[Year 12 IPM] Computer Lab usage

[Michael Walker]

>>> Laurie Savage<sav at pvgc.vic.edu.au> 09/05/06 12:07pm >>>
>>And now we have a generation of people who cannot do the simplest calculation in their head.

Laurie

>>>Mark Scott wrote:
> They said the same thing about calculators back in the early seventies.

Ah generalisations, you've got to love them... 8^)

I would argue that with the use of calculators, you don't need to do the simplest calculation in your head. However, it requires a different skill set to check that your calculator is giving you an accurate answer rather than no skill set at all, hence the higher emphasis on estimation that occurs in teaching maths now than when I was at school. Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis...

I would also argue that those kids I know of who have trouble performing the simplest calculation aren't all that flash on using the calculator either. I would suggest that a greater cause is lack of interest for whatever reason from boring teaching methods in previous years showing the kids how irrelevant maths is to lack of support at home for doing homework and school in general. Now there's a can of worms or three...

Although I don't think laptops are a cure for all ills, I suspect that under some circumstances they can be a useful tool in the hands of the right practitioner, and in others are a complete waste of time when the circumstances of the school and students are taken into account. To give some examples, I am sure that in some laptop schools, the laptops are an expensive pseudo notebook / electronic textbook whose primary advantage is larger capacity, neater handwriting (typing vs scribble) and better searchability. Obviously Mark's school is not one of them based on his response. That's not to say schools with poor use of laptops don't exist, and anecdotal evidence would suggest that they do. On the other hand, the same applies to schools who have changed their teaching to make good use of new teaching methods available from every student having the tool and having been taught a proficiency with it.

On the other hand, I would suspect that there would be scenarios where a $2000 laptop would be a poor use of family or school resources for the perceived benefits compared to alternatives. Would a struggling western suburbs secondary school be able to justify making every student buy a laptop, even on finance? Would alternative approaches such as good use of Moodle with external access be more appropriate in terms of bang for buck?

I would suggest that neither black nor white are correct and that although there is a place for laptops in schools, it would be silly to try and suggest that it would be desirable for every school in the state and every student in the state to have a laptop and be in a laptop program. Or to suggest that every maths student in the state can't do simple calculations in their head...