Ginger Dunbar's article is an overview about how the city of Downingtown, Pennsylvania, is considering purchasing iPads for its school's sixth graders. This article has a fairly neutral tone and is not overly complex. It simply gives details behind the process of giving iPads to students but doesn't state an obvious opinion. If there is an opinion at all, it may be that Dunbar is vaguely hinting that this practice could be more widely accepted further down the road. Dunbar is a writer for the Daily Local News, so she is credible.
Dunbar begins with a brief statement about how school officials are thinking of “providing iPads for the incoming sixth grade students at the Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center” (1). That is all it is: a brief sentence about what the school is thinking of doing, with no bias, one way or the other. She then goes into further discussion of the details behind this plan by explaining that at a meeting, members of the school board had talked over how iPads had already been delivered to the teachers, and that now they should purchase iPads for the students. According to the school board, the iPads could be provided “as a one-on-one initiative for teachers to use in the classroom,” meaning that the teachers are encouraged to take advantage of having iPads in the classroom (1). The whole idea of giving iPads to the students seems to be an ongoing effort to go digital for the entire school. In fact, the superintendent, Lawrence Mussoline, seemed to confirm this with his statement, “The vision is that sixth, seventh and eighth [grade students] are given digital devices” (1).
Dunbar then gives some details about how students will use the iPads. Instead of confining iPad use to the classroom, students will be allowed ...
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...nts. The unique thing about it though is that it has to do with junior high kids. Most of the cases where schools use iPads for learning are usually in high schools, and not in elementary school or junior high. It could lead to more elementary schools doing the same thing by giving iPads to students in younger grades. I could search for articles that have more examples of schools considering iPads for kids in younger grades. I have a few more options besides this. I could research some articles that have a clear opinion on whether iPads should be used in the classroom or not. I could also look into the effect iPads have on education, if there are any. All this could help me learn what the article did not tell me.
Works Cited
Dunbar, Ginger. “Downingtown considers iPads for 6th grade students.” Dailylocal.com. Daily Local
News, 30 Jan. 2014. Print. 12 Feb. 2014.
They do not have a lot of responsibilities to follow through. Throughout time children have a large opportunity to be exposed to technology, and with that time they have gotten more attached and in need to have that tablet or ipad. Not only does the increase of the type of actions the child needs to take to get it but also changes the attitude of the child. For example when one child gets a phone or an ipad that other sibling wants to have one because the older or other child has one. In Schlosser’s work he states, “ Today children are being targeted by phone companies…….”
Lydia Hadley, the mom, doesn’t really like the idea of a house run on technology, she feels replaced by it. The parents finally put their foot down and consider shutting down the house and going on vacation. The kids don’t like the idea of this at all. “ ‘That sounds dreadful! Would I have to tie my own shoes instead of letting the shoe-tier do it?’ ” The kids are acting different - rude, when it comes to the topic of shutting down the house. Shutting down the house would mean shutting down the nursery and that is where the kids draw the line. This shows how the children are dependent on technology, even for a daily lifestyle.
The article that I am discussing is "Raising the Screen Generation" by Martha Pickerill. The topic of this article is the increase in the amount of screen technology that children consume. The population that is directly impacted by this issue are children in ant socioeconomic status, but parents are also affected. This issue is very prevalent as the children of today have access to more technology then did previous generations. Throughout the article, Pickerill discusses how smartphone and tablet has increased exponentially over the past five years. Additionally, the author addresses important research and recommendations from clinical pediatricians on the amount of screen use that children should use daily and the pros and cons of screen
Tablets can help improve the way students attain their studies. According to Cam Lincoln “Students who used the iPad version of the textbook scored 20 percent higher on standardized test versus students who learned with traditional textbook”(parag.2).This demonstrates that, students who used the iPad version of the textbook learned more effectively than the students who learned with traditional textbooks. The iPad clearly shows that it can help improved test scores. According to National Association for the Education of Young Children “for children with minimal exposure to technology or limited engli...
Sat Essay Form In response to debate regarding the benefits of early exposure to technology, Eliana Dockterman argues that early exposures to tech has more advantages than disadvantages attached to it in her article " The Digital Parent Trap." Eliana effectively builds her argument by using logos, pathos, and ethos approach. The author begins her argument by utilizing statistics and credible sources to build a sense of authority that the reader can easily recognize and accept. Eliana uses statistics "27% of them use tablets......by late 2014," to inform her subsequent claim that this generation of American children and teenagers is the tech savviest in history.
