Tablet computers are working out pretty well in city schools. #
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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As a student at CHS, I can assure you that these tablets are not an apparent success. They have caused numerous problems, drastically reduced instructional time, and have been a distraction since the day they were released.
“Learning to do a google search” my ass.
The article doesn’t say much about how the tablets are working out at CHS. My daughter at CHS has complained that the tablets are a waste of time and that the help desk staff are rude to students. She also immediately figured out how to get onto facebook with her tablet, something parents were assured could not happen.
Yep, gotta mirror the above. Whatever “happy face” political stuff that is out there from the schools is very different from my daughters experience. She received hers, brought it home for a week and turned it right back in so she did not have to worry about it.
When her friends occasionally brought theirs over to do homework, they could never log onto our wireless, rendering them effectively useless. OUt of the her 4 best friends, none of them use the tablets at all.
Ah, there’s a spin doctor….. ahem, spin staff at hardly work here.
Now if you were to think like the bureaucracy…..
Yes, yes….. it would be a rousing success if….. THE STUDENTS HAD TO FOREGO TABLETS TO ACCOMPLISH THEIR WORK BY MANUAL MEANS!!!
Yeah, sheer genius there Sherlocks.
This goes blatantly beyond affecting damage control!
Below are some choice bits gleaned from the Daily Progress Coverage
“While working through hiccups and navigating a learning curve, they say the initiative, dubbed Blended Learning to Advance Student Thinking, is revolutionizing the way students learn.”
“To date, 35 tablets, fewer than 2 percent of the total issued, have required repair because of accidental damage. None has been lost or stolen, said Dean Jadlowski, director of technology for the school system.
Despite some challenges, teachers and student have embraced the technology, officials said.”
“By utilizing the tablets, Moodle and other technology, more teachers are embracing an initiative called the “flipped classroom,” a new buzzword in education, he [Daly] said.”
” ‘We’re leveling the playing field for students,’ he said. ‘While a lot of kids already had access to technology, there were a lot that didn’t.’
Those students are now learning about word processing, how to do a Google search, how to find credible sources of information and how to fix technical issues — all important skills in college and the workplace, Jones said.”
I wonder if Megan Davis drafted this, placed it in a drawer for a couple of months and has come around recently to ressurect her initial story?
Any idea if the Progress and C’ville Tomorrow could be in on promotional kick backs here? Just asking, not that it’s so.
It’s interesting hearing these stories about CHS students use of these. I’d suspected that some contrary stories might appear here.
The DP story just REEKED of regurgitated press release verbiage (and I have read FAR too many of those in my time). To the DP’s defense, having a story arrive already-written is a real blessing in these times when the reporting staff is usually one guy and a police scanner.
Still, it wouldn’t kill them to ask the tablet users (heard from above) what THEY thought.
https to get to facebook — it’s universally known. Also, they’ve become so slow as to be useless.
Per the expert in my house.
Holy crap! Patience, Babs Myer and myself just agreed on something… so you KNOW things are screwy on City Schools tablet land.
LOL Danpri.
I have a son at Buford and this morning I asked him how the tablets are working out there and he said, “The teachers don’t like to use them.”
I went back to the article linked above and noticed that the only teachers who are quoted in the article are “instructional technology resource” teachers. The other quotes come from a “technology coordinator,” a person in finance, and the school principal. I’d love to hear the opinion of someone who actually teaches an academic subject at Buford.
Kids can ALWAYS find a way to get to facebook, etc. When wireless was introduced at AHS, I heard about the work around within days from my child. Of course the teachers who are being driven crazy by these “initiatives” are never free to give accurate public comments-sigh.
I have 2 kids at CHS and one they were OK but had a few glitches. The other told me he liked it. I saw some less fortunate kids on the wrestling team using the tablets to video their matches. Not the intended use but it is nice to have when you don’t have your parents in the bleachers with video cameras.
“In a traditional classroom, you come in, get the lecture, the basic information from the teacher and then go home and work on problem sets,” Daly said. “This flips it around to where now, in advance, you watch a video or PowerPoint to get an overview of the topic. Then you come in and do the traditional homework part in class.”
This is nice in theory, but a couple of things come to mind:
1. Why do we have teachers, if the student is supposed to be watching the lesson at home in a video or powerpoint and then coming in and just doing problem sets? Does the teacher create the content the student looks at at home or someone else?
2. In my experience as a student, if the teacher told us merely to read or study something for homework, the only chance anyone would do it is if we thought there’d be a pop quiz on the material. Even then, a lot of people didn’t bother. The only way a teacher could get us to do homework is if we had to hand in something written the next day. College was a different story, but that was college.
I do agree with the basic principle of leveling the playing field for students who wouldn’t otherwise have computer access at home. Hopefully the technology glitches will eventually be mostly worked out.
According to my son, who is at CHS, the tablets are expensive doorstops. They take forever to boot up, the battery power is short, there are many dead spots on the screens, and they don’t work well in general. I predict that the schools will buy out of the lease early and get iPads.
Yesterday CHS kids took the World History I SOL on their tablets, while students not enrolled in that class stayed home for a two hour delay. According to my daughter who is a student there, (not taking that SOL) some sort of tablet malfunction caused nearly a two hour delay before students could start taking the test. So glad this cutting edge technology is such a stunning success.
Today my daughter will take the World History II SOL on her tablet. I wonder if the technical problems of yesterday will resurface.
This thread illustrates the problem with technology. I like Webster52’s comment about the wrestling team kids and I think it is great to have the less fortunate kids have access to some of the perks of technology. On the other hand, for middle/upper class parents the challenge is to get kids to be less distracted by technology and to focus on academics. And middle class kids usually already have access to technology which is better than what the schools will provide.
Patience, I don’t know how it is at CHS but there certainly have been serious IT issues in Albemarle schools when transitioning to new systems. Solutions??