from the reflecting-public-accessibility? dept.
President Barack Obama says the United States needs to bring its schools into the 21st century when it comes to technology.
Obama says less than 40 percent of public schools have high-speed Internet in their classrooms. He says that's not good for the country where the Internet was invented.
Obama commented Wednesday as he opened a White House conference with school superintendents and other educators from across the country who are helping their schools and school districts transition to digital learning.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/obama-us-bring-schools-21st-century-27025796
This has to be compared with a survey conducted in 2013 which showed that 30% of Americans do not have broadband access at home, although the majority of these are aged 50+ where the desire to have access diminishes as people get older. Furthermore, some of those from this group do have access to 3G and 4G LTE so are not entirely without access to modern communications.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Horse With Stripes on Thursday November 20 2014, @11:12PM
Furthermore, some of those from this group do have access to 3G and 4G LTE so are not entirely without access to modern communications.
I wouldn't consider 3G or 4G LTE as broadband. And let's not forget that they have low data caps and high overage penalties for anyone using 3G & 4G LTE in the US.
"Cell phone services counts as broadband!!" is simply bullshit.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Friday November 21 2014, @12:21AM
Bring US schools into the 21st century? And all it takes is big, fast networking? Surely your are joking!
BTW: It is admirable, that the President expresses the wish to skip the 20th century outright, and get current today.
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 5, Insightful) by frojack on Friday November 21 2014, @12:29AM
Actually, I live near a boat load of teachers, just down the street from three schools.
Most of them think the internet is a huge distraction in the classroom, detracting from nearly everr subject except current affairs.
Stuff may be more current on the net in some of the sciences, but realistically at the Middle or High school level that doesn't much matter because they are still learning the basics. Research time on the net is 60% instructing the kids on how to tell the difference between bogus science and real science, and new real science that debunks old real science, and how to make sense of that.
There is the hope these kids might learn some form of analysis just by going through that process, but I can't say its working all that well.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Friday November 21 2014, @12:33AM
Yes. I have to agree. Adding Wikipedia and Google access to every classroom seems like a good idea, for those who do not remember anything about their own time in a classroom. :-)
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday November 21 2014, @01:10AM
Up to an age, this is what one must expect. Specifically, up to around 10yo, a kid is psychologically dependent on stability - better to "feed" them approximations of the reality (but in a way that makes sense to them) than try to involve them into debates - their psyche will freak out.
The situation should change for teenages, for which launching (into) challenges comes natural. Nurturing their critical thinking (in a good direction) should also give them a hint about their attitude on know everything, parents are stupid [themetapicture.com].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by scruffybeard on Friday November 21 2014, @01:57PM
My daughter's math text book is now online. Her book requires online authentication, and no part of the content can be printed or downloaded for offline use. Her math class is also taught as a flipped classroom [wikipedia.org] where she watches online lectures for homework and does traditional homework in school. We are fortunate that we are able to give her her own laptop to work with at home, however she does not have internet access from placed like her dance studio, where she could be doing some homework on days where she has an hour between lessons. Theories behind the flipped classroom aside, I am not terribly happy with this setup as it is not really enhancing the educational process, just making it more expensive for parents and tax payers. As far as I am concerned the President take his requirement for Internet connected classrooms and put it someplace uncomfortable.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday November 21 2014, @06:42PM
Research time on the net is 60% instructing the kids on how to tell the difference between bogus science and real science, and new real science that debunks old real science, and how to make sense of that.
Good! Let's increase that to 80%.
This skill seems to be sorely lacking in our society.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday November 21 2014, @07:15AM
I wouldn't consider 3G or 4G LTE as broadband.
4G LTE can easily meet the definition of broadband.
http://www.cnet.com/news/4g-lte-showdown-how-fast-is-your-carrier/ [cnet.com]
Most people who are stuck on DSL would be better off on LTE, if the price were competitive.
