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| Yes | 60% | 34 votes | Total: 57 votes | |
| No | 40% | 23 votes |
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Add to FavoritesLaptops, computers and other digital interface device will one day become standard in all schools; it is a neccessity; to grant children from a certain age access to the materials of the internet, and the speed and efficiency in which the digital classroom can provide. A laptop is not a teacher, it is a tool, capable of increasing the efficiency of studying, creating projects and assignments, as well as a medium for direct feedback and grading from a teacher.
Any reasonable person in our digital age can see that laptops and computers will be key to increasing nation-wide education levels for the future, and recognizes that every student must have one for equal opportunity.
That being said - The software, and the operating system should be AS LOCKED DOWN AND AS RESTRICED AND MANAGED AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE.
The reasons are three-fold.
1. Cost: If you allow the general student populace access to root functions, operating systems, software installs EVERY laptop will become bloated and infected with malware, spyware, games, and diminish the functionality of the system. This would require diligent maintenance of security systems and constant reformatting of systems; likely decreasing the lifespan of the system costing even more money.
A strictly controlled operating environment would allow the computer to ONLY function with the softwares neccesary for completing and handing in material relevant to each class (homework). In doing so allowing for consinsent performance across all student laptops; allowing the teacher to teach more productively.
As a final note - lawsuits could be incured against the education system for pirated software and media running on a students laptop.
2. Liability: In an example of a student who downloads pornography (for example) onto a more 'open' school laptop, then takes it home and is discovered by parents; the school becomes a partner in a potentially disastrous situation. Can the parents refuse the schools laptop if there home systems are more restricted to their children ? or they do not llow computers ? This puts the student at an disadvantage against his classmates.
In a completely restricted OS, and a firewall more difficult than China's, the functionality of the laptop would be reduced to EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, as it should be, it is not a student personal computer, it is a tool of the education system.
3. Constintency: By integrating software into teaching, it allows the teacher to directly reference that software in the material. Instead of assigning a "report on Moby Dick"; a teacher may assign a flowchart of character interaction (for example) to be created in a SPECIFIC piece of software: allowing for consistency in creation and grading. If you say this stifles creativity, I say that the student isn't thinking hard enough.
Specifically licenced or created software would create this conistency, while the software would generally be outdated compared to commercial grades, it is the functionality of the system to assign and create homework relevant to the course; allowing for consistency in English, science reporting, math formulas, note taking, scheduling and MOST importantly allowing schools to directly UPLOAD teaching materials and schedules.
Never again would a due date be missed when its flashing red and can't be deleted on a students computer... Again it is a tool for the school, not a general computer.
... And a dog can't eat a laptop.
In conclusion. LOCK THE SYSTEMS DOWN !
Learn more about this author, Daniel Sivan.
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No
More and more schools are being offered the opportunity to educate students using low-cost and sometimes even free lab top computers. Whether the equipment is donated or purchased relatively inexpensively, the question many parents and educators have is how much freedom of Internet usage should students have access to. Obviously it is important to take into consideration the age of the children involved, as this could be the determining factor when it comes to knowing whether they are mature enough to make wise choices.
There is an inherent problem with allowing students to use any device which connects to the Internet. The problem being that there is a lot of pornography as well as many disturbing images easily accessible by doing searches using Internet browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google as well as others. Naturally there is an dilemma on what images and materials that youngsters should be able to view. Parents will have differing opinions and so will teachers. Who's to say what is right and what isn't and what should be seen and what should be censored.
Remember this is not an issue that deals with a single family matter, it involves public opinion. If it were simply a matter of a family decision, then parents can monitor and filter what their children are allowed to view. Of course, parents have that right, and should exercise it diligently. On the other hand, it becomes a little more difficult when it involves multiple families as a variety of opinions, of what is obscene, will inevitably clash. This scenario is magnified exponentially as we look at the enormous size of the public education system. It is very hard to censor the Internet without loosing access to other information that is perfectly innocent and harmless, since a lot of filtering is done by using keywords. Sometimes if a pornographic term is used in a domain name then that site will be "blacklisted," however many perfectly safe and harmless educational pages can be blocked as well.
It is a controversial subject, the issue of what children should be allowed to view and what should restricted. The point is; if teachers are providing assignments in the classroom then they should have some say in what their students have access to and not just legislators and censorship boards. Teachers shouldn't be expected to police their students but we should have enough trust in their ability to know what they think is educational and what shouldn't be allowed in the classroom. Let's not forget to include parents in this question as they play a key role, in ways more than teachers do and they need to speak to their children about access to questionable content on the Internet.
Learn more about this author, Tom Karlin.
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