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Re: [Phys-L] computer programming for kids



The places where I have seen iPads in the hands of students it works fine. The teacher has to be experienced with the iPad... you just can't hand it out and expect miracles. The kids often know more than the teachers and can easily get around any filters or restrictions. Not to disparage your "volunteer" teacher, but to volunteer to teach for a year is the same as if I were to volunteer to assist in the operating room of a good hospital. Why does everyone think they can just slip into a classroom and have everything work out well? That's why teaching is so disrespected. One does not become a good teacher overnight. In 42 years I am still learning and trying to keep up.

Off topic... this is why Teach For America is such a joke to many of us in the business for many years. They stay for two or three years. Some are very good, but the greater percentage of them leave for greener pastures (to make more money with less stress). I remember one year when the city where I used to teach lost 8 TFA science people the same year and they offered me any one of the positions to come out of retirement.


On Jun 26, 2013, at 6:39 PM, Ken Caviness wrote:

I have no personal experience with student use of iPads, but one of my students just returned from a "TaskForce" (volunteer) year teaching high school, and reports endless problems with her students' using iPads in her classes: probably some of it was connectivity issues, some inadequate/incorrect filtering of websites, but often her students couldn't open their books, she ended up printing chapters for at least some students frequently. Assigned student research projects (read websearches) were frustrating - on the first page of hits most sites blocked, so students wasted much time and became frustrated.

Without knowing all the ins and outs of the situation, I can still draw the moral: the school administration shouldn't just hand the iPads to the students. Technology without support is often no help at all.

KC