Re:Why Must You Pay Sales People Commissions?
by jimbokun on Tuesday September 12, 2017 @10:06AM
(#15227350)
A documentary I watched claimed giving laptops or iPads to students is correlated with worse academic performance for those students.
Sorry, don't remember enough for a citation, but the suggested causal effect was students just spending even more time on social media, games, and web surfing instead of school work.
Re:Why Must You Pay Sales People Commissions?
by posterboy on Wednesday September 13, 2017 @03:13AM
(#15236169)
i'd oppose that. For one that's disingenious given the parent argument, that about scandinavian countries leading (by some measure) in school education and them using computers in class.
And on the other hand, what if the test subjects you mentioned just didn't learn to use the technology responsibly? I'd argue, teachers and professors need to be given computers, in a metaphorical sense, first.
Re:Why Must You Pay Sales People Commissions?
by imron on Tuesday September 12, 2017 @09:55AM
(#15227264)
> Thus, when I see something that lets students learn without a one on one with a teacher, I imagine it saves money.
There is growing evidence to suggest that having laptops and ipads in class decrease learning outcomes. So you could be paying more for worse results.
http://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/classroom-resources/pu... https://archive.fo/DeBGH
A teacher's salary in New York isn't good enough but you can at least afford rent if you're smart. The reason why I tolerate laptop and iPad spending is because I don't know if/how we can cut costs and still get better results. Thus, when I see something that lets students learn without a one on one with a teacher, I imagine it saves money.
From the same page, we see that total expense is 617B or about (617 billion/18 trillion) three percent of GDP. I'll be honest. I have no earthly idea whether this number is too big or too small or if that's even the right question.