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Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas any more.

Oh, wait.

yeah missouri!!!

I love the idea that a school system would buy Apple; but I wonder about the "learning" this is supposed to engender.

I am not convinced laptops should be provided to students at public expense. Are there any objective (non-manufacturer or school board) studies that prove, or even suggest, individual computers increase a kid's learning ability or retention?

um, isn't it Kansas?...I'm confused. (I know Kansas City is in MO, but the article says KS...so who's right, Zamboni??)

Kansas City, Kansas is the west side of the river.

There's a Kansas City, Kansas and a Kansas City, Missouri. This article is about the one in Kansas, not Missouri.

I live in Michigan . Forget the iPods for every student that was proposed recently. I propose iPhones for every student...many more possibilities for learning and collaborations.

I thought so. Thanks folks.

There are smart people in the mid-west?

I used to live in Topeka...and there wasn't an intelligent soul to be found there. Just a bunch of republicans, hicks, and a combination of the two.

Jay,

Some recent (this week) dissenting views on computers in the classroom.

http://www.oreillynet.com/mac/blog/2007/04/leviathans_ipod.html?CMP=OTC-13IV03560550&ATT=Leviathan+s+iPod

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2007/tc20070410_846623.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily

These were what I could getto quickly; I'm sure there are more.

A bit old, but have you ever read Silicon Snake Oil, by Cliff Stoll, author of The Cuckoo's Egg, about his finding a Soviet financed hacker ring?

I take my last comment back...while I was there, there was one intelligent soul in Topeka. Sorry 'bout that.

@Jay,

Key learnings would be computer-savvyness, typing, understanding the computer ethos, hacking, subverting blocks, porn, computer capabilities, digital creativity, creating presentations, websites, using graphics, reading the news digitally, understanding searching and the wonders and limits of internet research, etc.

Tomorrow's best will need years of experience on these things to fully understand their (computer's) capacities, limits, benefits and risks.

Maybe they'll help someone learn history better, and maybe they won't, but what they're learn is computerness. And that is necessary.

From a socio-economic perspective it's not hard to image that 50% of the kids in these Kansas high schools have no computers at home, but from a building-the-future-workforce-of-America-and-the-world perspective it's very hard to believe.

The kids need computers like they need art class and music. The benefits might largely go under the radar, but nevertheless they will be huge.

(MW=bad WTF?)

MDN should fix these damnable wide links or ban the idiots who post them. I won't bother with any story I have to scroll back and forth to read, and many others won't either.

M@c

There are smart people in the mid-west?

I used to live in Detroit...and there wasn't an intelligent soul to be found there. Just a bunch of unemployed Democrats, welfare recipients, and a combination of the two.

Give it a rest, and quit embarrassing yourself

Big mistake. Nobody uses Macs in the real world.

How are these kids going to know how to import Microsoft's marvelous clip-art into PowerPoint, or make a sign in Microsoft Word to put on the company refrigerator which informs coworkers that it will be cleaned out every other Friday? How will they play the e-mailed .WMV attachment of a monkey peeing on himself?

How does a Mac prepare kids for the working world with Apple's toys?

Anecdotically speaking, my two girls (middle and elementary) have enjoyed their iMacs. They always complain when they come why the computers at school are not as easy to operate, and, slow to get going. Their school use pc's--dells, I believe.

I'm from the KC area originally and the Kansas City, KS that the article speaks of is a smaller community than the MO one, but it seems that the once blighted city has really come around! A few years ago the Mayor successfully accomplished the task of bringing one of the best NASCAR race tracks to the Midwest (KCK) and along with it a really gorgeous shopping area known as "The Legends" and now they seem to be getting serious about their education of their little ones! Go KC!

Obviously I'm late in responding. I appreciate the comments to my initial posting. One pro and one con. I guess that's the way it is. I absolutely agree kids should learn about and use computers, regardless of socioeconomic class. But, and it's a BIG but-I'm not sure the way to go is to give expensive laptops to kids to take home. Using them at school UNDER ADULT SUPERVISION causes me no problem. Giving expensive equipment to the average 9th grader, to take home if they're the same goofballs as my friends and I were at that age is only asking for trouble.

And I'll bet a large number of those without a computer at home aren't going to use them to "study" anyway. Music, iChat, porn, you name it, but used mostly for study? I'd still like to see some proof of that. Phones are used in classrooms now by students to call each other during tests to cheat. Why should a box at home be any less abused?

Porn? On the internet? How can you be sure?

Here we go again...let's see how this one gets shot down.

Shogun, I agree 110%. Well said.

People keep missing the point. They're too worried about whether a computer will make their kid a better math student, do better in social studies or some other class etc.

Kids already have "conventional" cources for this stuff in school. Students/workers/leaders/teachers of the future need to know COMPUTERS and all they encompass. If you don't have the years of exposure, you're way behind the curve. You must be a 'digital native' and it's a shame to be of the younger generation and grow up with the same handicaps of our older (digital immigrant) generation because of our being short sighted.

Even if a computer in their hands doesn't help them one bit in improving their traditional studies (which is VERY very unlikely), learning to use one intimately should be considered as important as the rest of their daily curriculum.

I am a teacher who has used computers every day of my life since 1981. I am an expert user of at least 50 applications from word processing to Photoshop, CAD-CAM, etc.

They can do a lot of things. They do work well for creating projects that cannot be done any other way, such as multi-media, and for things like writing, etc.

Interactive drills are great, but you must have the time to develop them yourself so that they fit what you are teaching your students. Usually what happens is that you end up buying a pre-packaged "interactive" program that is nothing more than a basic powerpoint with some Microsoft graphics popped in.

If your can develop your own stuff, but then create activities that that students just watch, as opposed to something that is truly interactive, you WILL see a DECREASE in learning. And that IS the kind of activities that you will see the majority of the time. They are just like the boring powerpoints that you see at business or education conferences. Why would you think it would be any different?

Developing one great Keynote or multi-media presentation that it truly interactive and does what I really want it to do is a 10-40 hour project, and you will use it for maybe one week because you have to move on to the next curriculum item for which you have to develop ANOTHER project. Hopefully you can use it the next time you pass through that part of the curriculum.

We will never see the be all, do all magic computer program that can do what a great teacher can do on the fly. You would have to duplicate a human! It really is that simple!

Entering grades and student information would be a disaster without computers, no doubt. I use it for student web search projects, and it can work well if I put the time in to create the direction where it goes. If I don't do that, it becomes a babysitting time-filling tool, and that is not education.

Use computers as necessary tools, but understand their limitations and do not try to replace humans, which really is what some people think can happen. They probably just haven't thought it through enough to understand what they are advocating.

And there is nothing in the world like a computer in the hands of an administrator or a college of education instructor who takes a concept that requires a 20 word explanation, and turns it into a 20 page document that requires a translator even if it is technically written using English words. If he had to type it, he would cut the verbiage to just what is important; 20 DAMN WORDS!

FINALLY; if a student , or any human being is supplied something that they do not pay for, they will have no sense of responsibility for it and will treat it like a piece of garbage.

If you have not seen it happen, you are not qualified to give an opinion about it, trust me. I can vouch for a situation where 3000 iBooks were given out, and within a month, nearly 1000 of them could not be accounted for and never were.

That is not the fault of the computer, but someone had to pay for them. You can create all kinds of "rules" about how to manage that problem, but if there is no sense of personal responsibility, those "rules" will mean ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!