NationStates Jolt Archive

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-laptop27nov27,0,117261.story?coll=la-story-footer&track=morenews

The school is requiring the families of students purchase these laptops

Failure of the family to purchase them may require students to transfer to schools or districts that do not have a laptop in the classroom.
Personally I think this is an idiotic thing for the school to do, do you really think that families that can not afford laptops can afford the time to take their kid to the next district to a school that does not use them

They should sue. That always seems to work.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-laptop27nov27,0,117261.story?coll=la-story-footer&track=morenews

The school is requiring the families of students purchase these laptops

Failure of the family to purchase them may require students to transfer to schools or districts that do not have a laptop in the classroom.
Personally I think this is an idiotic thing for the school to do, do you really think that families that can not afford laptops can afford the time to take their kid to the next district to a school that does not use them

The kids in my district get laptops given to them. They can't take it home, but it's theirs for the school year.

Holy shit, dude. My mother blew a gasket when I needed a $70.00 TI-83...

Holy shit, dude. My mother blew a gasket when I needed a $70.00 TI-83...
When I bought mine it cost £70 (about $110 at the time).

It's very confusing that 'public school' means the opposite in America from what it means in Britian.

Holy shit, dude. My mother blew a gasket when I needed a $70.00 TI-83...

*Sigh* I miss my trusty TI-83.

It's very confusing that 'public school' means the opposite in America from what it means in Britian.

In this singular case, the US version is the one that makes more sense. "Public" schools in Britain aren't very "public" at all.

I was under the impression that a lot of school districts were now making the gradual push towards laptops. My high school "suggested" we have them for higher-level classes back in the day (two or three years ago), but of course it wasn't mandatory.

I think they should just lend 'em out in the classroom, which was the solution they had for kids without laptops. And you wouldn't even have to buy one per student, just keep a stock of them in the library and teachers can check them out as needed.

Holy shit, dude. My mother blew a gasket when I needed a $70.00 TI-83...

Luxury. We had to make our own abacuses out of broken beads and bent coathangers.

Holy shit, dude. My mother blew a gasket when I needed a $70.00 TI-83...
you got one for $70?! Mine cost $99.00 :( I couldn't afford to get my customary "new pair of school jeans" that year. :mad:

I would tell the school that if they are going to require it then they better provide it for the kids who can't afford it.

When I bought mine it cost £70 (about $110 at the time).

It's very confusing that 'public school' means the opposite in America from what it means in Britian.

Depends on your school district. If they are adequately funded, to fulfill their wish list of a laptop in every child's hands, it fits your definition. If their wish list is not fulfilled, then it doesn't.

Our county schools used to pay for all field trips and tours - now the children pay for them if they wish to go. But everyone has their own laptop, free of charge. Matter of priorities as to where you want to spend the money.

In this singular case, the US version is the one that makes more sense. "Public" schools in Britain aren't very "public" at all.
It made sense at the time they started - public schools were open to anyone who could afford them (and hence public), unlike the other schools of the time that required you to be a noble or planning to become a priest. I guess the way to avoid confusion is to mix American and British terminology and call the two types 'state schools' and 'private schools', and then no-one will be confused about what 'public school' means. Of course, it's not going to happen.

Luxury. We had to make our own abacuses out of broken beads and bent coathangers.

privileged bastard! imagine, not only having coathangers, but having enough to make abacuses out of.

Holy shit, dude! I'm a computer studies student and we're not even required to have a laptop! It's totally optional. We are, however, required to have a removable harddrive.

In my high school, laptops were unheard of!

The idea of laptops in the classroom is a good thing, but not if families are required to pay for it. This business of it being an "enrichment" program is bull. If were an optional program, parents who didn't want to pay $1500 would not have to change their kid's school.

Holy shit, dude! I'm a computer studies student and we're not even required to have a laptop! It's totally optional. We are, however, required to have a removable harddrive.
I did Computer Science at Cambridge, and I didn't have my own computer, nor any kind of removable device - college computers were good enough for me.

you got one for $70?! Mine cost $99.00 :( I couldn't afford to get my customary "new pair of school jeans" that year. :mad:

I would tell the school that if they are going to require it then they better provide it for the kids who can't afford it.

This was years ago, mind you. Still have it, though. Only changed the batteries once...haven't used it much, lately, mostly just in chem. Funny, we don't use 'em in math class...

I did Computer Science at Cambridge, and I didn't have my own computer, nor any kind of removable device - college computers were good enough for me.

