1. If the Maine laptop program cost $38 million, or $258 per student, in 2002, what will it cost now? The Statesman is citing a figure of $4.7 million per year for laptops and $9 million per year for maintenance in one article, and 2. $7 million for laptops and $6 million for maintenance in another.
2. When schools can’t afford textbooks, how are they going to afford laptops and software?
3. The Maine program used Macintosh laptops. Since the majority of businesses use PC-based computers, is it wise to train our children on a system used by less than 10% of businesses? http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/01/12/gartner_apple_takes_9_7_share_in_q4_grows_mac_sales_by_23.html
4. How will teachers be trained to use the laptops in class?
5. How much will this training cost, including the teachers’ time?
6. Where will the money for training come from?
7. What will the schools do to prevent unauthorized use of the laptops’ webcams, such as the case in Philadelphia where administrators were spying on children in their sleep, which ended up costing the district more than half a million dollars? http://www.techeye.net/security/philadelphia-laptop-spying-school-to-cough-up-610000
8. Given that we already have problems with sexting with cell phones, how do we keep students from using their webcams for unauthorized use?
9. What steps will the schools take, or be required to take, to prevent online bullying and harassment?
10. Who will maintain the laptops? Will each school district be required to hire someone? Each school? Where will these people be found? If a private provider is being used, as has been suggested, will they have someone in each school at all times? If not, how will maintenance be coordinated?
11. What will prevent students from theft or even selling their own laptops?
12. What happens if a student’s laptop breaks or malfunctions? How will they take classes or exams?
13. What modifications of school electrical systems will be necessary in order to support simultaneous use of more than 30 laptops per classroom?
14. Will schools’ Internet pipelines be sufficient to support simultaneous use by all students?
15. Will there be a way for classes to get priority use of the Internet over recreational use? How?
16. Are all schools equipped with wifi so the students will have Internet access from their laptops? If not, how much will that cost to implement?
17. What control will there be of students’ use of the laptops in school? Out of school? For example, will they be allowed access to Facebook, MySpace, etc.? How will this be coordinated with parental wishes?
18. The Maine program did not include filtering software to prevent students going to unauthorized sites. How much will this cost, and who will administer it? Will it also apply in the students’ homes?
19. If students do not have Internet access at home, how will this hinder them?
20. Since online books can’t be resold or used by multiple students, how much are online textbooks going to cost?
21. Many teachers, even in college level classes, don’t allow students to use laptops in class now because of concerns that the students are surfing the web or chatting rather than paying attention. How will this be addressed?
22. If students drop out, will they have to give the laptop back? How will this be enforced?
23. If online classes will be taught in the classroom, will they be asynchronous – self-paced classes taught at any time – or synchronous – with all students involved taught simultaneously?
24. If the classes will be synchronous, how will the issue of differing class schedules, both on a daily and a calendar basis, be handled?
25. What happens if the Internet is down?
26. If students are required to take two online classes per year, how will it be determined what sort of classes they will take in this method? Will they be primarily core classes, or electives?
27. If a student fails an online class, how will they make it up? Will they not be allowed to graduate?
28. If students are taking online classes, why do they need to physically go to a school building at all?
29. If students can take classes without the permission of the school, who will determine what classes are acceptable and valid?
30. Who locally will oversee the student’s participation in the class?
31. Will students be allowed to take online classes from sources outside Idaho? Why or why not?
32. What about magnet schools? Will they and their classes be included in this system? Why or why not?
33. What happens if a student needs help beyond that available from an online class?
34. Where will the students take the online classes, in a way that doesn’t interfere with each other?
35. How do online classes handle hands-on learning, such as science experiments?
36. To what degree will a school be able to control students from outside the district taking its classes? How will this be decided? What recourse will a student have if a school says they can’t take a desired class?
37. How will it be determined which students get to take a particular online class? Will registration simply be thrown open to the entire state and made first come first serve?
38. If the majority of spots in an online class are taken up by students outside the school district, will the school district still be responsible for paying for that teacher?
39. How will students find out about potential online classes?
40. Will online class providers be allowed to market their classes to students and/or to their parents individually? Why or why not? If so, how will this be policed?
41. What will ensure that students in smaller, rural schools, or are disadvantaged in some way, get equal access to classes?
42. If the online classes are only being taught at school, how will parents help their students at home?
43. If schools will no longer be reimbursed for online classes, then what incentive is there for schools to teach them or encourage students to take them?
44. Will charter school students be able to take classes outside the charter school system, and vice versa? If so, then doesn’t that weaken the point of having a charter school in the first place and blur the lines between charter and traditional schools?
45. Will charter schools be mandated to use this system as well? Why or why not? What’s keeping someone, for example, from setting up Traditional School Charter School, with books and blackboards rather than computers?
46. Will charter school class sizes also receive a mandated increase? Are charter school class sizes counted in the class size calculation? Why or why not?
47. How will the issue of disabled, LEP, etc. students be handled? Will they also be mandated to receive laptops, use clickers, take online courses, etc.? Why or why not?
