A Kindergartener’s Best Computer Is About to Die

For someone with impaired motor control skills I would assume that default software and a touchscreen is far from usable. There is a reason why many touchscreen system has a stylus pen, which would obviously not work in kindergarten for children with impaired motor control skills. A large screen and software designed for it could be one way, but I have also seen massive trackballs that I recall is being used in those situations.

Perhaps the issue isn't Chromebooks but that your experience is with inappropriately chosen Chromebooks.

I have quite a few lawyer and doctor friends who use tablets first (usually with a BT keyboard) and only break out the computer when they need it for some very particular reason.

If you don't need root on a beefy machine and/or Windows-specific software, then a modern tablet with a bluetooth keyboard gives you more than enough compute and all the applications you need to be productive. Often with a better UX.

Kids in kindergarten can actually use tablets, to learn other stuff. Any stuff. They can indulge their own interests, in a way that's nearly impossible in any other medium without assistance of someone older than them.

A tablet is the first cut of the way children use the Holodeck in Star Trek. You can't (usually) just ask for what you want, and get it (kids don't have a mental model of computers that works well enough to cope with how bad computers still are at conversation)—but you sure can point at what you want, and get it.

2. Feedback. E.g., there are some good fractions apps that help students understand what it means to "divide" a set of things into a set of groups of things. you can do that on pencil/paper or with other props, but there's no tight feedback loop.

It's unclear whether (2) is strictly a good thing; learning how to validate your own results is also an important skill...

This kind of self-directed, exploratory learning can be very effective.

FWIW iPads and android tablets tend to not work for most software development tasks.The "iPads aren't for producers" mentality might be more of a "iPads aren't for Software producers (and some types of engineers)"

> I wrote the 32-page business plan for my music label almost entirely on Pages with a bluetooth keyboard. Kids can do the same for schoolwork.

I would argue that if you need a third party add-on that changes the primary input method you've essentially turned the device into a laptop/chromebook. It's not the right tool for the job, you've just turned it into one.

I taught English as a foreign language for 5 years at high school level and since I'm a computer programmer by training, my colleagues were very keen for me to introduce technology to the class. I started from that perspective, but gradually reduced the technology until at 5 years I was using a blackboard, paper and pencils only.

For me, (and especially for teaching language, I suspect) it was much more important to keep students engaged and keep their comprehension levels high. I spent a lot of time testing those comprehension levels, modelling responses and encouraging interaction amongst the students. I found that technology moved the focus of the students from the subject to the technology. Instead engaging in the subject, they would become passive and be focused on the device, or presentation. We even had a big wall of dictionaries in the classroom and I asked the students to use it as a resource of last resort. Instead, I wanted them to find people in the room who knew the answer to their question -- teaching language is about communication after all ;-)

From that perspective, it's interesting to hear from someone who seems to take a different approach. I'd love to know what kinds of things you are aiming towards and how the use of technology provides it.

There is nothing on that marketing page that seems to especially improve learning vs. physical materials for anyone under about 10 years old. And frankly most stuff for 10–15 year olds can still (a) probably be done as well if not better using physical materials, and (b) isn’t significantly different between an iPad and a laptop or desktop machine, and often could be done on a machine shared by several students working together or taking turns.

I can well imagine that someone trying to learn how to program might want to use some kind of computer, but even then why an iPad instead of a little turtle robot that responds to Logo, or whatever?

Someone trying to learn how to make electronic music or edit video might get a lot of mileage out of computers (iPad or otherwise) but I can’t imagine this has become a core part of the school pedagogy.

I can also imagine that for anyone in middle school and up there might be a big benefit to carrying an iPad around instead of a giant backpack stuffed with 5 separate overweight textbooks. Though there are some advantages to the physical books too.

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Instead of telling a bunch of skeptical non-teacher techies that we “haven’t been trained on how to fully leverage the tech”, maybe you can explain what that training would entail?

What in your experience has the iPad been so powerful for that couldn’t be done without computers? What age kids are you working with, and what are they working on?

Also good point about too much choice sometimes being a bad thing.

I started using computers around age 4. I couldn’t read for shit. My parents didn’t withhold technology because I couldn’t read the manual. I’m thankful for that, as now I’m a software engineer and love it.

What insane gatekeeping.

> Children as young as 24 months can complete items requiring cognitive engagement on a touch screen device, with no verbal instruction and minimal child–administrator interaction. This paves the way for using touch screen technology for language and administrator independent developmental assessment in toddlers.

This sounds like a way of handing a child off to a device so that adults can otherwise ignore them. (Which, to be fair, will unfortunately happen a lot anyway in schools.) And the focus is on “assessment” rather than teaching/learning.

Did you find that there were ideas or subjects that could be taught better on an iPad than using alternative materials (with a teacher standing by to explain in either case)?

I will say that one of the things that makes a tablet so great is the potential for group activities. I do a ton of whole-class activities with lots of interaction - and it is possible on a tablet because it is small enough to be easy to look past. This is an issue with desktops (esp. in a lab) and, to some degree, with laptops.

Just today we did an activity where all the kids 'drew' a visualization of a certain math problem and then we passed the tablets around and added on top off them and then I showed the results on the projector. There was laughter, story-telling, kids helping each other, moving around the classroom, you name it.

The fact that you can get up and walk around with a tablet is a point I hadn't mentioned. Thank you for the stimulus!