Alabama Schools to be First in US to Get XO Laptop

CountryGeek passed us a link to a story in the Birmingham News, saying that schools in the Alabama city will be the first US students to make use of the XO laptop. The piece touches on a bit of the project's history, and seems to indicate the Birmingham school district is ready to make a serious commitment to these devices. "Langford has asked the City Council to approve $7 million for the laptops and a scholarship program that would give Birmingham students with a C average or above a scholarship to college or tech school of their choice. The City Council has not yet approved the funding. The rugged, waterproof computers will be distributed to students on April 15, Langford said, and children will be allowed to take them home. If a computer is lost, the school system can disable it, rendering it useless, Langford said. Students will turn in their computers at the end of their eighth-grade year."

Alabama?

Alabama you say? That's entirely natural. After all they were supposed to be for the third world... ;-)

Re:Alabama?

Puh lease. Alabama is hands and arms above, oh say, it's next door neighbor, Mississippi and Florida. There is a *reason* Fark has the Florida Tag.

Seriously though, you wanna see some of the worst parts of the country, go to the Delta areas of MS and some counties in AL. Poverty, STDs, teen pregnancy, HS graduation/college acceptance rates, life expectancies are among the worst in the nation. Do you think it's right to just ignore these areas for any sort of advancement?

The former Gov. of Mississippi, William Winter, put it best when endorsing the need for higher education in MS- "We can either compete with the other 49 states for jobs or we can do nothing and compete with China and Mexico."

Re:Alabama?

Everything I've heard is that Fark was founded in Nicholasville, Ky, about twenty miles down the road from me, by a guy now living in Fayette county by the name of Drew Curtis. I'd be interested in seeing your sources.

Re:Alabama?

These laptops are more then capable to launch a space-shuttle (after all, they use computer from the 80's)

Re:Alabama?

That's pretty funny you should mention that. I'm in the business of (amongst others) hosted virtual machines and the smallest plan has 64 MB. People sometimes ask me, "What can I do with such a small amount of RAM?". When I basically answer "everything, but you might have to tweak some config files and heavy scripts", they're very surprised.

Re:Alabama?

To be statistically blunt:

• 4th in tooth loss [statemaster.com]
• 7th in obesity. [statemaster.com]
• 3rd in gonorrhea rate. [statemaster.com]
• 6th in infant death rate. [statemaster.com]
• 45th in Gross State Product [statemaster.com]
• Last in Library visits per capita [statemaster.com]
• 3rd to last in % students above "basic" in grade 4 writing [statemaster.com]
• 1st in Diabetes. [statemaster.com]
• 5th in lynchings per capita. [statemaster.com]
• 46th in Bachelor's degree percentage [statemaster.com]
  
• 9th in Percent below poverty level [statemaster.com]
• 42nd in Income per capita [statemaster.com]
• 28th in Economic growth [statemaster.com]

Etc. etc. I have no doubt there are plenty of smart, healthy, wealthy, open-minded folks there; however the statistics tend to suggest that overall AL (like much of the deep south) has a pretty unhealthy, uneducated and poor population.

-Ted

Lynchings?

Talk about a worn out stereotype. statemaster.com defines the lynching statistic cited as Number of total people killed by lynching from 1882 to 1968. Per capita figures expressed per 1 million population.

Hardly relevant or timely but thanks for promoting the racist stereotype.

Re:Would you rather they take a cue from Californi

You need to look at the rates there genius, not the overall number. Of course California is going to be higher than all the others, they have more people! In rape, gonorrhea, suicides, AIDS cases, syphilis, HIV deaths, and new AIDS cases California ranks middle-of-the-pack to near the top when you look at the per capita rates. Other than motor vehicle theft (California has by far the most vehicles per capita so no surprise there) I couldn't find the other stats so I don't know. But if you're honestly arguing that the deep south doesn't have a problem with health and education, you're crazy. And for the record I don't live in California, and in general I really dislike California.

Alabama, a thrid world country?

I don't recall OLPC allowing any of these things in the US, it was starting strictly in 3rd world countries wasn't it?

Re:Alabama, a thrid world country?

Why wouldn't they?
Maybe I'm confused, but from my understanding they need a lot of orders to fill mass-production needs, so why not? It's not like the school system is going to turn around and sell them on ebay for profit or something.

Re:Alabama, a thrid world country?

