Spent an hour on the trainer last night. Not a terribly long ride but good and hard with progressively larger gearing.
Seperated at birth?: Fabian Cancellara - Christophe Cleeland
Miscellanea: (note: Editorial comments in bold)
A Palm for every student in Jennings
By Paul Hampel
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Friday, Feb. 23 2007
JENNINGS — A north St. Louis County school district recently spent $1 million on computers small enough to fit in a student's hand. In an impoverished district that has scored poorly on standardized tests in recent years, the purchase represented an audacious bid to make quick progress.
The impoverished school district is making a desperate attempt to find a way to teach the students because the teachers can't seem to do it in a traditional mannerIn January, the Jennings School District bought 2,000 Palm T/X computers, hand-held devices that pack the power of traditional desktop computers at about half the price.
Also known as PDAs, or personal digital assistants, the computers were originally designed as personal organizers for professionals. The small computers are emerging as teaching tools across the country. But experts caution that Palms, along with traditional desktop and laptop computers, are not magic bullets in the quest for academic excellence.
You mean spending more money on students doesn't necessarily improve student performance? No way!A Jennings administrator acknowledged that the recent purchase was a gamble. "We're rolling the dice on this," said Steven A. Schmitz, 53, the district's technology director. "It's unknown whether they'll raise test scores. But we're assuming."
Doesn't Mr Schmitz know what happens when you assume? Students in grades three through 12 are scheduled to begin using Palms in summer school.
While some local schools have incorporated laptop computers into daily lessons, Jennings, with an enrollment of about 3,300, is the first to go ultraportable on a districtwide scale.
Superintendent Kay Royster said the purchase was in keeping with her district's reputation "as a leader in classroom technology."
If Jennings is already a leader in classroom technology and technology is such help to students, why are the students scoring so badly on tests that they need MORE technology? "This is another way in which we're on the cutting edge,"
cutting edge = big spending said Royster, 54, who came to Jennings last year from the Riverview Gardens School District. "They will help students learn what we want them to learn and learn it faster."
The district spent about $400 per Palm. That includes a fold-up keyboard, a case and Microsoft-compatible software. About $200,000 went to pay for training teachers to use the machines and compatible classroom equipment.
The computers include a word processing program and one called "Sketchy" that allows users to draw everything from artwork to diagrams.
I believe Rembrandt often used Sketchy software The district also paid to have a graphing calculator installed, which Royster said would be the device's most useful feature. Inside school buildings, students will have wireless Internet and e-mail access.
Royster called the expenditure economical, in both the short and long terms. The district had about 1,000 desktop computers when Royster arrived in July, or one for every three students. Palms cost less than half the price of standard computers. "This was also an equity issue," Royster said. " Two-thirds of our students didn't have ready access to computers. And now they do."
Down the line, she said, the district will save money on everything from chalk to paper.
A million dollars worth of chalk and paper??? Really? "Remember the days of coming up to the chalkboard to work a math problem, and turning term papers in that a teacher had to go through one by one and mark up?" she asked in her office this week.
Yes, I do remember and that worked quite well. "This is the new way."
But is it a better way? Students will take notes on their Palms, Royster said.
And I bet it is less efficient than pen and paper They'll instant-message teachers with their answers.
Unnecessary. They'll calculate
Call me old fashioned, but let them learn how to do it with their head, research and compare work
translation: copy work or cheat — traditional activities but done more efficiently, and without paper.
But a technology expert cautioned that expectations for hand-helds may not jibe with reality.
Imagine that. Carl Hoagland, a technology professor at the University of Missouri at St. Louis, said few studies had been done that looked at hand-held computers and narrowing the academic achievement gap. "Will these be the be-all and end-all? No," said Hoagland, 64. "But there are some powerful applications for these things. I think it really comes down to how teachers use these applications."
These would be the same teachers that are already ineffective Hoagland said hand-helds have proven their worth as portable word processors, for the instant feedback they offer teachers and students, and for their potential to revolutionize some courses, such as foreign language classes. "They make the old 'language lab' obsolete," he said. "Think about it: In these (Palms) you've got a portable language lab that you can listen to on the bus, the MetroLink, anywhere you want. And the lesson can be any lesson the teacher chooses it to be, wirelessly transmitted to her students. In that regard, Palms have unbelievable merit."
Before it bought the Palms, Jennings conferred with a Kansas City-area district that has used them extensively for years. Olathe District Schools, the third-largest school district in Kansas, bought 1,400 Palm computers in 2003. This year, the district phased out the earlier version and bought 2,300 of the Palm T/X model.
Olathe's technology director, Rita Lyon, 54, said Palms have proven to be valuable teaching devices, though they had a rough start. "The first two weeks they had the hand-held models, we had a large influx of students who put games on them and immediately crashed them," she said. "But after the first two weeks, the novelty wore off and they got down to business."
The students found games that wouldn't crash the PalmsLyon said the Palm's most useful applications have been in note taking, writing reports and research on the Internet. Their weak point, she said, was in math classes. The graphing calculator, which Royster hailed, has proven less than effective, Lyon said.
That's not what the salesman said. The devices have, for the most part, she said, stood up to abuse, and few have been reported lost or stolen.
So, you are constantly replacing a few lost PDA's. That gets pricey. She added, however, that students frequently lose the plastic pen, called a stylus, that is used to touch program options on the screen. "We sell them in our bookstore for $2 apiece," Lyon said. "And we sell a lot of them."