Stop being resourceful, it doesn't promote spending. When people are able to achieve without expensive consumer electronics, the terrorists win.

Why did I say that? I don't even know what that means...

privileged bastard! imagine, not only having coathangers, but having enough to make abacuses out of.
Coathangers?! In my day we didn't need coats - mammoth skins were good enough for us. And if we needed to count, we'd carve notches in a bone.

Coathangers?! In my day we didn't need coats - mammoth skins were good enough for us. And if we needed to count, we'd carve notches in a bone.

Uh-huh. What did you do? Sharpen the edge of your TI-83 to cut the notches with?

Uh-huh. What did you do? Sharpen the edge of your TI-83 to cut the notches with?
I carved my own slide rule out of mammoth ivory...

Coathangers?! In my day we didn't need coats - mammoth skins were good enough for us. And if we needed to count, we'd carve notches in a bone.

Bone, you had bone? In my day, we had to spit it on the wall of the cave!

At my university, we were required to buy $1500 laptops also. For some reason, they made us buy them through the school, so we could get all this extra software put on that only graphic design artists would ever use. My dad was looking through Dell's advertisement and found pretty much the same laptop for $800.

There's no reason any student (at the public school or my university, for that matter) would need a laptop that cost over $500. No reason at all; Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, that's all you need to get by.

Bone, you had bone? In my day, we had to spit it on the wall of the cave!

...of course when I was young the only numbers that had been invented were 1, 7 and 5.17 so we were just able to remember them.

...of course when I was young the only numbers that had been invented were 1, 7 and 5.17 so we were just able to remember them.
If 5.17 had been invented, wouldn't 5 have to have been invented as well?

Simonist']If 5.17 had been invented, wouldn't 5 have to have been invented as well?

You would have thought so, but those were heady turbulent times and due to the excitement of it all we never really had the time to stop and take stock of what we had achieved. It wasn't until much later that someone made that conceptual leap .

You would have thought so, but those were heady turbulent times and due to the excitement of it all we never really had the time to stop and take stock of what we had achieved. It wasn't until much later that someone made that conceptual leap .

You still had a concept of decimals. All we had were integers, and that was without negatives or zero.

whats wrong with pens and paper its all we had when i wet to school and it never did me any harm................the sate should pay for all required equipment but equipment should only be used where its use is justified rather than used just because it can be there fore pens and paper are fine unleess every kid can type as fast as they can write with a pen whilst also keeping up with what the hell is going on in class..............oops i seem to beso old that the subject seems to to changing before i can get my message out

You still had a concept of decimals. All we had were integers, and that was without negatives or zero.
Well, I consider myself lucky. We had decimals, too, but not too many - we had to make do with significant digits.

COMPUTERS!!!? Don't you know that Bill Gates is the anti christ? Computers need to be banned to protect our young from anti government information. Long live King Dumb Dumb

Oh, the joys of socialized education.

Well, I consider myself lucky. We had decimals, too, but not too many - we had to make do with significant digits.

You still thus had an approximation of pi. We had a very Christian 3.

Well, I consider myself lucky. We had decimals, too, but not too many - we had to make do with significant digits.
I used a slide rule in high school. I learned how to use logs to do math and trig tables for sine/cosine functions. I still have a slide rule in my desk drawer to inimidate the new grads. Now you have an idea how I think, I'll ask a question that I've never had answered satisfactorily.

What has changed in the body of knowledge, at the high school level, that requires a laptop to learn it?

I used a slide rule in high school. I learned how to use logs to do math and trig tables for sine/cosine functions. I still have a slide rule in my desk drawer to inimidate the new grads. Now you have an idea how I think, I'll ask a question that I've never had answered satisfactorily.

What has changed in the body of knowledge, at the high school level, that requires a laptop to learn it?
I still have my slide rule. I'm still faster with a slide rule than I am with a calculator.

Oddly, I'm more accurate, too. I think it's because you get a sense of when you're really wrong with the slide rule - the calculator is not going to tell you when you mistyped something.

You still had a concept of decimals. All we had were integers, and that was without negatives or zero.

No, we didn't have the concept of decimals - once again it wasn't until later reflection that we noticed that 5.17 was somehow different in nature from 1 and 7. We had a decimal, but not the concept to identify it as such.

I still have my slide rule. I'm still faster with a slide rule than I am with a calculator.