48. If the average class will increase by up to two students, what will the mean class size be? In other words, if class sizes are already 30, does that mean those class sizes will go up to 33?
49. If teachers’ performance will be measured based on the ISAT, then how will teachers’ performance be measured for areas in which there isn’t an ISAT, such as music, agriculture, or physical education?
50. What will prevent schools from discouraging lower-performing students from attending ISATs?
51. What incentive is there for teachers to teach lower performing or difficult students?
52. The iSTARS program, as presented in 2008, was slated to cost up to $60 million more than existing pay scales. How much more will this system cost? Since it was difficult to ascertain how much the iSTARS system would cost, how has this been determined? http://www.newwest.net/main/article/lawmakers_skeptical_of_luna_teacher_pay_plan/
53. Why was this plan developed without input from teachers or parents?
54. Who will buy and maintain the clickers and implement the software required to support them? In colleges, students are typically required to purchase their own. One student reports that his costs $50 and is only good for one class. http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/click/?partner=rss&emc=rss&apage=2#comment-64307
55. How will clickers be used for classes that aren’t geared toward multiple choice tests, such as writing?
56. What prevents students from pooling their clickers to avoid going to class? http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/click/?partner=rss&emc=rss#comment-64133
57. How will teachers be trained to use the clickers?
58. How much will training cost?
59. Where will the money for training come from?
60. Students report technological issues with clickers, such as systems getting overloaded and not recording answers. How will this be handled? http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/click/?partner=rss&emc=rss#comment-64161
61. Do the clickers run on batteries? What happens if a student’s clicker runs out of battery? How much do the batteries cost? Who is responsible for maintaining the battery?
62. What happens if a student loses their clicker?
63. If one of the advantages of clicker use is that it is anonymous, then how is a student’s performance monitored?
64. If 770 teachers are expected to lose their jobs, where does the department expect the majority of the losses to come from? Old teachers? Young ones? Specialized teachers? General teachers?
65. How much income tax loss, unemployment compensation, state-provided medical care, etc., will the state accrue from 770 teachers losing their jobs?
66. If this new method of education doesn’t work, how will Idaho replace those teachers?
67. If contracts are limited, how will smaller districts be protected from losing their best teachers to larger districts?
68. If the 99% threshold is not kept, then what happens if a school’s attendance turns out to be lower than expected? Will teachers at those schools lose their jobs at the beginning of the school year?
69. If teachers are teaching classes that include students from outside the district, how will those students’ test scores and evaluations be incorporated into the teacher’s performance?
70. How will this be coordinated with home schooling? Will home schoolers be allowed to take the online classes as well? Why or why not?
2. When schools can’t afford textbooks, how are they going to afford laptops and software?
3. The Maine program used Macintosh laptops. Since the majority of businesses use PC-based computers, is it wise to train our children on a system used by less than 10% of businesses? http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/01/12/gartner_apple_takes_9_7_share_in_q4_grows_mac_sales_by_23.html
4. How will teachers be trained to use the laptops in class?
5. How much will this training cost, including the teachers’ time?
6. Where will the money for training come from?
7. What will the schools do to prevent unauthorized use of the laptops’ webcams, such as the case in Philadelphia where administrators were spying on children in their sleep, which ended up costing the district more than half a million dollars? http://www.techeye.net/security/philadelphia-laptop-spying-school-to-cough-up-610000
8. Given that we already have problems with sexting with cell phones, how do we keep students from using their webcams for unauthorized use?
9. What steps will the schools take, or be required to take, to prevent online bullying and harassment?
10. Who will maintain the laptops? Will each school district be required to hire someone? Each school? Where will these people be found? If a private provider is being used, as has been suggested, will they have someone in each school at all times? If not, how will maintenance be coordinated?
11. What will prevent students from theft or even selling their own laptops?
12. What happens if a student’s laptop breaks or malfunctions? How will they take classes or exams?
13. What modifications of school electrical systems will be necessary in order to support simultaneous use of more than 30 laptops per classroom?
14. Will schools’ Internet pipelines be sufficient to support simultaneous use by all students?
15. Will there be a way for classes to get priority use of the Internet over recreational use? How?
16. Are all schools equipped with wifi so the students will have Internet access from their laptops? If not, how much will that cost to implement?
17. What control will there be of students’ use of the laptops in school? Out of school? For example, will they be allowed access to Facebook, MySpace, etc.? How will this be coordinated with parental wishes?
18. The Maine program did not include filtering software to prevent students going to unauthorized sites. How much will this cost, and who will administer it? Will it also apply in the students’ homes?
19. If students do not have Internet access at home, how will this hinder them?
20. Since online books can’t be resold or used by multiple students, how much are online textbooks going to cost?
21. Many teachers, even in college level classes, don’t allow students to use laptops in class now because of concerns that the students are surfing the web or chatting rather than paying attention. How will this be addressed?
