My Musing

I believe that the 1 to 1 laptop program is not going to positively affect myself in the trades and technology subjects in a secondary school. From what I have heard about the laptops is that you cannot load any additional programs onto it and the idea wouldn’t even be considered. If that is the case, I cannot imagine how the laptops will be used in a wood, metal, drafting, or automotive class. I have not had the opportunity to explore one of the laptops supplied by the District and I am not sure what their drawing programs are. If they are more technical than a standard paint program then they might be utilized. 

If you could load additional programs such as AutoCAD or MasterCAM then I could see the laptops being very useful in the wood, metal, or drafting class. This would save the need to have a computer lab available that was not at the other end of the school during class time. For the automotive class, a program such as All Data could be used to help the student with their vehicles. 

The speaker that gave the 1 to 1 presentation to us last Wednesday seemed to avoid the question of where this money was coming from. Whether he ran out of time or just didn’t want to answer it is unknown. I know the district has a surplus and they used at least a portion of that on the computers but I wonder if that money would have been better directed elsewhere. With all of this push from the government to get shop teachers out in the schools and to train skilled workers for the future, I would have thought that upgrading the trades and technology sections of most schools would have been a top five on the priority list. There are some shops out there that are in desperate need of upgrades all for the cost of ten laptops per class. I guess I am just falling into the trap that lots of teachers fall into and that is we believe that our subjects are the most important and should get all the good stuff.