[CS-FSLUG] NI: Novell Linux to be in Indiana Schools

[David Aikema]

On 8/17/05, Nathan T. <celerate at gmail.com> wrote:
> Can someone tell me exactly what the reasoning behind giving every kid
> a computer is these days.

I think that a fair number of people tend to have in their minds that
a computer will necessarily improve the quality of education, rather
than seeing it as simply a tool.

My expectation is that as part of the move to these laptops, the
schools will likely also be utilizing some electronic versions of
textbooks - and likely also some more interactive activities (perhaps
even testing)

Textbooks - what kids currently tend to be getting - also do cost a
substantial amount of money ($100 - $150 on average perhaps).  I think
that a computer would be a much larger target than a textbook though
due to the difference in percieved value and ease of resale.

> If parents are buying their kids a computer that's different, but when
> the government raises everyone's taxes so it can give every student an
> expensive iBook or IBM/Toshiba laptop you have to ask yourself what is
> going on here, and what was wrong with the old system of having
> computers in the school library and labs. Rather than loan out

I guess that here the old argument of how the rich and the poor should
be differentiated (if at all) within the educational system.  The
university that I go to have computing labs for those taking Computing
Science courses which are open 24/7, and additional labs open most
days from 8am - 11:45 pm, but when I was in high school most of those
labs would be shut down shortly after the school day ended (5pm
probably being the latest that you could be around).  If you want to
have students working with electronic documents, the limited hours of
operation of a school computer lab might not work out (and if the
students live far from the school they may not be easily able to make
it to the labs when they are open).

> or over lunch worked for years, was a lot cheaper, and didn't mean
> that mugging a kid meant at least a $500 profit.

This might be a situation where some sort of DRM might come in handy,
if you could make the hardware with biometric sensors limiting access
to only the appropriate student (it wouldn't surprise me if this would
eventually be hacked - even if integrated into the hardware - but it
should be at least a deterrent).

David