No more pencils, no more books
Jul. 12th, 2005 12:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captpackrathttp://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/12/school_no_books/
A high school in Tuscon is abandoning textbooks in favor of giving students notebook computers.
When I was in high school, we had Apple II's and Commodore 64's, and in my senior year, a lab full of 088's and 286's (and a single 386 which was so expensive it was kept under lock and key)
This is a nifty idea, but I'd hate to be in the IT department there. I wonder how many of the machines will be dropped/defaced/otherwise damaged. And how will they keep the students from looking at porn or other inappropriate material? Firewalls and blocking software aren't 100% effective. Sure, only $850 per laptop versus $600 for books, but how much extra are they going to spend on IT? A good rule of thumb is 1 IT person for every 25-50 users. That means they'll need nearly as many IT weasels as teachers!
A high school in Tuscon is abandoning textbooks in favor of giving students notebook computers.
When I was in high school, we had Apple II's and Commodore 64's, and in my senior year, a lab full of 088's and 286's (and a single 386 which was so expensive it was kept under lock and key)
This is a nifty idea, but I'd hate to be in the IT department there. I wonder how many of the machines will be dropped/defaced/otherwise damaged. And how will they keep the students from looking at porn or other inappropriate material? Firewalls and blocking software aren't 100% effective. Sure, only $850 per laptop versus $600 for books, but how much extra are they going to spend on IT? A good rule of thumb is 1 IT person for every 25-50 users. That means they'll need nearly as many IT weasels as teachers!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-07-12 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-12 09:10 pm (UTC)Vermont, Virginia, had laptop programs, I know Apple handled one.