How Can Tech Help Fight Education Costs?

http101 asks: "With the ever-rising costs of fuel, we seem to forget those that are truly having problems affording it. No, not the homeless, but our own kids. 'Kids,' you ask? Yes, because being driven to school on the 'Yellow Dog' or the 'Edu-Express' better known as a school bus, is costing your state more money than ever before. In my neighborhood, we have a plethora of home connected by fiber and at least high-speed internet. So my question is, how can technology be better-implemented to ensure a student's studies and also lower the costs of fuel for the districts?"

eBooks

[Anonymous Coward]

In the past, there has been concern for the health of students carrying around heavy backpacks of books. Now, that weight is adding to the fuel bill.

Assume 20 lbs/student, times 60 students on a bus, that's 1200 lbs!

Keep your eBook at school, and use the PC at home.

Now, about the added eye strain...

Re:Only problem...

[Colonel Panic]

I've noticed that children who are homeschooled have better social skills when it comes to dealing with adults. Usually when I visit the home of a family who homeschools the kids will actually enter into conversation with visiting adults. Kids who aren't homeschooled generally shy away from interacting with adults. Not a huge sample, but very noticable.

Also: often homeschoolers will do classes together with other homeschoolers for subjects like art and music - say you don't know anything about music, but another homeschooling parent you know is a musician. You make an arrangement to take your kids to the mucician's place for music classes and they bring their kids to your place for Ruby Programming classes. These types of arrangements are fairly common among homeschoolers thus negating the 'lack of socialization' arguments.

Re:Correlation

[Zphbeeblbrox]

I work in over 20 schools supporting their networks. Teachers may very well be dedicated to teaching but they have a remarkably low desire to learn. Tech will never benefit education till teachers are willing to embrace it. Most of them can't even logon to the schools network. The students run rings around them in the computer lab, and don't even get me started their use of computers in the curriculum.

Certification? It doesn't test anything useful that I can see. Peer review? none of their peers no what technology is good for either. There are exceptions but those just prove the rule. There is a lot of perception to change out there before technology starts to actually benefit education. Or maybe I just live in a strange alternate reality where I manage to work for a company that supports the schools with the worst teachers for technology.

E-Charter School

[MettaBen]

Here in Hawai'i, we have "charter" schools which are experimental schools less restricted by the rules and policies of the Dept. of Education. Of these charter schools, we have ThompsonAcademic.org, an "E-Charter" school which teaches its courses almost entirely online. Teachers actually gets more face time one-on-one with the students who need it, because only struggling students are required to come in for direct personal tutoring. This school attracts a mix of students from both ends of the academic spectrum-- from the overacheiving homeschoolers to the borderline drop-outs who are fed up with traditional schools. Thompson Academic does require its students to enroll full time. If students only want supplemental online courses, there is E-School (http://www.eschool.k12.hi.us/ [k12.hi.us]). Hawai'i needs online education in part because it is hard to provide a full spectrum of courses to every island. And many students are surfers (some pro) who would skip school anyway when the surf is up. Online education is not for everybody, but I wish I had this option growing up.

Is it worth it? That depends on your focus.

[GecKo213]

I'm not against home schooling or schooling via the Internet, but there is something to be said about the social aspect of the schoolyard. I learned a lot about social settings and how to play with others, sharing, and even whom to avoid from having to "go" to school. I think that if we all start homeschooling our children or having them learn via the Interenet to save money on the bus driver's fuel bill there will be some aspects of growing up and things that don't develop properly.

I live in a relatively safe area and State for that matter, but there are still violence, gangs, drugs, etc... Not as bad as say downtown LA or Washington DC but there are still problems here. There are potential benefits for both at home and in class schooling. Gas costs shouldn't be a reason to take that away from kids. I am personally happy that I was able to be in an environment where I was able to get the social aspect of the school experience. I wasn't the best or most studious student, but pulled off about a 3.5 GPA. I spent half of the time high school and college learning about other people (Mostly the opposite sex for that matter) and the other half learning what the teacher was teaching. Of course I'm a self proclaimed people person. I'm sure there are many here on /. (and many places for that matter) that are just not people people and would rather learn from home.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if I had to bring say 1 dollar a week to help the bus driver keep the tank full so I could make it to school, it would be worth it to me, and it would be worth it for me to send my kids to a public school. (So long as the education was good)

Re:They could

[Rude Turnip]

This is the typical response of most senior citizens. My typical response is usually, "OK, as soon as I stop paying for your Social Security check, you can stop paying for the schools. And by the way, it was the school taxes you paid that financed my education, which gives me a high paying job, which allows me to pay enough in FICA to cover at least two of you old leeches!" :)

Re:Correlation

[BackInIraq]

And the kids still don't learn a damn thing. The quality of education in this country is plummeting... rapidly. All they are doing is babysitting until they're old enough to take their rightful place at Wal-Mart or McDonald's.