Oddly, I'm more accurate, too. I think it's because you get a sense of when you're really wrong with the slide rule - the calculator is not going to tell you when you mistyped something.
The precision on a calculator outdoes the precison on most measuring devices, as well. I've never needed 12 significant digits and my HP-48 will give me even more. Three is a good number for significant digits.

i have always wanted to learn how to use a slide rule.... i dont know anyone that knows how to use one....
about the whole lap top thing, its crazy there is no reason that the school should require students to have one.

whats wrong with pens and paper its all we had when i wet to school and it never did me any harm................

Q: What does a constipated maths teacher do?

A: He works it out with a pencil.

whats wrong with pens and paper its all we had when i wet to school and it never did me any harm................the sate should pay for all required equipment but equipment should only be used where its use is justified rather than used just because it can be there fore pens and paper are fine unleess every kid can type as fast as they can write with a pen whilst also keeping up with what the hell is going on in class..............oops i seem to beso old that the subject seems to to changing before i can get my message out

I don't want to be mean here, but the way in which you expressed your views is possibly an argument for teaching young children how to actually use the keyboard.

No, we didn't have the concept of decimals - once again it wasn't until later reflection that we noticed that 5.17 was somehow different in nature from 1 and 7. We had a decimal, but not the concept to identify it as such.

That doesn't make any sense. Did you lack sense, too?

That doesn't make any sense. Did you lack sense, too?

No, not at all - people were, for example, unkowingly using prime numbers for thousands of years before the concept of a prime number came about.

No, not at all - people were, for example, unkowingly using prime numbers for thousands of years before the concept of a prime number came about.

They knew that they weren't divisible by any other number than themselves or one. They may have lacked a name for it, but they understood what it meant.

They knew that they weren't divisible by any other number than themselves or one. They may have lacked a name for it, but they understood what it meant.

Not necessarilly - if we look at a child learning to count for the first time they will encounter many prime numbers, but not initially realise that they are primes or recognise the qualities which would identify them as such. Mere use of a number does not entail either possessing a concept to identify it as a particular kind of number or a recognition of the qualities which it possesses.

Not necessarilly - if we look at a child learning to count for the first time they will encounter many prime numbers, but not initially realise that they are primes or recognise the qualities which would identify them as such. Mere use of a number does not entail either possessing a concept to identify it as a particular kind of number or a recognition of the qualities which it possesses.

But using a comma just like that requires that you invent a use for it. And apparently it is to use a decimal. I don't buy your bait and switch.

The-Republic']There's no reason any student (at the public school or my university, for that matter) would need a laptop that cost over $500. No reason at all; Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, that's all you need to get by.

Some of the exact sciences require other stuff. Mathematica/maple/matlab, programming and modelling environments, LaTeX and so on. However, most of these things run quite happily under a free linux distro of your choice - so still no reason to spend lots of cash.

I can imagine people studying something which uses a lot of modelling or graphic-intensive applications requiring better hardware. Then again, I do not see why they wouldn't use (clustered) workstations instead of laptops. A studioclassroom is easy to set up.

COMPUTERS!!!? Don't you know that Bill Gates is the anti christ? Computers need to be banned to protect our young from anti government information. Long live King Dumb Dumb
Um......why exactly are you on a computer, if you view them as such dangerous instruments?

Oh, oh, wait, I think I get it.....s'okay to ban other folks from it in the name of brigingin down "The Man", but as soon as it interferes with your playtime, no thank you sir, you want to keep your computer.

Some of the exact sciences require other stuff. Mathematica/maple/matlab, programming and modelling environments, LaTeX and so on. However, most of these things run quite happily under a free linux distro of your choice - so still no reason to spend lots of cash.

I can imagine people studying something which uses a lot of modelling or graphic-intensive applications requiring better hardware. Then again, I do not see why they wouldn't use (clustered) workstations instead of laptops. A studioclassroom is easy to set up.
Agreed hell our CNA club did a clustered C envyron compiling cluster (just distcc)

Its not hard for a school to do

But I managed to get a masters in Networking and Information security without being REQUIRED to own a computer

(having them did help though)

The-Republic']There's no reason any student (at the public school or my university, for that matter) would need a laptop that cost over $500. No reason at all; Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, that's all you need to get by.
If you want to go cheap why use expensive Microsoft products? OpenOffice is free and loads MS file formats.

You still had a concept of decimals. All we had were integers, and that was without negatives or zero.
All we had was 'one'. If you had another 'one' you just ended up with 'one and one'. When our grandkids started talking about 'hundreds, tens and units' we though it some strange code.

Bone, you had bone? In my day, we had to spit it on the wall of the cave!
My dad would've slapped me silly if he had seen me wasting spit in such an extravagant way. "Do you think water grows on trees?" he'd say.