This article was basically about a test run of laptops given to kids for the uses of academics/technology that could increase their knowledge and give them something that could use at school and at home. Quickly the situation became that the students were using the technology way more for social interacting than anything related to actual academic work. Ichat was the popular choice that students were using and this caused a controversy between teachers, parents, and became a crazy situation pretty quickly. Basically parents all have different views on what their child should or shouldn't have access to and the internet etc. So there was argument between the parents on the usage of the computers. Additionally it was causing issues among teachers as well, because some didn't mind and some flat out refused to even allow them in their classroom, due to the interruption or lack of focus that it caused. Trying to make the problem better they created a blanket rule that no ichat was to be used, etc and then people had a fit over that too. So, as we all know you can't make everyone happy and with something such asa technology that might be an touchy subject with the parent shouldn't be placed in their homes without consent and permission from the parent. I understand that, because it really does make sense. Either way it was a cool experiment, and now they have a bunch of precautions they take to ensure a better process, but basically they just had a huge learning curve on the do's and don'ts of sending kids home with laptops.
QUESTION #1 Would I allow kids to even bring the laptops into my room?
In my opinion as good as the experiment was, I would have been more reluctant to let the students have that sort of technology as a distraction. I think it's hard enough to keep kids from being distracted with a million other things and then you basically place a toy in front of a child and then tell them to pay attention to math on the board. Good luck. Anyways my answer would probably be, not so much.
QUESTION #2 Do I think that social interaction through technology is something we need to be exposing to children in the first place? Well I think that social interaction is a huge skill to have to be a well rounded person and so yes I think they should know that they can interact through such programs such as Ichat, but I also think that kids these days are so stuck behind a computer and I don't think they can get away from social interaction through technology and that maybe school's shouldn't even really put an emphasis on teaching that. But I guess I would have to see how I feel when I step in the classroom. I have no idea. This is just my best guess at my answers with no experience to back it up.
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