Is this why we pay ourtaxes?

http://www.parentdish.co.uk/2011/07/15/school-gives-all-1-400-pupils-ipads-to-help-them-achieve-better/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cuk-ws-bb%7Cdl4%7Csec1_lnk2%7C70693
School gives all 1,400 pupils iPads to help them 'achieve better results'
By Liz Stansfield, Jul 15, 2011
Filed under: School & university
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PA
A Kent secondary school has become the first in England to give every one of its 1,400 pupils an iPad.

Longfield Academy in Dartford will hand out the expensive tablet to each pupil in September in a bid to help them 'achieve better results'.

The school is offering parents the option to buy the iPad outright for a whopping £576, or pay a monthly donation of £16 over three years.

The total order cost for the school iPads was a massive £806,400.

In a newsletter the school said they believe the tablet would 'revolutionise learning' by giving 'every student the chance to use an iPad to improve their learning wherever they are'.

The school says most parents support the scheme. Would you?
Unquote.
Me.......I'd sooner hang the cretin who thought of the idea.......... Why don't the teachers teach anymore? What do they get paid for?

MS

I don't agree at all - get the feeling they will be unable to write or recognise a pen. They will lose their ability to do mental arithmetic because they will use their iPad to calculate everything. Their brains will shrink!

Angelique wrote:MS

I don't agree at all - get the feeling they will be unable to write or recognise a pen. They will lose their ability to do mental arithmetic because they will use their iPad to calculate everything. Their brains will shrink!

It's already happening, Angelique. Ask a class to write out a couple of paragraphs and you get, 'Do we have to write all that?' They start using calculators in junior school.

Anyone who has ever supervised a class using computers, with awareness that you have to keep walking round the room if you don't have a monitor that lets you see what each is doing from your desk, knows what the majority will spend their time on if they can. Giving all the kids iPads will mean that they can send emails, play games and chat on their Facebook pages wherever they are.

Pens? Oh yea! I go to the Pound Shop regularly and buy large packs of cheap pencils and pens because if I want kids to write anything or draw anything I have to hand out the implements to so many and most of the time I don't get them back. Kids have more expensive mobile phones than I have, they have expensive music players, but nothing with them that could be useful in a lesson!

Angelique wrote:MS

I don't agree at all - get the feeling they will be unable to write or recognise a pen. They will lose their ability to do mental arithmetic because they will use their iPad to calculate everything. Their brains will shrink!

THAT THE REASON SUPPOSEDLY THAT SO MANY LEAVE SCHOOL UNABLE TO WRITE,READ AND DO MATHS,THEY ARE ALL DOING THIS COMPUTER/CALCUTATOR THING,ESSENTIALLY THEY WILL BE UNEMPLOYABLE AS EMPLOYERS EXPECT POTENTIAL EMPLOYEES TO HAVE THESE SKILLS OF THE 3RS.
SOMEONE WAS TELLING ME IT IS ALL COMPUTERS AND NO BASICS IN SCHOOLS THESE DAYS.

Badboy wrote:

Angelique wrote:MS

I don't agree at all - get the feeling they will be unable to write or recognise a pen. They will lose their ability to do mental arithmetic because they will use their iPad to calculate everything. Their brains will shrink!

THAT THE REASON SUPPOSEDLY THAT SO MANY LEAVE SCHOOL UNABLE TO WRITE,READ AND DO MATHS,THEY ARE ALL DOING THIS COMPUTER/CALCUTATOR THING,ESSENTIALLY THEY WILL BE UNEMPLOYABLE AS EMPLOYERS EXPECT POTENTIAL EMPLOYEES TO HAVE THESE SKILLS OF THE 3RS.
SOMEONE WAS TELLING ME IT IS ALL COMPUTERS AND NO BASICS IN SCHOOLS THESE DAYS.

I can't recall where it was, but I read recently that someone was suggesting a totally novel, radical, almost revolutionary idea for education: concentrate on the basics for the first two years! Well, whoda thunk such a thing!

AnnaEsse wrote:

Badboy wrote:

Angelique wrote:MS

I don't agree at all - get the feeling they will be unable to write or recognise a pen. They will lose their ability to do mental arithmetic because they will use their iPad to calculate everything. Their brains will shrink!