In order to succeed in school, superintendents are implementing the idea of having the internet being readily available to all students. Darryl Adams, superintendent of schools in Coachella Valley in California wants everyone to have an iPad, he wants to individualize and personalize education for all of his students.
At the iPad center the students use a specific app that Mrs. Zeek tells them to use. I have seen the children use the apps Epic and Xtra Math. Epic is a reading app that reads stories to the child. Xtra Math is an app that allows the students to practice math skills through games. I thought it was interesting that Mrs. Zeek had a box full of laminated QR codes, one for each student, so the students can sign into Xtra Math with that. I did not even know that was possible! The children absolutely love using the iPads. Mrs. Zeek also showed me an app that she has on her iPad called Classroom, which allows her to see what all the children are doing on their individual iPads. This is a very handy app, especially for higher grades so students cannot do inappropriate things on the iPads. We talked about app selection in class and these two apps seem to meet all of the qualities such as easy navigation, student engagement, and developmental appropriateness. There is also a listening center where the children listen and follow along with books on CD or cassette tape. Mrs. Zeek lets the children start and stop the CD player on their own, but she does not let them change the
Let’s take a trip back in time and review the evolution of a computer company. It’s not IBM or Microsoft. This company is Apple Computers, Incorporated. In the year 1976, before most people even thought about buying a computer for their homes. Back then the computer community was only a few nerds building simple computers from hobby kits. When Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs sold a van and two programmable calculators for thirteen hundred dollars and started Apple Computers, Inc., in Jobs garage, the reach for success seemed far.
...about the different ways in which young children experience computers in the classroom setting. It included a study done of kindergarteners from about 22,000 different public and private schools and examined they availability of computers to these children.
There are many rules set in place by school districts and administrators against use of cell phones in the class room. These rules span from kindergarten through twelfth grade and into college. In the article “The only thing to fear is one hundred and twenty characters” Kevin M. Thomas and Christy D. Mcgee inform their readers about the positive results cell phones can have in the class room. They state that cell phones have already helped bring literacy rates up in elementary schools across the nation. The article also shows the readers some applications that they can put on their child’s smart phone that will help them with their school work. These applications help with math, english, science and reading, just to name a few. Thomas and McGee also show negative points such as cheating, cyber bullying, and sexting. Although cheating and bullying have been around for a very long time and cell phones are just another avenue that they can use. They say that sexting is a new phenomenon but is more about bad morals than school productivity. Although there are negatives for allowing cell phones in schools, the benefits outweigh the negative aspects of cell phones. Having cell phones allowed in the classroom can have many beneficial outcomes. Cell phones can be very helpful for students in academics, safety, and communication.
The use of cell phones in schools is one of the biggest issues being debated today since technology is growing more and more every day. Higgins discusses in his article that Datla, a sophomore says, “Using technology in everyday life is not that new to us because we grew up with technology.” The current generation has grown up using cell phones, computers, tablets, and many more devices their whole life. Some schools have installed free Wi-Fi so students can get high-speed Internet on their mobile devices, but it comes with a few rules. For example, the
Electronics are a huge part of our society. “Out of the world’s estimated 7 billion people, 6 billion have access to mobile phones” (Wang). Over thousands of these cell phones are owned by students K-12. A major debate topic is should cell phones be allowed in schools? “Twenty-four percent of schools have banned mobile devices altogether and sixty-two percent allow them on school grounds, but not in the classroom” (Raths). Cell phones should not be allowed in school because children focus more on the phone than schoolwork, it will create more drama, and it promotes cheating.
Soloway, Elliot. "Smartphones Will Benefit Classroom Learning." Smartphones. Ed. Roman Espejo. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2013. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Will Smart Phones Eliminate the Digital Divide?" THE Journal (1 Feb. 2011). Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
In the United States, using a smartphone or tablet has been an unstoppable trend. According to the report from Pew Internet, in the United States, 56% of all adult population is smartphone user, 35% have cellphone, which is not a smartphone, and only 9% do not own any cell phone (Smith). At the same time, the tablet computer has been growing substantially since 2010, especially with the advent of Windows 8. Pew Internet shows that 34% of the United States adult population owns a tablet computer, representing a growth of more than 30% in three years (Zickuhr). Although these reports were based on the adult population, many children their own mobile devices. Such a device will provide them the accessibility to browse the Internet, listen to music, watch videos, play games both instantly and with unlimited quantity.
Elliott, Philip. "Schools Shift from Textbooks to Tablets." The Big Story. AP News, 6 Mar. 2013.