LiterSide

If a goal in education is to teach the using technology student already have, then why the big push to put a laptop in all student hands. In many (and I would venture to guess most) homes students need to share computer time with other family members. Wouldn't it be more practical to encourage the use of computers in a similar shared way in the classroom. I know there are some students who have their own computer, but couldn't teaching be built around having one computer for ever 3-4 students in the classroom and having the lab for the necessary individual work.
Laptop computers have been expensive to maintain and have a shorter life than an equivalent desktop and thus very cost prohibitive. I am in a lifelong quest to find a computer for classroom use that can replace the textbook (many texts are available on CD or online). I want all the convenience of textbook. It has to be ready to go as fast as opening to the page. As easy to maintain as taping a rip, gluing a binding or even just skipping over the missing page, and it can be put away in a matter of seconds. It needs to last 7 or more year, with no need to upgrade. The ability to take it home isn't necessary, because there will be a small set available for checkout from the library. If anyone has this technology please post comment.
One thing that I have been looking at is a multiheaded linux machine. One computer up to 10 keyboard, mice, displays. Set up as a Kiosk type machine where it is secure but available for wordprocessing and internet searches as well as the countless other available open source titles.

One part of tech use that tends to bother me are the times that people misuse or overuse technology. A recent experience chaperoning a 4th grade field trip brought this to light for me. We took a coach bus, kids were enjoying the trip, pointing out things outside. Then, because the technology was there we put in a movie to watch. Now all are watching a movie on a 9 inch tv screen and missing a great "movie" going by outside. I can say this because my 4 children age 2-14 travel very well, but movies have no business in cars. We should be seeing what's around us all the time. Some people need to practice with this type of awareness.
So, keeping with the blog theme, watching a movie in a car (vehicle) while traveling is like taking a gameboy to a broadway show.

There was a person who wanted to have new tires installed on his truck. The old tires still worked but they caused issues unseen by the typical person on the street and could potentially cause a huge disaster that may or may not affect said person. It was true also that those tires and the truck had not caused trouble for a very long time (over 175 days). But on a rainy Friday night the new improved tires were installed. A few days pass and things are fine. While carrying on normal day to day task the truck was loaded with bricks. You see, the bricks were needed soon so the truck was loaded fairly heavily and headed toward home. Almost to his destination, the driver notices the new blacktop in the road causing bumps that the truck could handle without problem. All of a sudden, YIKES, a HUGE pot hole!! The driver swerved to avoid the pothole the road crew forgot to patch. Just as the driver regained control of the truck and load a thirty point buck came crashing through the passenger window causing the truck to land in the ditch toppling the slightly above average load of bricks. Fortunately, no one was hurt, even the deer managed to run off into the wilderness, leaving the poor driver to clean up the mess.
This setback, although devastating initially, did not deter the driver from trying to get home. He began picking up the bricks, most could be salvaged a few were crushed and would need to be replaced. The people passing by were concerned but were unable to help. The people waiting for the bricks felt they deserved extra time to complete the construction even though they had more than enough time to complete it but chose to wait until the last minute. The builders were busy during work hours, but some refused to do work while the foreman was planning future workdays. After reloading the truck the driver had trouble getting out of the ditch. You see, it was a very busy time on the road and no one really wanted to give him the time needed to get back on the road safely. He pushed on, and although was able to get going, lost a few brick on the way and damaged a universal joint on his truck. Later that evening, he repaired the u-joint, went back and cleaned up what he could and then headed.
Keep in mind the window is still broken and that will need to be repaired in the future. The broken window really was not caused by upgrading the tires on the truck. The truck is useable and it shouldn’t, by itself, cause another crash.

Since Policy is, in essence, the school law not agreeing with the AUP is like not agreeing with posted speedlimits. "Yes officer, but I don't agree with the limit and therefore don't believe I should follow it." Elected official put these policies in place and to change them, become one of the elected officials.

The network bandwidth and the internet is like a highway. The more lanes you have the more traffic you can push through at one time. The traffic is like the information you are sending or recieving. When there is road construction that limits the lanes, or something that add more traffic like a sporting event the overall time it takes to get through is affected. You don't always see the cause of a backup on the highway but it can often be predicted by the time of day or the day of the week. Also , but not exhausting the analogies, if only one car needs to get through, like to check the mail, it may not be necessary to construct a 5 lane highway. Although, with some of the big packages you may be getting, having more than one lane to get packages to your house might not hurt.