As would most people on sprint.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 21 2014, @02:10PM
Lots of companies do have low data caps and high overage penalties, but not all. On my t-mobile plan (which is a bog-standard plan) I get 1 gigabyte a month at the highest possible speeds. After that, I still can use as much data as I want but it will be at 3g speeds. No overage fees, no hard data caps. Even so, people tend to insist on using AT&T or Verizon, where they get less for more money. Granted, those 2 companies do have better coverage, but if you're covered in the places you usually go, why would it matter?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @11:12PM
How the hell are American students supposed to get familiar with technology like Linux when it's infected with systemd, and so fucking broken these days that it won't even boot?
You can't learn Python or use R if your computer doesn't turn on because systemd decided not to work properly.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by tibman on Thursday November 20 2014, @11:43PM
Linux != systemd
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by meisterister on Friday November 21 2014, @12:22AM
You are right, but PotteringNix == BSD, and it's adoption numbers are rapidly outpacing those of Linux.
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
(Score: 2) by meisterister on Friday November 21 2014, @12:25AM
Sorry, someone please mod that comment out of existence. I meant to say:
PotteringNix == SystemD.
I had BSD on the brain!
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday November 21 2014, @03:14AM
lol. TBH, i've been considering trying out a BSD since everyone talks about it here. The spam is working!
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday November 21 2014, @02:24AM
> Python
> R
Toy languages fit for Windows and systemd users alike.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 21 2014, @02:47AM
Just out of curiosity, what would you consider to NOT be a "toy language"? C? C++? If you say C#, I will just point and laugh.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 21 2014, @03:36AM
Ethanol-fueled is well known in the Ruby world.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 22 2014, @11:24AM
Spoken like a true troglodyte.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by VLM on Thursday November 20 2014, @11:22PM
Obama says less than 40 percent of public schools have high-speed Internet in their classrooms.
so 60% are effective, not bad. My experience with my kids and ipads in the classroom is all it really does is increase pageviews for youtube and cause distraction.
There's a lot of really optimistic "could" and "what if" but reality on the ground is its mostly a waste of time and money.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Friday November 21 2014, @06:40AM
My experience with my kids and ipads in the classroom is all it really does is increase pageviews for youtube and cause distraction.
If you were to ask my parents back when I was 8 what I did with the computer they'd mutter something about wasting time playing games on it. Just this week I solved a few scripting challenges using approaches inspired by the things I learned way back then.
I'm not saying you're wrong, I don't know anything about teaching kids, rather I just wanted to explain where some of that optimism comes from. Afterall, the nice thing about sites like YouTube is that they end up asking it questions as opposed to just passively waiting for entertainment to fly past them on their TV.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 4, Interesting) by tynin on Thursday November 20 2014, @11:33PM
Business class 100Mbit connections are going for under ~$200 a month these days (YMMV). Sure you have some swing in cost from location to location, but even a school should be able to afford the one time cost of getting the last mile problem solved. It is just SUCH a drop in the bucket. For every 1 cruise missile we fire, it could pay for broadband for ~500 schools.
(Score: 2) by tynin on Thursday November 20 2014, @11:52PM
Further, they could do what they did in my high school, and recruit the kids who are already maintaining the school labs to build out their internal networks. Pull cable, install a router and a few switches, and you are looking at a very cheap upgrade and some real world experience for the after school computer club.
(Score: 2, Informative) by anubi on Friday November 21 2014, @01:48AM
That's what my old Jr. High and High School did in my day. I remember well being invited to fix the school's PA system and run the lights and sound systems.
I got a lot of experience right there - just seeing and becoming familiar with more industrialized equipment than you would find in a home.
To be completely honest, about the most technical things I did was resolder broken microphone cabling, run speaker wires, and occasionally replace the blown tube. I got as far as taking the covers off the stuff and saw how it was made, but I wasn't ready to do serious repair ( like finding/replacing a leaky capacitor or drifted resistor ) until I was in the final year of High School. It was there I saw my first magnetic amplifiers, AKA "saturable reactors", which were used for dimming stage lights. I was always amazed how that transformer controlled several kilowatts of incandescent lamps with nothing more than the plate current of a 6L6.
