iPads are terrible for education according to Maine teacher survey - Polidicks

[QUOTE=FlashMarsh;50443457]All of this is a waste of money TBH. You just need good teachers, a whiteboard, and ideally one computer in each room.[/QUOTE] iPads are probably cheaper than the laptops provided to every high school student here.

Our school has about 50 chromebooks, and many of my classes now only use google classroom for our work. Much easier than writing chicken scratch, great ease of use, it's organized. This shit's great idk what yall are talking about with this whiteboard and shit

[QUOTE=Derek_SM;50444572]Our school has about 50 chromebooks, and many of my classes now only use google classroom for our work. Much easier than writing chicken scratch, great ease of use, it's organized. This shit's great idk what yall are talking about with this whiteboard and shit[/QUOTE] Exactly. Typing skills and computer literacy are hugely important too. Some people like to think the younger generation is all rather computer literate for basic tasks but that is FAR from the truth. I've seen many teens and people in their early 20's struggle to properly open a specific word document and peck at their keys.

As someone who had to use a laptop through his school years, its my opinion the best think for kids to use is pen and paper.

[QUOTE=Pascall;50443584]Some schools get discounts on bulk orders but even then, it's hard to justify the price. Our organization got our hands on 24 Amazon Kindle Fires which can do pretty much everything we would want an iPad to do. And the Fires were only $50 each.[/QUOTE] This is a big problem, we should not teach our students to depend on apple's software, because after they graduate they won't have discounts.

[QUOTE=Levelog;50445013]Exactly. Typing skills and computer literacy are hugely important too. Some people like to think the younger generation is all rather computer literate for basic tasks but that is FAR from the truth. I've seen many teens and people in their early 20's struggle to properly open a specific word document and peck at their keys.[/QUOTE] It varies. My nephew's 'girlfriend' is 13 and living in the middle of nowhere, and she did an iPhone 5s screen replacement just by watching some YouTube videos. Some people just aren't interested in the future.

[QUOTE=srobins;50443509]Seriously! It's so weird talking to someone and having them ask me technical questions because in the back of my head I'm just thinking of the best search query to Google the question with. It's shocking how inept people are in the information age despite being glued to their devices 24/7.[/QUOTE] That's kind of the point. If someone takes the time to ask you a question, they're not just looking for the answer, they want human interaction too. Social people work like that, considering they already spend the rest of their time on a phone/laptop.

[QUOTE=1/4 Life;50445454]It varies. My nephew's 'girlfriend' is 13 and living in the middle of nowhere, and she did an iPhone 5s screen replacement just by watching some YouTube videos. Some people just aren't interested in the future.[/QUOTE] I'm probably biased since I'm a CS major, but it definitely seems like most people my age and younger don't know how to do much else than open the web browser and word on a computer. That's just anecdotal evidence, though. I wonder if anyone has concocted a study to see how computer literate teens and young adults actually are.

[QUOTE=Dr. Evilcop;50446350]I'm probably biased since I'm a CS major, but it definitely seems like most people my age and younger don't know how to do much else than open the web browser and word on a computer. That's just anecdotal evidence, though. I wonder if anyone has concocted a study to see how computer literate teens and young adults actually are.[/QUOTE] I've noticed this too. My little sister and her friends are avid smartphone and tablet users but struggle with basic computer skills like copying and pasting and drag and drop.

[QUOTE=Levelog;50445013]Exactly. Typing skills and computer literacy are hugely important too. Some people like to think the younger generation is all rather computer literate for basic tasks but that is FAR from the truth. I've seen many teens and people in their early 20's struggle to properly open a specific word document and peck at their keys.[/QUOTE] I also blame counter intuitive apple products. I have to work with some Arab students for this class and they both have Macs. Every single time we have to use Google docs, or make spreadsheets or other basic stuff their computers do something stupid. For example, when they open Google drive they don't go into the same menu I on a Windows computer do, even though we both are running chrome. Do schools still teach typing anymore? I remember it being a waste of my time because had been playing mmo's for like ages before then but some of the skills were useful

I think that these teachers aren't implementing it right either. Tools like Desmos for graphing functions can be really helpful for understanding it, but all you need for that is a projector hooked up to a computer, not 30 iPads.

As someone who went through the Maine school system I fucking hated the iPads. Writing papers and multitasking on them is the fucking worst. Not to mention all the idiots playing games on them since they didn't lock them. However having tech easily accessible was amazing for the poorer and special needs students. They were also decent for art and movie projects. I wish that we were given an option between laptops and iPads though.

The best use for iPads/Tablets/Laptops imo would be a substitute to study books. You'd save so much more money on a tablet with all the pages of a book than buying the books themselves, but you know they'll never do that because there's a market for it.

give these children Surfaces or anything x86 and windows tablets

[QUOTE=EddieLTU;50460431]give these children Surfaces or anything x86 and windows tablets[/QUOTE] I'd really rather not give them anything Windows based. [editline]5th June 2016[/editline] That creates a huge additional load on the IT department.

my HS had us use laptops for almost every class Great on the fly research and note taking tools.

[QUOTE=Snowmew;50443852]I'm seriously surprised that Chromebooks never caught on that much for education. Google Docs is kind of a pain for compatibility (despite it being godly for collaboration), but it's not as bad as trying to use Office on a fucking iPad. What's worse are all of these ass-rate schools trying to entice kids to enroll by offering them a free Macbook. I get at least one email a day from some unranked law school trying to convince me to apply so I can get a free Macbook Air.[/QUOTE] I'd say the reason for that is simple - windows laptops cost the same, chromeOS is terrible and IT departments are not comfortable with it.

[QUOTE=wraithcat;50461139]I'd say the reason for that is simple - windows laptops cost the same, chromeOS is terrible and IT departments are not comfortable with it.[/QUOTE] ChromeOS is really all a primary school student [I]needs[/I]. Plus they have been picking up steam in the education department to the point that Apple was shittalking them a while back.

[QUOTE=wraithcat;50461139]I'd say the reason for that is simple - windows laptops cost the same, chromeOS is terrible and IT departments are not comfortable with it.[/QUOTE] ChromeOS is actually really good. I have had my chromebook for a few years now and I love it. Does everything I need it too, and I can run Linux on it to.

seems kinda weird they got them ipads instead of cheaper laptops

ok the thing about maine is that everyone is poor and dumb here so when we go through school like 75% of the class doesn't own a computer and def couldn't figure out anything more complex than apple software and no one wanted ipads from the get go but the state was still like "hey lets give you this thing lol" and i'm very thankful my school didn't get stuck with that shit