I don't recall OLPC allowing any of these things in the US, it was starting strictly in 3rd world countries wasn't it?

Developing countries have been the focus, but the project has never ruled out working with school authorities anywhere in the world. What they ruled out was mass retail sale in developed countries as an early focus.

OTOH, there is a break from the earlier articulations of the principles of the project here, and its not in the fact that its in a developed country, its in the "Students will turn in their computers at the end of their eighth-grade year" part.

C average

I thought a C meant that you were doing exactly the work that's expected of you (aka, Average). So now they're going to award scholarships for performing like you should? Crazy!

Re:C average

I think the point is to encourage all students to consider post-secondary education, whether that's college or tech school. It's a fine idea -- I imagine that 'C' performers, in many areas, are seldomly encouraged to go on with their education/training after HS graduation.

Re:Hey Paw, I got a C!

No, you've got it all wrong. Because all of our lower-education but higher-paying jobs are moving away, we need more people to go to college. We can't afford to relegate all of our C students to truck drivers and welders, as you say: those jobs are going to be filled by D and F students, dropouts, and immigrants.

It's getting to the point where the college degree is a relatively unimpressive feat in today's world.

Don't sound so elitist. It's a good thing that a college degree is a common feat. For a lot of students, college is the first place that's going to make them think and work. If these C students can't do it, they'll drop out fast and become truck drivers. If, however, they are genuinely hard workers but just not bright, or bright but never motivated, they'll get out of college the tools they need to get a better job, live in a better place, have better health care, and raise kids able to get Bs and As and lead a better life.

Should every child go to college?

To reiterate: no. But, we need more than our B and A students going to college. Because the jobs left in our country require either no-skill or the education from a college degree, we need get our "average" student into college.

No they're not...

What part of: "The City Council has not yet approved the funding." = "schools in the Alabama city will be the first US students to make use of the XO laptop."

Re:

Given the article I believe the statement was about the scholarship, not the purchase of the laptops.

C average?

The opening up of the university system to all and sundry has already lowered standards and resulted in grade inflation. Just compare the rigour of an undergraduate education a half-century ago to the situation now where anyone (even me) can breeze through four years without a challenge. Is paying for college for people with a C-average instead of directing them towards only vocational training--as in many other Western countries--a good idea?

Re:C average?

No, and we're doing them any favors by pushing everyone through high school regardless of ability either. My mother works at a community college, and the number of kids that have to go straight into remedial english and math is appalling. But we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings... no, it's better to let the real world do that. Then there's no one that can be pointed to as "the problem".

Here's something else I don't understand. What is this country's aversion to vocational schools/training? We as a society seem to look down on such training, but I'll gladly pay someone many tens of dollars per hour to make my car go, make my AC work, fix plumbing, rewire my house, add an addition to the dwelling, etc. There is nothing wrong with this. You don't like school, but think cars are fun? Hello mechanic work. It just seems silly, these people are as important to our economy and every day life as the surgeons.

Re:C average?

Personally, I don't draw a distinction between vocational training and college. College is a sort of vocational training for most people. So if you were to ask me if 100% of people should engage in some sort of post-secondary career education, I would say yes. Maybe that means grad school. Maybe that means an apprenticeship in the pipe-fitters' union. Society as a whole is better off when everyone is better educated in their field.

All together now!

Oh I come from Alabama with an XO on my knee.

What does this PC actually provide them?

This is a feel-good measure, nothing more. Tossing a laptop into a mix of bad teachers, and bad schools is not going to improve anything. There are several major problems, none of them technology related, that have made public education a colossal failure:

1) Most of the people who are teaching subjects, have their primary education in "education."
2) Teacher's unions.
3) School policies that don't allow proper discipline for disruptive students.
4) A legal system that actually listens to parents who sue when schools properly punish their kids for misbehaving.
5) Government monopolies that make it financially impossible for most parents to afford to send their kids to private schools or homeschool them.

But it's ok, technology will save the day. It couldn't do a damn thing for other social problems like pirating copyrighted materials, but it'll be able to take on... entrenched bureaucracies, good ol'boy networks, unions, crufty legal codes and parents who have no ability to hold their kids responsible for their behavior and are willing to shout and sue at the drop of a dime. Go technology, you modern day messiah of secular America.

Re:What does this PC actually provide them?

2) Teacher's unions.

