social status. According to research by PhD student Danah Boyd from the School of Information Sciences at UC Berkeley, Facebook users comes from homes with a higher income and are more likelyto attend college. By contract, Myspace users usually go straight to work following high school and don’t pursue a degree. Boyd’s researchalso shows that Facebook users largely tend to be white and belong to families that push them toward college. “They are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom, and live in aworld dictated by after school activities.” Boyd has written in a preliminary draft of her study. She found many teens from minorities using MySpace, and added that “MySpace has most ofthe kids who are socially ostracised at school because they are geeks, freaks, or queers.” In her research, she concludes that people use social networking sites to build a sense ofcommunity. Often, she claims, teens have strong opinions about the social networks they don’t use.
Kansas Schools Order Another 2,300 Palm’s
While some school districts in the US are dealing with record budget cuts, the students and teachers in the Olathe Unified School District in Olathe, Kansas get another 2,300 Palm handhelds to play with thanks to a recent purchase. Today’s purchase of the new Palm TX PDA’s now doubles the school district’s current inventory. The Olathe Unified School District is considered one of the most technologically progressive school districts in the state.
Cutting Class In Favor Of iTunes U
Apple has recently introduced iTunes U. to students and things are looking up. The maker of the popular music software wanted to expand the ability of their iTunes Music Store by making it possiblefor students from across the country to download lectures from either their school or any other participating school.
Apple offers colleges and universities a special version of iTunes that gives the school the ability to post media such as podcasts or video lectures up for download. Students can then use iTunes todownload a lecture they may have missed, which can then be transferred on to an iPod or PMP. This can prove to be a very valuable asset to both the sick student and fraternity brother during Rushweek who both could have missed a class. Now they will have the ability to access it from any computer with an internet connection and iTunes.
Cisco Expands Public School WLANs
Networking company Cisco today said they were deploying several large-scale wireless local area networks into K-12 school districts across the nation as students prepare to go back to school. This deployment is part of a growing trend of wireless use in public schools.
The deployment, Cisco said, spans from
Raising the Technology Bar in Arizona
No more lugging around backpacks crammed full of dry textbooks. This fall a high school in Vail, Arizona will go wireless. The school will dispense with traditional textbooks, and students will carry laptops instead. Lessons will be taught using electronic and on-line articles.
Experts say Vail Unified School District’s choice to become an “e-school†is atypical. Switching to an all-wireless classroom is often prevented by cost, insecurity, ignorance and institutional constraints.
“The efforts are very sporadic,” said Mark Schneiderman, director of education policy for the Software and Information Industry Association. “A minority of communities are doing a good or very good job, but a large number are just not there on a number of levels.”
Duke Rethinks iPod Project
“Only students enrolled in certain classes will get the free gadgets.
The school, which hoped the $300 players would enhance students’ learning by allowing them to record lectures, capture oral notes and play language-training recordings, spent $500,000 on the pilot project.
That covered the iPods, salary for an academic computing specialist and grants to faculty members who participated in the program.”
Read more at CNN.com
School Says iPod Is A Must-Have
“At the Brearley School, a private school for girls on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where Samantha is in the eighth grade, the iPod went from a “want” to a “must have” this year when its use was incorporated into foreign-language and classics courses. For about 300 girls in grades 7 through 12, the iPod is now required to do homework and classroom assignments.”
We are sure none of those students are complaining!
Read more at Globe Technology
Study: Computer Use A Boost To Young Minds
In a study of 122 children aged 3 to 5, those exposed to a home or school computer either alone or with someone else three to four times a week scored higher on tests that gauge school readiness and cognitive development than non-users, said the study published in the journal Pediatrics.
Some earlier studies have found computer use improves children’s fine motor skills and improves recognition of numbers and letters.
Read more at Reuters.
