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Apple’s Devices Lose Luster in American Classrooms

nytimes.com

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Re: Apple’s Devices Lose Luster in American Classrooms

#261

Post by illumin8 »

jimbokun wrote: post #215
baldfat wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are possibly entering the age of thin clients for coding soon. With ssh and remote desktops being the best use of laptops and Chromebooks for coding. I do that now with a personal server that I remote into when coding at different locations. There is a HUGE divide between production and consumer devices that keeps increasing every year. People don't have multi-use devices. Many of my peers use their iPad for every…

But will the average school be able to afford and administer servers For every student to ssh into?

Why would they need to? https://c9.io

Re: Apple’s Devices Lose Luster in American Classrooms

#262

Post by orbitur »

decasteve wrote: post #19

I replaced my kids' iPads because of the awful hunched posture it precipitates (as shown in the 2nd picture in the article). Also, after an initial enthusiasm for iMovie and Swift Playgrounds wore off, they gravitated towards the more distracting apps and games, youtube and netflix, etc. Having them sit upright, with good posture, at a desktop computer puts them in a different frame of mind when it comes to what they…

> I replaced my kids' iPads because of the awful hunched posture it precipitates (as shown in the 2nd picture in the article)

This is funny to me, because I was a bookworm as a kid. I often had a stiff neck because I was free to sit/lay in awkward positions as much as I wanted, as long as I had a book and I wasn't playing my NES.

Re: Apple’s Devices Lose Luster in American Classrooms

#263

Post by pjmlp »

tkubacki wrote: post #122

Can't stop giggle. Android is Linux on mobile and ChromeOS is linux on desktop

That is wishful thinking.

Android is 90% Java frameworks. C and C++ applications are only allowed to use these libraries from the underlying OS.

https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/stable_apis.html

Trying to link to anything else will terminate the application, starting with Android 7.

https://developer.android.com/about/versions/nougat/android-...

ChromeOS is a browser based OS, that happens to have Linux underneath.

On Android Things, the NDK is even more constrained to the point that the device drivers API is mostly exposed via Java.

https://developer.android.com/things/sdk/index.html

In all cases, their fork of Linux has some POSIX API removed.

http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~vatlidak/resources/POSIXmagazine...

So, Google could tomorrow replace Linux by anything else and only OEMs writing drivers would notice.

Which is actually what they are doing with their Fuchsia project.

https://github.com/fuchsia-mirror

Re: Apple’s Devices Lose Luster in American Classrooms

#264

Post by thearn4 »

foldr wrote: post #140
exodust wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends what is being taught. Electric whiteboards, displays and projectors can provide obvious benefits and time-saving for things like updating values, neatness, illustration, demonstration. Ever noticed when a lecturer writes a sentence on the chalk board, the only sound in the room is the sound of chalk? That isn't efficient use of time.

It often is in practice, because students need time to think and digest the material.

This is very true in practice. I lecture as a part-time professor every so often, and this is one of many good reasons why you should never lecture via powerpoint. The act of writing down a thought as it's spoken is an important thing for many people.

I do use an electronic Wacom tablet when possible, so that I can at least give out pdfs of the lectures.

Re: Apple’s Devices Lose Luster in American Classrooms

#265

Post by throwaway91111 »

xiaoma wrote: post #123
smnscu wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> install a hex editor > I don't think that's possible on a Chromebook. First google result for "web hex editor": https://hexed.it/ Took me 10 seconds to open, including googling for it.

That relies on a Node.js back-end... don't think it's possible to install it onto a Chromebook. You'd have to have to go to the web page. If you have any experience with a large class of children, I'll bet you can guess how long most will be patient sitting in front of a web browser at school without thinking about loading another page.

This doesn't seem like a tech problem, then.

Re: Apple’s Devices Lose Luster in American Classrooms

#266

Post by ensignavenger »

GuiA wrote: post #4
secabeen wrote: post #2

Finally. It was always so hard to see schools spend millions on expensive Apple tech when there was equivalent equipment available for half the price that met their needs equivalently well. We really don't need to be spending $400-500 per tablet to outfit a classroom with 1 device for every 3 kids, when each kid really needs their own.

I question the underlying premise that " each kid needs their own". Every time there's a pilot program that gives every kid a laptop or tablet, it seems to be a complete failure after a few months. My aunt is a teacher in a public school district, and has seen a number of such programs come and fail over the decades.

I can think of several areas that having a computer for every child would help- but it requires training and adaptation by the teachers.

1) A large pool of free, open e-textbooks that teachers can customize and contribute to for the needs of their class. Textbook publishers are the scum of the earth and most of their textbooks used in education suck terribly.

2) Access to video explanations/lectures, etc.

3) Adaptive assignments and exams like Kahn Academy that allows students to work on solving problems that are at their level and progress at a different pace than the class as a whole.

