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This “Improvement” is actually causing more harm to students’ true ablest. Having Pads In class is damaging In many aspects from the communication skills In children being disregarded, the high cost of the products, the lack of focus in students, and the extended hours of work for teachers. Even though technology is a rapidly growing interest in all generations having it in school is a distraction to learning. Giving a developing child an pad for classroom learning is harmful because it pulls away from activities that develop children’s social skills.
Children seek to learn new information; whether they ask the age old question why? ‘, or talk to anybody who will listen, children learn from the things around them. With advancing technology, Pads and phones, children are more Involved with technology rather than growing their life needed skills. “We’ve recovered six full school days’ through our pod and pad use… Elementary students have been using… Math APS to refresh their skills as they transition from recess to class” (Doric). This is a great example of how communication is being ignored during the school day.
Kids in the Generation X and Generation Y loved recess. It was a time f the day that one could play with all their friends and not have to focus or worry about school, just be a kid and run and play. Now that pads are allow;De in the school, students are giving up their time of interaction with other students to play on their technology gadget. According to “School Recess and Group Classroom Behavior” research article by Romania Barras, MD, unstructured play is important to a child’s social, emotional, and cognitive development. Unstructured play helps kids manage stress and become resilient. ” Without the freedom of unstructured play In schools hillier are losing opportunity to practice their social skills with other children. Many kids lack the safety of being able to walk around their own neighborhood or play in their own yards without an adult present, thus making recess in school a key time for children to develop essential life skills. “Students are getting used to posting online and responding to comments… His could potentially change the dynamic of the classroom,” explains Wayne Doric a scholastic writer. A lot of children are the classroom discussion to an online atmosphere then this will have an even greater effect on these students’ future. With a growing communication level in crisis, the local community needs to turn the focus to personal skills rather than Just technology skills. Imagine when this generation goes to get Jobs, how will they pass an interview with weak communication skills?
If they do manage to communicate well enough for a job, will they be able to communicate with customers on a day to day basis? Once at a retail store in the mall, a teenager that was home schooled, in no sports and involved in little community activities was asked to control the line on Black Friday. Being one f the busiest days of the shopping year this young lady had a Job that was relying strongly on her communication skill to help organize and keep the line moving.
This ten’s schooling was focused on technology and online activities, when the store got busy and customers started forming two lines she had no confidence in her communication skills to speak up and ask to form one line. This resulted in a cashier having to stop taking orders and come do her Job for her. One customer got so upset that she ended up throwing the merchandise she intended to purchase at the cashier and complained about how the line was not controlled or organized.
In this situation the lack of communication skill made the business suffer due to the fact that speaking to others was not taught or enforced in this ten’s schooling years. In the article “Educators Evaluate Learning Benefits of pad” by Ian Aquiline, an educational technology writer, he explains how pads are desirable in the classroom due to “a battery life of eight to 10 hours and a weight of Just over a pound, the pad offers more portability and less startup time during the full school day than laptops or notebooks… Even though the pad may be saving time it is not saving money. With cost of fifty million dollars for the first phase of the one billion dollar plan for high- tech learning tools, a school will be paying off first phase even after the devices are out of use. According to The Press-Enterprise, the 23,000 devices that were distributed to 40 schools across the district of Los Angles Unified School District will take the district over twenty-five years to payback. The pads purchased for this program cost on average $768 a piece.
That price tag includes a limited three-year warranty, a protective case, a stylus, a connection cable and of course the BIBB unit. Even though one would think this is the end, the list gets bigger and more expensive when one adds the software needed to do basic school work. Howard Blame, a writer for the LA Times explains that future tablets will drop in price, costing $200 to $400 a piece. However, the district will still need to purchase the accessories; case, stylus, connection cable, Apple care, Apple Pages, Keynote, Offices HAD and ‘Annotate to make the pad student ready.
When officials addressed the problem figuring out how to pay for the upcoming years of the project and new devices they came up with our scenario. Even though Los Angles Unified already doesn’t have enough bond money to fix up and maintain its school, the first funding idea brought forth was to use funds left over from construction projects. Bonds that Los Angles Unified School District obtains only covers about 25 percent of maintenance and repair over the years it is awarded for. The second and third scenarios are to ask taxpayers to vote that their taxes go to the use of buying pads for schools.
This is highly unlikely of a scenario because it is already upsetting to parents and voters for the first approval of liars per child each year between now and 2017 from the general school fund to have enough money for new devices by 2018 (Blame). Another reason why having pads in schools is not a respectable program is the focus that would now be lost to technology. Although students can now use APS to complete activities and use internet privileges to access blackboard for discussions, technology is still a major child development draw back.
The Ocean Charter School in Los Angles Unified believes in child development over skill development. “Ocean asks parents to keep students away from technology and media on school nights. It also avoided computers, even for school work, until sixth grade. ” (Blame). Yet this is one of the schools chosen for the $1 -billion effort to provide an pad to every student and teacher. This takes away from the direct philosophy of limited technology to help child development.
However, another reason kids are losing focus in school is due to the fact that kids are getting too smart for their own good. This is because kids are hacking into schools’ security systems and gaining access into forbidden websites like Faceable and Youth. With these news distractions it is taking away from learning in the classroom. Teachers already feel that they are not needed when kids are involved in APS and online learning and if this trend continues teachers do not see a point to have so much workforce.
They also fear that school districts will come to the same conclusion and start cutbacks. This is a good example of why teachers feel unappreciated in this technology movement. Another reason is because they have to now work harder to get paid the same. “Evaluators will need to use a desktop or laptop computer for part of the work, but the app itself will be able to cut back three hours – and loads of paperwork – from every teacher observation,” (Aquiline). This quote not only goes for teachers being evaluated but also lessons being taught in the classroom.
Students are required to use APS and blackboard for assignments, yet teachers have to spend extra time out of their day to design and compose these assignments online. Even though teachers are going above and beyond their duty by personalizing reading assignments with different students reading levels to help build and give one on one help and guidance. However, teachers now believe that they need to have a team -two or three teachers – who will Just sit down and go through this [online book with activities] and UT stuff on there that’s going to matter (Aquiline).
Another drawback about pads in schools is that Apple has no file structure and no saving place to save documents. This along with not being compatible with Adobe Flash Player sets students with pads a major disadvantage than students with school issued laptops. No Adobe Flash Player makes math lessons, and tools used in English, Science and History, are not able to be played on the pad device. This makes some homework programs and books impossible to use.
As well as Adobe Flash Player, Apple does not support Microsoft Office so it is not possible for students to type out says or compose Powering or even take notes on their nearly eight hundred dollar school equipment (Doric). This means that even when a student wants to write a paper they would need to go too real computer. This makes the pad in the classroom a waste of money because writing essays is a necessity in both high school our society, our workforce, and our children.
With technology being in the classroom is an atrocious decision because students’ skills of communication are being affected, it cost too much annually, the students lose focus in learning, and the teachers now spend more time on redesigning materials. When it comes to technology, even though it is a valid study tool, it is harming the future of America by reducing social development in children thus affecting our future America. As voters it is the responsibility of our actions to help this new age epidemic and get involved with the development of classroom activities.