"Parents 'left hamstrung' by school after it tells them to buy their children iPads"

mrcow

Treevo wrote: »

The fault for that lies in past teaching methods. Handing a child a book and telling them all the answers are in there leads to them thinking that if it's in a book then it must be true.

We should be teaching children critical thinking skills alongside comprehension in Key Stage 2.

But before you get there.....you have to be encouraging a love of reading. A love of books, encouraging enquiring minds and using books to capture imagination. Teaching children that it doesn't need to be on a screen with moving pictures to be interesting or fun.

I have A level pupils who struggle with e.g. 8 page articles on speciation. They just find the sheer volume of information overwhelming. Google - they get it. It's short and simple. But their skills in assembling information and pulling out what is relevent just isn't as good as it should be for students who will be attending top universities next year.

I'm not even going to start on the levels of spelling/handwriting of some. But let me say, if some of them are going on to do medicine next year, I wouldn't want them to be my doctor. I push and correct, and moan and stress the importance of attention to detail, but many just do not get the importance when so much can be spelling and grammar checked these days.


IT has a place in the classroom. It can be fun, interactive, educational and accessable. But it can not and does not teach certain key skills that anyone who really wants to succeed academically needs.

[Deleted User]

Treevo wrote: »

Can't you find that information in one your textbooks?;)

It's ok. I know the answer. It's from me - the high rate taxpayer

mrcow

Treevo wrote: »

I have. I've also read the story where the head makes it crystal clear that no parent is expected to buy anything if they do not wish to/are unable to.

Did you bother to check the facts before commenting?;)

Parents are being asked to buy them

Or they are being offered a finance method.

Or your child can be the one who uses the school one (because your parents can't afford it). Great - no stigma there hey? where exactly do you think the money to buy the school ones comes from? The money tree in the back garden?

Zekko

It won't be long until people will be given computer implants at birth to think for them. One step closer to computers/robots take over the world!

Carl31

mrcow wrote: »

As opposed to having an exercise book that you can "whip out" of your bag and access your homework and make notes on in class?

cost =25p
lasts = 3-6 months
Plus - it's not as heavy for when you've got it in your bag.
Plus - you're less likely to be mugged on a bus for your maths book than you are an iPad.

If pupils need access to the internet for a particular lesson, I've yet to come across a school that doesn't have class sets of laptops that can be booked and used for just that occasion.

It's nuts to expect parents to invest so much on what is, when we get down to it, a completely unnecessary whim.

ignoring ipads for a minute and supposing an android tablet was used

a google nexus 7 can be picked up for 150 quid

that would, theoretically be every text and exercise book that child needed from year 7 to 11

homework could be emailed to their teacher. it would never be lost. all teaching material could be sent from the teacher to every pupil. no need to carry heavy books, reduced replacement cost to the school for materials. no stationery cost to the school. No letters to parents, communication of snow days could be sent immediately i forming every pupil that morning. teaching media could extend past books to video and audio. for the cost of 30 quid per school year

makes sense to me. Its change though, its a new era in teaching away from old methods, it was always put fear in people. Most professional teaching institutes are already using this method of interaction

megan01

Oh my god.. this was my high school! haha. Hunter.. she always was nuts.

mrcow

Carl31 wrote: »

makes sense to me. Its change though, its a new era in teaching away from old methods, it was always put fear in people. Most professional teaching institutes are already using this method of interaction

I have no issue with using technology to enhance learning. Or in comprehending the type of benefits that it can offer.

In our school, we're trying to scrap text books - they are online for pupils to access and it's great as far as I'm concerned.

I just don't like the idea of being heavily dependent on it. And I honestly can't see how kitting every pupil in my class out with an iPad would improve their learning experience or their performance. If anything, it would act as a distraction for the lower pupils which is the last thing I need.

pigpen

This has happened at a high school here too for the yr 11's. £280 'donation' from the parents and in June when they finish school they are given it as a gift providing their attendance is 85% or over.

kiss_me_now9

mrcow wrote: »

But before you get there.....you have to be encouraging a love of reading. A love of books, encouraging enquiring minds and using books to capture imagination. Teaching children that it doesn't need to be on a screen with moving pictures to be interesting or fun.