You get what you pay for. Look at the starting salary for teachers in many states...considering it requires, at minimum, a 4-year degree, are you surprised that Education programs at universities aren't attracting the best and the brightest? Add to that the sheer number of teachers we need, and you end up with large numbers of poor-quality teachers.

Not all teachers are bad, of course...my wife is a teacher, and I'd like to think she's one of the better ones. But I met some of her classmates, and saw her curriculum. I wouldn't trust half the kids in the average university's Education department to watch my house over the weekend, let alone trust them with my kids.

Of course, if teaching paid more, it would attract more qualified people, and in turn Education programs would become more competitive, and quality would increase. If lawyers made what teachers made, do you think that law school would be hard to get into? Would it be very demanding? A large number of graduates from teaching programs across the country are just one notch above those that end up at McDonald's. Some aren't even THAT intelligent or qualified*. So is it any wonder that that is what our schools are preparing kids for?

Again, you get what you pay for. In the US, it seems most people are willing to pay just enough to give them a place to send their kids while they go to work, and if they're lucky teach them to read at a decent level.

Of course, to an extent, that is all many people in the US CAN afford. Which is why school funding is always such an issue. I've seen the difference between schools in a fairly wealthy suburban area and a decidedly poor urban area. It isn't pretty.

* - The average teacher is, of course, much better qualified to teach than the average employee at McDonald's. However, if you were to take many employees of Mickey-D's, pay for them to go through college, I think you'd find that many of them would be as qualified, if not more, to teach as many teachers. Teachers are often smarter than fry cooks because of education, not necessarily intelligence.

Re:Only problem...

[the phantom]

On the other hand, many of the homeschooled kids that I work with (I teach at a public elementary school, and fence with a bunch of home schooled kids) tend to act as though they were adults. No, they are certainly not shy, but they also do not have the same experience, yet feel that their opinion should be considered valid. One of these kids tried to explain to me that school districts cannot have any kind of dress code, because it violates the first amendment of the Constitution. When I told him that several Supreme Court decisions contradicted his statement, he flew off into a rage. I would not say that he handled the situation like an adult, nor was his interaction terribly mature. However, I think that it is typical of the home schooled kids that I work with -- they are nearly constantly getting the same kind of reinforcement and feedback from the same small group of people.

These kids have been brought up to believe that they are (1) better than other kids and (2) the center of the universe (as they are generally the center of their parents' universes). I am not saying that all homeschooled kids are like that (my gf was homeschooled until high school, and she turned out alright), but in my sample of about 15 kids (a small sample, admittedly), all but one or two have varrying degrees of a similar kind of social ineptitude.

On the other hand, I do not think that it is fair to compare the performance of homeschoolers with publicly schooled children. It is a self selecting group that has a lot going for it. First, the parents must have the time to invest. I work at a school where most families have either a single parent, or where both parents work to makes ends meet. These parents don't have the time to homeschool. Second, the parents that choose to homeschool their kids, on average, have greater education than most parents. Most homeschooling parents have at least a Bachelors degree, if not a higher degree.

We combine higher academic acheivement with time to invest (this implies a two parent household where one parent is able to stay home through the day while the other works, though there are other arrangements that could work, too). These are things that are also correlated with high academic performance in public schools.

So, I will not debate that homeschooled kids do not outperform publicly schooled kids. This is settled. However, I do not think that homeschooling is the root cause of greater performance. I see it as greater parental investment in their children's education. A publicly schooled child with parents that stay up at night to help with homework has at least as good a chance as a homeschooled kid, with the bonus of added socialization.

Re:Correlation

[Chosen Reject]

I actually enjoy history so kudos to you.

However, concerning the question "When are we ever gonna need this?" I know I've asked that a lot. But my question wasn't necessarily about me in specific. A lot of times in math especially I just couldn't see a reason why something was important. Sometimes I had teachers who would explain that such and such theory could be used by an engineer/statistician/accountant/whatever in such and such a way. That was all I needed. Then I could sit back and say to myself, "Oh , that's one way to use this." I could then get a feel for the direction it was going and then use that same thing to come up with my own uses of that knowledge.

I know a lot of times that's not the case when people ask that question, but I would recommend asnwering it anyway. If they come back with "But I'm not gonna be a $proffesion", just tell them that they might as well quit school and start welfare now.

Re:Correlation

[pjgeer]

You've posted about this before. Is it possible that school is not about learning but about learning HOW to learn? When I graduated I didn't jump for joy because the learning would stop but because it would finally start. All that time I spent memorizing multiplication tables, spelling words only an English teacher would know, and writing papers that would be barely read by one disinterested person-- it doesn't make any sense apart from the notion that it's supposed to teach me how to learn noninstinctive behaviour. I'm surprised you have 34 well behaved students, too bad you can't hire them part time after school to build you a bass boat or something. 34 people with at least 8 years of education under their belts spending the best hours of the day in a classroom learning the dates when Boss Tweed was born and died-- what a waste of potential. Even for the types who find that fun-- you know they just want approval.

