Russell Coker <russell@coker.com.au> writes:
Is "Home ec" a real subject? When I was at school it was one subject where they dropped the pretence that it was anything other than child-minding.
NFI. When I did it, half was "how to cook shit (so you don't live off KFC for the rest of your days)" and the other half was "how to sew shit (so you don't chuck your ripped jeans in the trash every six months)". I think it was probably more useful than history (list all the mines in .wa.au in chronological order) or electronics (let's solder Dick Smith blinkenlight kits with no explanation of what we're doing)... English lit, now that is a subject that's pure child-minding. Should go back to teaching rhetoric and grammar.
As for science labs, I presume that they have solved such problems in real laboratories and presumably the same solution can be applied in school (whether it's safe use of tablets or just using paper).
I'll concede that point.
If we are going to maintain the illusion that school is teaching skills that are relevant to work then we should be able to have schools implement practices that work in a commercial environment.
So... how to spend all day on facebook while pretending to use word? They cover that in the "IT" classes.
Are you assuming every student buys every textbook, and throws it away at the end of the year?
It has been claimed that careful students can buy second hand books and keep them in good enough condition to sell them for the same price. Presumably such careful students can make their tablet last for a long time and also have a low effective cost.
It's a lot harder to smash a textbook than a tablet. Don't forget the tablet will need a new liion battery every three years, even if it's well-treated.