Reading, writing and ‘rithmetic in the tech age

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/08/2012 (4776 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Parents and students are divided about whether the use of a laptop will mean a better education. On Wednesday, the first wave of parents started to pick up school supplies, minus any tech gadgets, for now.

DODGING A BULLET, PERHAPS

ERIN Ward, 16, missed needing a laptop by the skin of her teeth. She’s going into Grade 12 at Dakota Collegiate and has seen the positive and negative sides of using laptops from her friends in younger grades.

“We had a huge debate about it in class,” she said, shopping for supplies with her mom and younger brother. “I didn’t like it because of how dangerous it is with cyberbullying and keeping it safe.”

Even though the school blocks websites such as Facebook, Erin said students can still go on social-media sites such as Twitter, where cyberbullying can happen.

Her mother, Tracey Avery, on the other hand, thinks having a laptop is a great idea as a teacher. “I think this is the way schools are going to have to go,” she said. “I see it as a being a huge education tool for schools.”

AHEAD OF THE CURVE

Emma Lampert, 14, is proud to say she already owns her own laptop, which she paid for by herself.

It will help ease the strain of not having enough school computers, notes the Grade 10 student at Landmark Collegiate.

“Normally we have all these problems with getting computers,” Lampert said.

However, she thinks if students buy their own computers, it might create a divide, where classmates might treat a student who has a cheap PC differently than a student who has a MacBook Pro.

 

LAPTOPS DOWN THE ROAD

Lori Willson scans the racks of pens and highlighters with her two children who are going into grades 4 and 5.

“As a parent, a laptop is a huge expense that some will not be able to afford,” she said. “The schools would have to prove why a laptop is better than pen and paper.”

Her children, who go to École Julie-Riel, are still years away from having to possibly pick up a laptop, but she thinks having them as a classroom essential would mean a huge shift in teaching.

“It takes away from the art of note-taking,” she said. “It would put everything in a whole new direction.”

— Jenny Ford