Computers in Schools
It’s a fair argument that schools can no longer afford books because of the price of computers. It isn’t just the cost of the hardware but often each piece of software installed on each computer needs licensing. The cost is astronomical. Oh, and a couple of years down the line it’s all out of date.
I
do appreciate that updating to the latest hardware is just spending for the
sake of it. The ancient 1.8ghz Pentium with its 1gig of ram and equally ancient
8x agp graphics card will do everything a modern computer will do (games
aside); in fact it would probably do more, school computers tend to use onboard
graphic chips which are not a lot of use (the tips are full of these old
computers, often from schools). Then there are operating systems such as
‘Linux’, which is free and a range of free software such as ‘Open Office’. My
experience is that schools like the best and politicians promote this. I think
the main problem with government and computers is that they promote something
they know little about; most of them don’t know where the on/off switch is on
their ‘laptop’. Being helpful, as I try to be, I will tell them. It’s on the
train where you left it.
The
main use children have for computers is gaming (not gambling) and porn sites,
I’m not sure in which order. Seriously, when kids log on do we really think
they are looking for ‘Arable Farming in Australia’ or ‘Knitting for Beginners’?
If you want kids to gather information online then you require specific
information sites and computers locked to these sites, the idea that you can
filter the bad sites out of the internet is silly and not worth discussing.
Actually, it’s interesting that a ‘virtual world’ site like ‘Second Life’ goes
to the trouble of creating a ‘virtual world’ for teenagers to try and keep the
kids away from the adults. Ninety nine percent of adults don’t want to go
anywhere near kids but kids like to be in the adult world and with open access
you can’t stop them sneaking in.
One
of the reasons for computers in schools is to learn kids about computers. I
must confess I have never met a child who has a clue how they work. As for the
applications; the problem is you learn on one package then leave school and get
a job with a different package with nothing in common with the one you have
learned on. Actually we have gone over the hill with many software packages,
instead of getting better they are getting bigger, more complicated and slower.
Probably
my biggest beef with computers in schools are those schools which have wireless
connections. The radiation levels in these classrooms make mobile phone microwave
transmitters look tame. The problem with radiation as with many industrial
hazards (unions estimates up to 24,000 deaths a year), you don’t see the consequences
for decades.
For
anyone who believes microwaves are harmless try camping on a radar dish. O.K
radar is higher frequency and more intense but that’s how you test dangerous
products.
TODAY’S
CHILDREN DO NOT NEED PORRIDGE IN THEIR TUMMY’S TO GIVE THEM A WARM GLOW.