Do you have any actual evidence of this being a major problem? I know it's a lovely scape-goat particularly for political opponents of unions, but that doesn't give the argument any validity. In fact the researcher's who've tried to look at this [hepg.org] say there really isn't enough data to make a conclusion one way or another. Further, charter schools (sans unions) have shown no improvement [warning:PDF link] [rand.org] in student performance.

3) School policies that don't allow proper discipline for disruptive students.
4) A legal system that actually listens to parents who sue when schools properly punish their kids for misbehaving.

Not sure, but it sounds like you are suggesting corporal punishment?

5) Government monopolies that make it financially impossible for most parents to afford to send their kids to private schools or homeschool them.

I'm not sure I understand how Gov't provided education makes private schools charge prohibitively expensive rates.

-Ted

Don't laugh at Alabama.

Airbus is about to start manufacturing aircraft in Alabama. ThyssenKrupp is well established. Mercedes makes cars their.

I was stationed in Alabama for a year. While there, I had a world-class Shakespearean theater at my back door. I loved living in Alabama.

Re:Waste of money

There are a ton of kids in Maine [maine.gov] who have spent the last few years proving this assumption -- that young kids don't learn anything useful on computers -- is wrong. Their program gave Powerbooks to all middle-school students and has produced remarkable results. It was recently renewed by the state legislature and is being expanded to additional grades with state $$, which is no small feat in a state under a lot of budget pressure. See link for published studies, etc. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Maine decided to go for OLPC's for the younger-then-middle-school set.

The primary problem in Maine's one-powerbook-per-child program has has come from backwards teachers like your Calc prof who won't adapt their teaching to the new technology.

Re:Waste of money

I agree that, to a very large level, it is well-intentioned buy wasteful spending to cram computers into every classroom. I've personally been witness to hundreds of millions of dollar's worth of "network infrastructure upgrades" across several school districts, and it's a damn shame because nobody uses it. (Special "clean" power for computers installed in raceways with special orange outlets, 4 per workstation? The teacher plugged her mini fridge and coffee pot into one and used a chain of surge protectors from a normal wall outlet for the computers...)

Anyway, while a bit of a daydream I can see a potential at least.

1) The laptop as a replacement for textbooks. Able to be updated and searched. Also, carrying around one XO laptop is better than managing a half dozen books, and if the computers get recycled after 8th grade then the long term costs could level out.

2) It allows a student to keep more organized. Notes and assignments could be kept on the device and mirrored at a school or even district level server (the XO supports handwriting input). No more "forgetting your homework" since everything is in the computer. ("What happens if the student leaves it home" argument is irrelevant since that applies to notebooks too). Update school announcements and calendar events.

3) Media distribution to students. Imagine those typically boring films you had to watch, only being able to pause and rewind at your leisure and even take it home to study. Audio and video recordings/pictures from field trips or lessons. Combine this with those digital whiteboards and stream the info right to the laptops (already done in some places). A student could potentially take an entire day's worth of lessons home and replay them. Unit supports USB and wireless so storage isn't much of an issue on or off school grounds.

4) Parental monitoring. With the ability to record a log of daily use, if not entire lessons, the parents will have a better understanding of what goes on in the classroom (for better or worse). This assumes the parent actually bothers to access the laptop and check, of course, but it makes possible what is currently impossible or at least wildly impractical.

5) Electronic grading. With the ability to distribute and collect most assignments digitally, the entire process becomes simpler. One copy of an assignment can be distributed to any number of students and they can be submitted as soon as they are complete (cutoff times/due dates are easily implemented). Records of grades are easily maintained and accessed. Plagiarism is easier to detect using DIFF-like utilities, and I'd even support some kind of DRM-esque scheme to help detect or even prevent (something that is difficult to do with paper). Tests can be administered by providing a collection of questions that are presented in a different order for each student, with randomized answers for multiple-guess type exams. Beats scan-trons and makes cheating nearly impossible.

Again, all pure daydreaming on my part. None of this gets in the way of teaching the basics either, which I agree is most important. $200 per student seems a better deal than central labs, too. I've seen initiatives that have 1 computer for every 5 students, which is also about right for a computer lab since only one class can use it at a time. If the backend stuff is more or less the same, you can get five to ten $200 laptops for the cost of a single, normal desktop workstation - pretty significant savings - and each student has access all day.
=Smidge=