Alas that was 50 years ago.
I do not think one could get an education anywhere near what I got on the high school level these days... way too many liability concerns.
It seems OK to mangle a kid if its done in the name of sport, but if it happened in the lab, there would be no end of lawsuits.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Friday November 21 2014, @12:10AM
I think the same thing. I say the same thing. Except I think the main difference between him and I is that I despite knowing full well the impotency of what I'm doing write stuff to the people who he clearly does not express this stuff to.
Yes I know, I know. Obama doesn't have the final say on everything. Problem is, he does have the first say on things and yet never actually seems to express them. He's just as impotent as I am when he does this stuff. He makes offhand remarks about it. Deluded people cheer him. Day goes on with no changes. Even if he did actually care about this stuff in the tiniest way and wasn't just trying to push a hot button I bet it goes down like this:
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 21 2014, @03:06AM
But a grade school system that teaches kids to read, write, and do basic math including algebra and precalculus, will send young people to college who can achieve multiples of the grads of a "with it" system who spend their time in the classroom hooking up the latest gadgetry and playing "educational games".
And, not least, the kids need to learn to study in isolation and organize their time without getting distracted 10 times a minute.
Yes, some balance would be nice, but make sure the English and math gets taught and learned, OK?
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday November 21 2014, @06:26AM
Yes, I will call you "Old School". That's exactly how I learned to do things too. Mostly on my own. Guided by those who knew far more.
I did not do things through "teamwork". In my classroom, that was "cheating". One did their own work.
Trying to tell the teacher you were a "team player" doing teamwork was like trying to tell the RIAA lawyer you were "sharing".
I came out of that system with the belief I could do damned near anything as long as I could get the resources to do it.
The problem that has held me back more than anything else is "lack of social skills", which to me is management-speak for "you haven't figured out how to talk others into doing your work for you", aka "leadership". Then I find myself having to work for people who want results but seem to have little idea of the physics involved.
That situation does not bode well for remaining employed.
So, for personal edification and the knowledge you can do it - by yourself if you have to, I feel the Old School way is the way to go, but in today's situation, people who have developed the art of getting someone else to do something seem far more valued than those who simply do it. Actually doing anything seems to be done for personal reasons, such as music or art; its not something you do on the job. On the job, you simply order it from someone else.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Friday November 21 2014, @12:16PM
To translate this into reality, publishers want end-to-end DRM so they can rent digital books to schools. They need broadband and devices in the hands of each student. Textbooks are durable, so you buy them and they could last many years. Temporary rentals of digital books need to be paid for every year. Any time you see talk about technology and schools, remember the goal is for publishers like Pearson to get schools to rent temporary access to digital books.
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 1) by SecurityGuy on Friday November 21 2014, @02:24PM
There's a TON of stuff on the Internet that isn't needed in the classroom. At all. My kids are in the 40% that do have access to high speed Internet, and the stories I get are of people screwing around on games, and clueless administrators who block http://youtube.com, [ youtube.com, (Warning: Unicode in URL) ] but not https://youtube.com [youtube.com] and the like.
Can we PLEASE back up and figure out how to educate children best? Then, and ONLY then, if high speed internet is a part of the equation, should we even be talking about it. Even then, it should be incidental. We should be saying "Kids need access to (some particular service or technology)." and because that requires high speed internet, we need it. Stop chasing shiny objects just because they're shiny.
(Score: 2) by pnkwarhall on Friday November 21 2014, @07:11PM
if high speed internet is a part of the equation
Stop chasing shiny objects just because they're shiny.
But, but, but.... it's the Internet!!!! The end-all, be-all of humanity's evolution! Of course it's part of the equation!!
Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 22 2014, @11:29AM
Remember when we used 56k modems and were doing all right? The real problem isn't lack of speed but bloated content. Besides that no amount of shiny gadgets can replace a competent motivated teacher.