(25 Years Ago) The First School One-to-One Laptop Program - 3 views
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djplaner on 15 Jul 15A description of the 1st one-to-one laptop program in the world (at a Melbourne-based private school). The important aspect of this is the purpose behind this program and how that differs from what has happened since. Arguably, how computers and computing devices are being used in schools has radically decreased even though the capability of the technology has radically increased.
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Lorraine Lewis-Smith on 15 Jul 15I found this article really interesting after an experience in two year seven classes a few weeks ago. I was asked to help two grade 7 classes for the first 2 periods for three weeks. In that time, I wandered around quietly paying particular attention to what the students were actually doing on their laptops. I noticed on many occasions, several of the children were actually entertaining themselves by just "pottering" around on their laptop, even while the teacher was explicitly teaching. I was really curious to know how much the majority of students were actually learning. The class environment was relatively quiet compared to schooling in my day (in the '70's and '80's) but I had the thought, if laptop programs are NOT successful, we have a big problem that may not be confirmed for a decade or so. The other thing I found interesting is that the majority of the year 7's had done extremely poorly on their ICT exams.... interesting...