4) Easier for students, parents, and teachers to track progress towards educational goals over time.

5) Learning about computers. (Keyboarding to programming...)

Might be some other ways to use computers in education that would pay real benefits, please comment :)

Re: Apple’s Devices Lose Luster in American Classrooms

#267

Post by joezydeco »

antfarm wrote: post #169
joezydeco wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my local school district, gDocs is the key for our switch away from iOS devices. We don't even need the chromebooks, Docs will run on older PCs as well. I don't believe any newer/cheaper hardware from Apple will help here.

Shouldn't computers in schools be used for more than just teaching students how to use office tools? Teaching only boring stuff has great potential to suck the fun out of computer use for them and does not encourage them to explore what it is they might want to do with a computer.

From my personal experience watching my own children use gDocs, they're extremely comfortable working with computers in general and the operation of the tool itself is nearly transparent.

They open a document and start typing. They open a slide presentation and start moving pictures and words around. Collaborative work is automatic and they kids don't even think about it. I can remember a time when simultaneous editing of a document was something only CS PhD students dreamed about in their theses. Now my 7 year-old is doing it. And she finds it kind of fun, actually.

It doesn't need to be an indoctrination into corporate life and I haven't seen one iota of that in the classroom. They're just tools like everything else in their school.

Is writing on a whiteboard training for the business world, or just an easier/cleaner way to write so the whole room can see it? How about using a video projector overlaid on the whiteboard? Sitting on an exercise ball to minimize fidgeting? Standing desks? RFID cards in the lunchroom? Maybe they're all just applications of technology that have positive uses with the kids.

Re: Apple’s Devices Lose Luster in American Classrooms

#268

Post by err4nt »

skookumchuck wrote: post #52

Tablets are great for media consumption. I don't understand how anyone can use them for creation, though. On my desk is the biggest screen I can afford, and a full size keyboard, and I use it all when doing work. As for helping kids learn, I just cannot see how a tablet will help in the classroom.

I'm productive on my iPad (and android tablets) but it's almost always in situations where I can't pull out even my Macbook.

When I find myself being creative on a tablet, it's because it's what I have available. I'd never sit at a desk with a computer and ignore it to use the tablet, but when I'm on an airplane, the subway, laying in bed, eating at a restaurant, etc - these are all situations where even if I have my laptop I can't readily whip it out and being hacking away - but a tablet is right there and can be used.

I do get quite a bit done on my tablet, but it's kind of 'reclaimed' productivity, not the premium way to spend creative time.

Re: Apple’s Devices Lose Luster in American Classrooms

#269

Post by nommm-nommm »

lowpro wrote: post #105

My HS rolled out iPads to all students my Sophmore year of HS 4 years ago. It was well known the average GPA dropped by a sizable amount (mine personally by nearly .5). There wasn't a good way for the school to lock down games, and it was really hard to self regulate. The technology side of Canvas worked pretty well once teachers knew how to use it, but the fact that so many games could be played just distracted the…

Snood.

When I was in high school Snood (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snood_(video_game)) was all the rage. Kids installed Snood on all the (Windows 98) lab computers and played through class. When the teacher came around kids would just minimize it.

Then Yahoo! Games was added as classroom activity among students.

Between days people would download songs on Kazaa in the background.

Teachers were totally clueless as to how to prevent this.

Teachers just winged it teaching as they went along, admitting openly to the students they didn't really know anything about what they were teaching. Our "lessons" were mostly randomly playing around with various applications without any goal or direction. Including "making a website." "Making a website" consisted of opening up Microsoft FrontPage to drag and drop a bunch of stuff onto the canvas. That's it. Never hosting it anywhere, just a FrontPage file. We were required to add certain items, such as at least one textbox and one button but they never did anything at all.

Everyone in the school district, teachers, administrators, was entirely unable to deal with computers in any sort of manner other than "pay someone to set them up and place a random teacher to sit in the lab with the kids." But they got to check off "has computer lab."

What a waste.

Teachers and administrators need to have some sort of plan before introducing new tech.

Re: Apple’s Devices Lose Luster in American Classrooms

#270

Post by nommm-nommm »

sperglord wrote: post #254
lowpro wrote: post #105

My HS rolled out iPads to all students my Sophmore year of HS 4 years ago. It was well known the average GPA dropped by a sizable amount (mine personally by nearly .5). There wasn't a good way for the school to lock down games, and it was really hard to self regulate. The technology side of Canvas worked pretty well once teachers knew how to use it, but the fact that so many games could be played just distracted the…

There are many iPad MDM solutions to that problem. Apple s App Store can be disabled and replaced with a custom one, for example.

Doesn't matter if its technically possible if teachers and administrators are clueless on how to do it.
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