I dare you to mix it up a little. Set up a blog and make each student post a 40-line summary of a historic event they learned that day, while it's still fresh. One student a day. Login required, and all submissions become your property (hey if lycos can do it so can you). Open book, allow them to use other sources, and allow them to plaigiarize if they weren't paying attention, as long as turnitin.com fails to detect it. Grade that post, then open it up for comment by peers-- useful comments you appreciate get a grade or admin perk from you. (I advocate giving commenters a 10 minute hall pass to goof off but that's just me. No I'm not that fat kid in the second row. With the pocket protector.) After a student gets their grade back, vet the post, spellcheck, use any insightful comments, forward any insults to a joke site, and pick the key sentence for use as a fill-in-the-blank question on the exam. You just graded 1 quiz and he just wrote one 34th of the exam for you.

At the end of the semester or year, gather all the posts, improve them with any insightful comments, edit them for content, run them through spell and grammar check, and you've got a new resource. After a year or two it will be sufficiently improved to the point where you can begin to use it. You can put it on the web to increase your respect in the eyes of other high school historians, you can sell it to a third party (who will probably sell it to children and collegians trying to cheat in other schools, but hey you don't know that), you can use it as part of the material next year and maybe help you to cut loose an inadequate textbook, you can print a single copy and donate it to a needy school so they can bind it for use as a textbook, you can improve wikipedia with some of the content... All you have to do is what you are already doing. Use what you're already doing! If there's some rule that doesn't make sense to your java-usin' analytical mind (for example: "5 pages, double spaced, 12 point Courier New-- hmm this does not equal Knowledge") then replace that rule with something useful that you and your students can feel good about. And for heaven's sake don't ask permission, the higher ups will just say no so they don't have to think about it.

Public.Education.Operating.System (PEOS)

[rssbot]

US needs to create an Operating System for Public Education, to allow users to educate themselves, from home.

The PEOS would be basically a client-terminal to the Public.Education.Network (PEN).

The PEN would track all students activities, including login/logout times, desktop idle time, and information access logging.

This would of coarse have to be a proprietary system based upon Open Source Technologies, to ensure the continued 'un-restricted' technological development of the system, by authorized developers, nation-wide.

pros:

> save money on gas
> save money on teachers/books/etc
> save money on facility upkeep/maintenance
> give children the ability to access information, quizes, and automated test results, in real-time.
> track user attendence/activities remotely

cons:

> lack of supervision
> lack of social interaction
> lack of 'realistic' justification for such initiatives

Transportation Software

[Anonymous Coward]

I work for a company that produces transportation management software. Basically, the programs can use algorithms to optimize travel routes. This can reduce the number of buses used, thereby decreasing fuel and maintnenance costs. There are actually a number of firms in the pupil transportation software industry. Before I got hired it was a niche I never knew existed.

Re:Only problem...

[the phantom]

Your last paragraph explains the situation perfectly. One of the students in the salle was explaining that his school had recently instituted a policy banning colored shoe laces, as they were seen as a gang sign, and had lead to violence. The goal of the dress code, in this situation, was to keep the students safe. I, personally, feel that this particular example is a bit dodgy, but it has been supported by the Supreme Court. Safety, in this case trumps free speech. Other cases involving dress basically devolve to the students right to an environment conducive to learning trumps free expression, and the fact that clothing, in and of itself, is not considered expression. General dress codes include things like no dangling chains (they are seen as gang symbols, and pose a safety risk, as they can get caught on things, or be used as weapons), no suggestive images or suggestive clothing (it is a distraction to other students, and, quite frankly, not appropriate at school), no hats inside (the undersides of hat rims are a great place to hid answer keys, the teacher cannot see a student's eyes, which is quite important), &c. It is not a question of making the kids "well-dressed", but a question of creating an environment that is conducive to learning. It is no different than a large corporation insisting that you not wear torn blue jeans and a t-shirt to work.

At this point, the homeschooled kid broke in with "The school can't do that, it is unconstitutional." I spent several minutes explaining to him that, according to the Supreme Court, it was okay. Several other people also pointed out that he was wrong. He refused to accept that he could be wrong, and stormed off. Further more, in this situation, I was not his teacher (which is what you imply when you state "I would expect any teacher to take any student ... seriously", but an adult peer. When I am at work, I teach. When I am fencing, I am not teaching, and will not act like a teacher. I refuse to wear that hat 24/7.

In your example, we are talking about intellectually mature individuals that ask questions in a search for knowledge. In my example, we are talking about an intellectually imature person who, for whatever reason, needed to be right.

I think that the latter case is far more common among home schooled students than publically schooled students. In general, home schooled students are given a homogeneous mix of opinions, and are not forced to deal with people that might disagree. When someone disagrees with them, they really don't know how to handle it.

That being said, by the second year of college, I think that most people are going to be in more or less the same place. The students that, by virtue of innate talent or better upbringing, had a better start, will succede, both socially and academically.