THAT THE REASON SUPPOSEDLY THAT SO MANY LEAVE SCHOOL UNABLE TO WRITE,READ AND DO MATHS,THEY ARE ALL DOING THIS COMPUTER/CALCUTATOR THING,ESSENTIALLY THEY WILL BE UNEMPLOYABLE AS EMPLOYERS EXPECT POTENTIAL EMPLOYEES TO HAVE THESE SKILLS OF THE 3RS.
SOMEONE WAS TELLING ME IT IS ALL COMPUTERS AND NO BASICS IN SCHOOLS THESE DAYS.

I can't recall where it was, but I read recently that someone was suggesting a totally novel, radical, almost revolutionary idea for education: concentrate on the basics for the first two years! Well, whoda thunk such a thing!

180! TO THE PERSON THAT THINKS WE NEED TO CONCENTRATE ON THE BASICS FIRST.

What a rosy view of youth these educators must have. The idea that if a child has an expensive piece of electronics they will spend their time looking up the Fibonacci sequence or downloading jane Eyre is so sweet.

HOwever it will prove one more distraction, teachers will hate it. Until textbooks are on electronic formats this makes no sense.

Schools here going the other way - spending cuts, teacher layoffs - in our School district they also want to remove lockers from the school & make kids carry their books to class. My son's backpack weighs about 50% of what he does, I don't even like him carrying it the three blocks to school never mind hunched over with 35 pounds of books on your back.

Where ipads could come in handy, very handy and cost saving measure would be to have the University curricula downloadable onto them rather than buying text books. My daughter is studying science and a single book can be $300. Wouldn't it be great to save money and save a whole lot of trees.

What about the parents who can't afford to pay £16 a month?

mara thon wrote:What about the parents who can't afford to pay £16 a month?

Exactly. Has it by-passed these bright sparks that a lot of families are struggling to make ends meet at the moment!

wjk wrote:

mara thon wrote:What about the parents who can't afford to pay £16 a month?

Exactly. Has it by-passed these bright sparks that a lot of families are struggling to make ends meet at the moment!

Doubtful, wjk there is only one opinion that counts with cretins like them, plus their heads are so far up the own backsides they are unable to hear...not that they would pay any heed if they could.

malena stool wrote:

wjk wrote:

mara thon wrote:What about the parents who can't afford to pay £16 a month?

Exactly. Has it by-passed these bright sparks that a lot of families are struggling to make ends meet at the moment!

Doubtful, wjk there is only one opinion that counts with cretins like them, plus their heads are so far up the own backsides they are unable to hear...not that they would pay any heed if they could.

IF THEY NEED HELP TO PULL THEIR HEADS OUT OF THEIR A***, THEY MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN A METHOD THAT COMES TO MIND.

wjk wrote:

mara thon wrote:What about the parents who can't afford to pay £16 a month?

Exactly. Has it by-passed these bright sparks that a lot of families are struggling to make ends meet at the moment!

I worked at a school in Birmingham where kids could have a laptop for a monthly payment. It was in a fairly deprived area and the project did well to separate the have from the have-nots.

HOW THIS FOR AN IDEA TO SAVE MONEY;DON'T SPEND ANY MONEY ON EDUCATION UNTIL YOU HAVE ASSESSED THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION ETC

Yes Badboy, I would go along with that. Also, I would insist on tests to rate the ability of Teachers to Teach.!!!!! When are we going to get a Secretary of State for Education to question why Britain is so far behind in the most basic standards. Get rid of the calculators, Computers etc until children learn
read,write, spell and learn their maths tables.

Panda wrote:Yes Badboy, I would go along with that. Also, I would insist on tests to rate the ability of Teachers to Teach.!!!!! When are we going to get a Secretary of State for Education to question why Britain is so far behind in the most basic standards. Get rid of the calculators, Computers etc until children learn
read,write, spell and learn their maths tables.

Getting rid of all that for at least the first few years would save a great deal of money. Most primary school classes now have expensive interactive white boards, which need expensive software and which are upgraded after 2/3 years for the newer model. Children are working every day from worksheets which are one-off printouts. Scrap that and give them only their exercise books and the teacher a blackboard and chalk or even a white board. Chuck out the highly expensive photocopy machines that require reams and reams of paper every week and pricey servicing. All this technology requires servicing and encourages teachers to just print out worksheets every day for every lesson. No wonder so much is being spent on education!

AnnaEsse, why have we got mediocre Ministers who don"t have an ounce of imagination, very little ability yet are given enormous responsibility
and huge budgets to waste. When Tony Blair swept into The House of Commons he immediately set about change. Reduce the hours for discussion
in the Commons, take away much of the responsibility of Civil Servants who are not uprooted like different Political Parties who win elections.