I have A level pupils who struggle with e.g. 8 page articles on speciation. They just find the sheer volume of information overwhelming. Google - they get it. It's short and simple. But their skills in assembling information and pulling out what is relevent just isn't as good as it should be for students who will be attending top universities next year.

I'm not even going to start on the levels of spelling/handwriting of some. But let me say, if some of them are going on to do medicine next year, I wouldn't want them to be my doctor. I push and correct, and moan and stress the importance of attention to detail, but many just do not get the importance when so much can be spelling and grammar checked these days.

IT has a place in the classroom. It can be fun, interactive, educational and accessable. But it can not and does not teach certain key skills that anyone who really wants to succeed academically needs.

I wholeheartedly agree with everything you have said in this thread.

If I want to do well in my university essays, I have to go to the library and read a book or two, as well as spend hours sifting through journals and articles to find 30 words that I can use in my work. It's a skill that was taught to me by my teachers and something that a lot of my classmates have struggled with and still, in our final year, do struggle with as they haven't been shown how to use it. Paraphrasing is a mystery to many first year students on my course and subsequently a lot of them get pulled up for plagiarism.

Childrens brains don't develop in a 'feed this information in, eventually get this information out' way. They need growth and enrichment and the little steps that make up the learning path that will set them up for life. An iPad has no way of telling whether the 6 year old child doing their times tables on them is using the correct method or just guessing and getting it right half the time; interaction with a teacher and correct teaching is the only way to do that.

KiKi

mrcow wrote: »

But before you get there.....you have to be encouraging a love of reading. A love of books, encouraging enquiring minds and using books to capture imagination. Teaching children that it doesn't need to be on a screen with moving pictures to be interesting or fun.

I have A level pupils who struggle with e.g. 8 page articles on speciation. They just find the sheer volume of information overwhelming. Google - they get it. It's short and simple. But their skills in assembling information and pulling out what is relevent just isn't as good as it should be for students who will be attending top universities next year.

I'm not even going to start on the levels of spelling/handwriting of some. But let me say, if some of them are going on to do medicine next year, I wouldn't want them to be my doctor. I push and correct, and moan and stress the importance of attention to detail, but many just do not get the importance when so much can be spelling and grammar checked these days.


IT has a place in the classroom. It can be fun, interactive, educational and accessable. But it can not and does not teach certain key skills that anyone who really wants to succeed academically needs.

And that's it in a nutshell.

Technology (whether iPads or anything else) has a place for learning, esp where students are going into such technology-dominated worlds.

But if you teach only using technology, you lose the ability to assimilate information, think in a critical manner, determine what information is relevant. You lose the human interaction. You lose the group learning, shared experiences that you get from learning by talking to others, visiting places. If you look at the images of the pediment marbles from the Parthenon in the British Museum online, they're just pictures - in person they are simply breathtaking.

And it is so wrong to believe that handwriting, SPAG and mathematics aren't important in the workplace - I frequently have to produce numbers there and then with a client. I have to be absolutely sure that I'm clear on my profit margins before doing that, and whipping out a calculator to check would be unthinkable in front of a client! I went to an excellent grammar school, and my Latin - yes, Latin! - education has been really important in language learning later on for work. I didn't use it at A-level or degree level very much, but now I'm working internationally it's helped hugely with language learning where I don't have the luxury or time to get out my laptop and google something.

The skills you assimilate from different learning methodologies are so important - if a school were to *only* use iPads then they are dangerously under-equipping the students for the workplace.

The idea that 'in a workplace everything is just done with technology' and requires nothing else is an absolute fallacy.

iPads are great. But not for everything.