Laptops at Barbers Hill

[BHKrystal06]

Beginning in August, 2004, all students at Barbers Hill Middle School will have the opportunity to work with wireless/laptop technology. The purpose of this initiative is to provide all students with a means of accessing educational materials both on-line and in-district on a daily basis. In addition, as the year progresses, plans are to phase out the use of textbooks and allow students to begin accessing textbooks both on-line and in a CD format.

In order to accomplish these objects, Barbers Hill I.S.D. has taken the following steps:

1. A wireless infrastructure has been installed at the middle school consisting of 42 Cisco Access Points, each utilizing the 802.11g protocol (54 mg)

2. A series of 42 Hewlett Packard 2300N laser printers have been installed throughout the building.

3. A series of 625 laptops have been purchased from Gateway. These laptops will be issued to each student.

I think this is a huge waste of money. What do you guys think?

[BlueBlood]

In the long run, I think it will save money. You could do away with text books. Better education base for a majority of students who will work in industry. No need for computer labs.

[BHKrystal06]

But they aren't going to get rid of the computer labs. And what are they gonna do with all the extra books they have? NOT get money back for them cause they're in too bad of shape.

[spiveyrat]

Sounds state-of-the-art/cutting edge to me. The initial expense will be steep. I would imagine CD's would be cheaper than the school district having to buy books. Besides, it would be teaching the kids much more than the subject at hand. They would have hands on experience using computer networks and software. I think it helps to make them more marketable for future careers and will give those kids big advantages over kids from other "20th century" schools.

[JasperDog94]

Time will tell, but what happens when your pc goes down, or some kid breaks one? (I know, it will probably never happen.:rolleyes: ) Laptops are a heck of a lot more expensive than textbooks, much less the upkeep of software and equipment.

[BHKrystal06]

Originally posted by JasperDog94
Time will tell, but what happens when your pc goes down, or some kid breaks one? (I know, it will probably never happen.:rolleyes: ) Laptops are a heck of a lot more expensive than textbooks, much less the upkeep of software and equipment.
They said that when one kid breaks one, they only have to pay $100 to cover it and get another. It's like they've got hundreds packed away in the bus barn or something.

[RBARKER]

Oh crap I can see my School taxes climbing as I type. I wonder if BH is going to have to have an "IT" Dept. to keep all of this stuff working? I heard a rumur about this but I thought it was going to be implemented at the High School it seems they would get more use out of it.

[BHKrystal06]

I know what you mean about taxes...my parents are cringing at the thought of all the computers...

[JasperDog94]

Surely they've done some research on this issue? I'd hate to think that they are spending all this money just because some people think it will be better. I'd have to see some pretty impressive numbers before I'd vote to drop that kind of money on an unproven system.

[Ulrich von Lichtenstein]

...and here I thought this post was going to be about a new strip club opening in Mont Belvieu....

j/k :D

[3afan2K3]

Forney is doing this to, but I think only at one campus and only the 5th or 6th graders get them.

[Sans Couth]

Originally posted by Ulrich von Lichtenstein
...and here I thought this post was going to be about a new strip club opening in Mont Belvieu....

j/k :D

Hey, you made a funny.:p

[HornetMom]

One of the middle schools in Bryan is doing the same thing. I am all for teaching the kids new technology, but.... These kids are graduating with out the slightest idea of how to do things like count back change, look up a word in the dictionary, semi simple math in their heads or on paper...
My daughter may know more about computers than I do, but without the gadgets (calculaters, cash registers etc) she doesn't have a clue.

I guess this is the way of the world.


http://www.bryanisd.org/announcement.asp?announcementID=110

[Old Tiger]

Laptops caused problems in Rockdale. All we did was download messengers and talk to our friends. We also downloaded music and other things. Playing games was very fun on them too :D

[JasperDog94]

Tiger, I'm assuming that you speak from personal experience?

[BHKrystal06]

Originally posted by Tiger WR
Laptops caused problems in Rockdale. All we did was download messengers and talk to our friends. We also downloaded music and other things. Playing games was very fun on them too :D
The school district has forbid the students to download messengers and download games....my cousin isn't too happy about that..:rolleyes:

[Ranger Mom]

Well I "forbid" my kids to download music (or the software that is capable of downloading music)....but I sure have a bunch of MP3's on my computer.

[Old Tiger]

Originally posted by JasperDog94
Tiger, I'm assuming that you speak from personal experience? yes :D

[crabman]

I don't think you should be using computers to that extent. There is still no substitute for reading with comprehension from a printed format. I would like to see each of these kids do their multiplication tables up to 15x15 in their heads as well as percentages, division, add and subtract fractions. Everyone has forgot how to think. Everytime I ask one of my employees something, the first thing they do is reach for their mouse. Too much dependency.

[sinton66]

Originally posted by Tiger WR
Laptops caused problems in Rockdale. All we did was download messengers and talk to our friends. We also downloaded music and other things. Playing games was very fun on them too :D

If this is on a school-based server system, they can restrict access to things they don't want you doing. There is some grant money floating about for school computer systems. Perhaps they've acquired some funds?