I have to agree with the editorial on this one. I think it largely depends on the age of the kid (ears aren't fully developed until adulthood- why would you put an ear bud in a kid's ear I never understand) with the bud effect-even though buds make the music sound like CRAP anyways. If it's HS kids and they are using it for date transport, why not just use a thumb-drive-it's far more LESS distracting. Audio files of lectures can be emailed.
In many classrooms speaker systems are being used because students DO respond better to surround sound voice. But an ear bud?... is such removal of the classroom connection-it's removing the personal touch. It's hard to imagine because I'm always interacting with my students to gage where their understanding and processing is in class. This kind of funding could have come from a grant, and cost tax payers nothing. An important part of education technology is the training. Are the teachers and students being positively trained? With such a HUGE roll out Apple should have said 'be our guinea pig and we'll give 'em to ya for free' almost like they did with those horrible macs a few years back. My 6th graders are gadget whores at their early age. My ipod Mini is considered HUGE to them, though I laugh as they drool over such novelty gadgets like the razor and lesser quality mp3 phones. My school is 1mill over budget, this is a wave that education is seeing right now- schools are entering a near crisis mode. One that we haven't seen in many, many years. Just as an FYI, Kindergartners are now being standardized tested for achievement. d --- robin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > iPod for every kid in Michigan for education, > interesting: > > http://news.com.com/2061-10801_3-6174170.html > > robin... > ____________________________________________________________________________________ Expecting? Get great news right away with email Auto-Check. Try the Yahoo! Mail Beta. http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/newmail_tools.html
