Class Blog Idea #4 Debate / Discuss
This post was written for a PD Session
“Students in Years 5-7 should each have a laptop for use at school.”
What Do You Think?
Do you agree or disagree?
Give some reasons to back this up.
using IT in primary education
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June 15th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
There would be some advantages: portable nature, instant access, ICT links to all KLAs, free up labs for ‘high end’ work, individual teaching and learning, IEP use
disadvantages: break downs, support structure, damage, weight to carry, staff skills
[Reply]
Colin Becker Reply:
June 15th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Do you think the disadvantages would out-weight the advantages?
What if they were ’school bought’ laptops?
They would get transported less and could also have some restrictions to reduce students tampering with settings.
[Reply]
July 5th, 2009 at 3:05 am
Hi Colin, I saw your post on Dean’s NECC technology post and checked out your blog.
I am a middle school math and science teacher with an ed.tech obsession (hopefully can work my thesis around that) and thought you might enjoy seeing some Canadian peer reviewed research on laptops in classrooms http://www.cjlt.ca/index.php/cjlt/article/view/158/152
There is also a tertiary source newpaper article that takes a public, tax paying view of the issue:
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=7dc0ae19-fbe0-4aa1-b1c0-e221cf1d4a1b&k=67707
Let me know what you think about the research and if the public opinion is similar to where you live.
[Reply]
Colin Becker Reply:
July 6th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Hi snydersensei,
Thanks for taking the time to look at my blog and to write a comment.
I read through the Canadian peer reviewed research on laptops (most, but not all of it – I admit) and found it quite interesting.
It seems that in general, there is no significant increase in outcomes by students who were involved in a laptop program, other than they had a higher degree of technology skills.
I think that this is good and can support the view of using a 1-1 laptop program.
Firstly, we want students to have good technology/computer skills so as to be able to interact in society (both now and after leaving school) but we don’t want learning standards to fall as a consequence of spending more time using technology.
Secondly, if we consider the type of 21st century learning experiences that students should be getting, if they did have greater access to technology, then this would also be advantageous. I suspect that these skills are not assessed in 1-1 laptop programs and that they are not easily assessed using a form of standardised testing.
Overall, the fact that students didn’t learn less, had higher technology skills and were hopefully exposed to 21st century skills would support a 1-1 laptop program.
Hope this makes sense. Colin
[Reply]