Escolas de Estados-Unidos abandonam uso de laptops individuais para alunos

Um interessante artigo sobre a experiência da introdução de computadores para os alunos nas escolas dos Estados Unidos é publicado pelo New York Times (em inglês). Sinalizando os poucos resultados obtidos, os custos crescentes de manutenção, varias escolas estão suprimindo a utilização de laptops pelos estudantes.


Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops

By WINNIE HU
Published: May 4, 2007

“After seven years, there was literally no evidence it had any impact on student achievement — none,” said Mark Lawson, the school board president here in Liverpool, one of the first districts in New York State to experiment with putting technology directly into students’ hands. “The teachers were telling us when there’s a one-to-one relationship between the student and the laptop, the box gets in the way. It’s a distraction to the educational process.”

Liverpool’s turnabout comes as more and more school districts nationwide continue to bring laptops into the classroom. Federal education officials do not keep track of how many schools have such programs, but two educational consultants, Hayes Connection and the Greaves Group, conducted a study of the nation’s 2,500 largest school districts last year and found that a quarter of the 1,000 respondents already had one-to-one computing, and fully half expected to by 2011.

Yet school officials here and in several other places said laptops had been abused by students, did not fit into lesson plans, and showed little, if any, measurable effect on grades and test scores at a time of increased pressure to meet state standards. Districts have dropped laptop programs after resistance from teachers, logistical and technical problems, and escalating maintenance costs. Leia mais aqui