Tag Archives: school

Has school become too hostile for boys?

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When I was a kid I remember building huge guns out of legos. Me and my friends would fake shoot each other with them – That was kindergarten. I remember in the third grade drawing pictures of war. Not real war but fake cartoon wars that me and my friends would draw and compare with one another – this actually got us into art and comic books, which led to reading (as I was not interested in books at that age). If I had done any of that today, I would be suspended or expelled. This article brings up a a great point – zero tolerance policies do not make sense in many cases. Boys play fake ‘war’ by nature. They need to burn that energy they have in class and on the playground.

Article

Also here is a good video that I have posted before but if you have not seen it I would highly recommend. It was done by Ali Carr-Chellman from PSU for a TED talk

Apple sells 2x as many iPads as iMacs to schools – Is this a good thing?

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Article: http://mashable.com/2012/07/24/apple-ipad-education-sales/

While I think it is great that schools are adopting new technology I have to wonder, did schools jump the gun here? I know that some schools are definitely using the iPad for some really cool things and I love to see innovation. However, I wonder, and this really only applies to schools who bought iPads to replace computers, do all of these schools have enough computers for each student already? I ask because you can purchase a PC for the same price as the iPad (there is no educational discount on iPads so they are $500 for schools). If a school does not have a computer for each student, I would question their purchase of iPads for each student (if that is what they did because just purchasing some iPads is not what I am talking about here in this post). Computers are significantly more powerful than iPads and can do much more. I only recommend that my students by a computer first and if they have more money, then get the iPad. Do not just get the iPad and expect it to replace their laptop. So while I like mobile/tablet technology and think it does have a place in education, I would question anyone who is using that technology to replace computers because it does not and I do know that some schools are replacing computers with iPads which I believe is not a good way to use this technology.