School spies on kids through student laptops

[--Pete]

Hi,

If the tax payers are OK with the expenditure, I am certainly in favor of the school -- any school -- giving whatever advantage to the students that it can.

There are three issues here. The first is one of equity. I guess that it is a matter of how big a group you feel loyalty to, that you feel you belong to. If your 'kith and kin' only extends to your immediate neighborhood, then your attitude is understandable. If you embrace your country as a whole, then the fact that many inner city schools don't have basic supplies while some suburban schools give their students computers should bother you. And if you feel yourself to be a true member of humanity (I occasionally do) then the issue grows even bigger.

The second issue is one of boundaries. Where should the line be drawn? For instance, driving an automobile is a useful, indeed in some places an essential, skill. Should the school system be responsible for driver training? Should they supply instructors and vehicles? Should they give each student his or her own car? Even as a loan while they're learning to drive? What should the school system provide and what should the parents provide? And, from a social justice standpoint, doesn't it make sense that the school system should provide less and the parents more in the affluent areas? Most rich kids don't go to school hungry.

The third issue is whether giving kids technology is really to their advantage. A bit more on that below, but I'm pretty sure that teaching them how to think should take precedence over teaching them how to surf the net.

By contrast when I was in high school, students were not allowed to use calculators because not every student had one. Much better in my opinion to ensure every student has one. Students somewhere in the world, competing for the same jobs or college slots, will have a laptop/calculator.

During the time calculators were coming into use, I was a TA at GaTech and then WSU. One of the things I noticed was that it was almost impossible to get the calculator users to make estimates of what the answer should be. Mistakes like hitting + when they meant to hit X would be overlooked, and a final answer that was off by orders of magnitude was accepted. The new GIGO: garbage in, gospel out (thanks, Stan Kelly-Bootle). Whatever the holy machine says must be true. Those using their heads were much less likely to do things like that.

In general, I think it may be better to teach people how to use their heads, at least at first, than to give them crutches. Sure, while doing elementary school math, using a calculator makes it easy. But if the need ever comes up to do real mathematics, involving derivations, proofs, etc., the need to stop every few seconds to punch "2 X 2 =" will seriously hamper the logical flow.

Perhaps extensive exposure to technology will improve their training, but I doubt it will enhanced their education.

. . . everyone else taking the test was using a slide rule.

Humm, some kids had calculators but people were still using slide rules -- makes it about the early seventies? I was able to get my first calculator around '75 when I was in grad school. I remember lusting after the HP35 as an undergraduate -- I actually got to hold one, once:)

I passed the test and got my license.

Well, very belated congratulations. ;)

--Pete