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A Kindergartener’s Best Computer Is About to Die

kickscondor.com

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Re: A Kindergartener’s Best Computer Is About to Die

#41

Post by throwawayjava »

lostgame wrote: post #28
kumarm wrote: post #10

[Chromebooks are the new fashion in elementary school. They are cheap; they are everywhere. And they are unusable by kids in kindergarten through, in some case, third grade.] iPad's are consumer devices and will not prepare our kids to be producers. I am surprised every time I see iPad's being used in schools. Chromebooks at least put kids in path of being producers rather than mere consumers of content.

I am getting tired of hearing that the iPad is 'not for producers.' I was way up there with you right up until I wrote the majority of my upcoming solo hip-hop record in Garageband with Audio Units on my iPad mini, with an AKAI MDP32 as my external MIDI device and an Apogee sound card for insane-quality audio. Then, due to the amazing workflow, I was able to take those tracks into Logic Pro and refine the hell of out…

> It's like you haven't even used it, or actually have no use case to use it for creation.

FWIW iPads and android tablets tend to not work for most software development tasks.The "iPads aren't for producers" mentality might be more of a "iPads aren't for Software producers (and some types of engineers)"

Re: A Kindergartener’s Best Computer Is About to Die

#42

Post by athenot »

kickscondor wrote: post #4
rossdavidh wrote: post #2

I'm not totally certain that K-2 spending less time in front of a screen while at school would be a bad thing. I'm sure they get plenty of touchscreen time at home.

I cover this a bit in my reply to Eli. https://www.kickscondor.com/2018/08/28/caution-chromebooks/ I agree that there should be a limit (and have practiced this in my classes) but there are some incredible uses of touchscreens that I can't ignore.

What kind of incredible uses? I'm genuinely curious as I've delayed introducing tablets and computers to my kids until they can do something creative with them.

Re: A Kindergartener’s Best Computer Is About to Die

#43

Post by abrowne »

paganel wrote: post #26
kumarm wrote: post #10

[Chromebooks are the new fashion in elementary school. They are cheap; they are everywhere. And they are unusable by kids in kindergarten through, in some case, third grade.] iPad's are consumer devices and will not prepare our kids to be producers. I am surprised every time I see iPad's being used in schools. Chromebooks at least put kids in path of being producers rather than mere consumers of content.

Honest question: why should kids in kidnergarten use computer-like devices? What are the benefits? Are there any benefits?

That was my first question too when I read the article.

Re: A Kindergartener’s Best Computer Is About to Die

#45

Post by derefr »

paganel wrote: post #26
kumarm wrote: post #10

[Chromebooks are the new fashion in elementary school. They are cheap; they are everywhere. And they are unusable by kids in kindergarten through, in some case, third grade.] iPad's are consumer devices and will not prepare our kids to be producers. I am surprised every time I see iPad's being used in schools. Chromebooks at least put kids in path of being producers rather than mere consumers of content.

Honest question: why should kids in kidnergarten use computer-like devices? What are the benefits? Are there any benefits?

This is a mindset that assumes kids are using computers to learn how to use computers.

Kids in kindergarten can actually use tablets, to learn other stuff. Any stuff. They can indulge their own interests, in a way that's nearly impossible in any other medium without assistance of someone older than them.

A tablet is the first cut of the way children use the Holodeck in Star Trek. You can't (usually) just ask for what you want, and get it (kids don't have a mental model of computers that works well enough to cope with how bad computers still are at conversation)—but you sure can point at what you want, and get it.

Re: A Kindergartener’s Best Computer Is About to Die

#46

Post by briandear »

compostable wrote: post #27
briandear wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chromebooke are more consumer than iPads. Can you run iMovie on a Chromebook? GarageBand or similar? How about all of the adobe design software for iPad? Or Concepts for drawing? How about Pages, Numbers Keynote? (Sure there are Google equivalents, but the argument is that iPad is for consumption and not creation.) It’s 2013 thinking to suggest iPads are for content consumption and it’s ridiculous to assert that a Ch…

A Chromebook has a great advantage for creation when used for things like Google Docs. Many kids become prolific writers, especially since they are teaching typing in 3rd grade. It's amazing to see your kid bang out a story for fun .

An iPad has both Google Docs and Pages.

Personally, I have privacy issues with Google as well. With Apple, I don’t have a fear that their 3d grade story will end up used to target them for advertising later. I don’t feel comfortable having my kids’ academic life stored on Google servers.

Re: A Kindergartener’s Best Computer Is About to Die

#47

Post by excalibur »

mastazi wrote: post #8

Since OP seems to be keeping an eye on this thread, I'll ask here: have you considered using other tablets (Samsung etc.)? In case you did, and it didn't work as well as the iPad: what makes the iPad the ideal device in kindergarten? Construction quality? Software/Apps?

This. OP seems to be wearing some common Apple fanboy blinders which hide the existence of all tablets not named iPad.

Re: A Kindergartener’s Best Computer Is About to Die

#48

Post by throwawayjava »

paganel wrote: post #26
kumarm wrote: post #10

[Chromebooks are the new fashion in elementary school. They are cheap; they are everywhere. And they are unusable by kids in kindergarten through, in some case, third grade.] iPad's are consumer devices and will not prepare our kids to be producers. I am surprised every time I see iPad's being used in schools. Chromebooks at least put kids in path of being producers rather than mere consumers of content.

Honest question: why should kids in kidnergarten use computer-like devices? What are the benefits? Are there any benefits?

1. Skill Building. I.e., the same reason we start teaching them to write letters in kindergarten even though they won't have a practical need for writing until late in elementary school. So that there's a foundation to build on later.

2. Feedback. E.g., there are some good fractions apps that help students understand what it means to "divide" a set of things into a set of groups of things. you can do that on pencil/paper or with other props, but there's no tight feedback loop.

It's unclear whether (2) is strictly a good thing; learning how to validate your own results is also an important skill...

Re: A Kindergartener’s Best Computer Is About to Die

#49

Post by spjt »

briandear wrote: post #20
kumarm wrote: post #10

[Chromebooks are the new fashion in elementary school. They are cheap; they are everywhere. And they are unusable by kids in kindergarten through, in some case, third grade.] iPad's are consumer devices and will not prepare our kids to be producers. I am surprised every time I see iPad's being used in schools. Chromebooks at least put kids in path of being producers rather than mere consumers of content.

Chromebooke are more consumer than iPads. Can you run iMovie on a Chromebook? GarageBand or similar? How about all of the adobe design software for iPad? Or Concepts for drawing? How about Pages, Numbers Keynote? (Sure there are Google equivalents, but the argument is that iPad is for consumption and not creation.) It’s 2013 thinking to suggest iPads are for content consumption and it’s ridiculous to assert that a Ch…

It will if/when Crostini becomes mainline. For now, I'd agree - the iPad has a browser, and that's all the Chromebook has.

Re: A Kindergartener’s Best Computer Is About to Die

#50

Post by rubinelli »

paganel wrote: post #26
kumarm wrote: post #10

[Chromebooks are the new fashion in elementary school. They are cheap; they are everywhere. And they are unusable by kids in kindergarten through, in some case, third grade.] iPad's are consumer devices and will not prepare our kids to be producers. I am surprised every time I see iPad's being used in schools. Chromebooks at least put kids in path of being producers rather than mere consumers of content.

Honest question: why should kids in kidnergarten use computer-like devices? What are the benefits? Are there any benefits?

A good example of a game that lets kindergartners play with concepts that even kids much older often struggle with is Dragonbox: https://dragonbox.com/

This kind of self-directed, exploratory learning can be very effective.

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