22. If students drop out, will they have to give the laptop back? How will this be enforced?
23. If online classes will be taught in the classroom, will they be asynchronous – self-paced classes taught at any time – or synchronous – with all students involved taught simultaneously?
24. If the classes will be synchronous, how will the issue of differing class schedules, both on a daily and a calendar basis, be handled?
25. What happens if the Internet is down?
26. If students are required to take two online classes per year, how will it be determined what sort of classes they will take in this method? Will they be primarily core classes, or electives?
27. If a student fails an online class, how will they make it up? Will they not be allowed to graduate?
28. If students are taking online classes, why do they need to physically go to a school building at all?
29. If students can take classes without the permission of the school, who will determine what classes are acceptable and valid?
30. Who locally will oversee the student’s participation in the class?
31. Will students be allowed to take online classes from sources outside Idaho? Why or why not?
32. What about magnet schools? Will they and their classes be included in this system? Why or why not?
33. What happens if a student needs help beyond that available from an online class?
34. Where will the students take the online classes, in a way that doesn’t interfere with each other?
35. How do online classes handle hands-on learning, such as science experiments?
36. To what degree will a school be able to control students from outside the district taking its classes? How will this be decided? What recourse will a student have if a school says they can’t take a desired class?
37. How will it be determined which students get to take a particular online class? Will registration simply be thrown open to the entire state and made first come first serve?
38. If the majority of spots in an online class are taken up by students outside the school district, will the school district still be responsible for paying for that teacher?
39. How will students find out about potential online classes?
40. Will online class providers be allowed to market their classes to students and/or to their parents individually? Why or why not? If so, how will this be policed?
41. What will ensure that students in smaller, rural schools, or are disadvantaged in some way, get equal access to classes?
42. If the online classes are only being taught at school, how will parents help their students at home?
43. If schools will no longer be reimbursed for online classes, then what incentive is there for schools to teach them or encourage students to take them?
44. Will charter school students be able to take classes outside the charter school system, and vice versa? If so, then doesn’t that weaken the point of having a charter school in the first place and blur the lines between charter and traditional schools?
45. Will charter schools be mandated to use this system as well? Why or why not? What’s keeping someone, for example, from setting up Traditional School Charter School, with books and blackboards rather than computers?
46. Will charter school class sizes also receive a mandated increase? Are charter school class sizes counted in the class size calculation? Why or why not?
47. How will the issue of disabled, LEP, etc. students be handled? Will they also be mandated to receive laptops, use clickers, take online courses, etc.? Why or why not?
48. If the average class will increase by up to two students, what will the mean class size be? In other words, if class sizes are already 30, does that mean those class sizes will go up to 33?
49. If teachers’ performance will be measured based on the ISAT, then how will teachers’ performance be measured for areas in which there isn’t an ISAT, such as music, agriculture, or physical education?
50. What will prevent schools from discouraging lower-performing students from attending ISATs?
51. What incentive is there for teachers to teach lower performing or difficult students?
52. The iSTARS program, as presented in 2008, was slated to cost up to $60 million more than existing pay scales. How much more will this system cost? Since it was difficult to ascertain how much the iSTARS system would cost, how has this been determined? http://www.newwest.net/main/article/lawmakers_skeptical_of_luna_teacher_pay_plan/
53. Why was this plan developed without input from teachers or parents?
54. Who will buy and maintain the clickers and implement the software required to support them? In colleges, students are typically required to purchase their own. One student reports that his costs $50 and is only good for one class. http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/click/?partner=rss&emc=rss&apage=2#comment-64307
55. How will clickers be used for classes that aren’t geared toward multiple choice tests, such as writing?
56. What prevents students from pooling their clickers to avoid going to class? http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/click/?partner=rss&emc=rss#comment-64133
57. How will teachers be trained to use the clickers?
58. How much will training cost?
59. Where will the money for training come from?
60. Students report technological issues with clickers, such as systems getting overloaded and not recording answers. How will this be handled? http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/click/?partner=rss&emc=rss#comment-64161
61. Do the clickers run on batteries? What happens if a student’s clicker runs out of battery? How much do the batteries cost? Who is responsible for maintaining the battery?
62. What happens if a student loses their clicker?
63. If one of the advantages of clicker use is that it is anonymous, then how is a student’s performance monitored?
64. If 770 teachers are expected to lose their jobs, where does the department expect the majority of the losses to come from? Old teachers? Young ones? Specialized teachers? General teachers?
65. How much income tax loss, unemployment compensation, state-provided medical care, etc., will the state accrue from 770 teachers losing their jobs?
66. If this new method of education doesn’t work, how will Idaho replace those teachers?
67. If contracts are limited, how will smaller districts be protected from losing their best teachers to larger districts?
68. If the 99% threshold is not kept, then what happens if a school’s attendance turns out to be lower than expected? Will teachers at those schools lose their jobs at the beginning of the school year?
69. If teachers are teaching classes that include students from outside the district, how will those students’ test scores and evaluations be incorporated into the teacher’s performance?
70. How will this be coordinated with home schooling? Will home schoolers be allowed to take the online classes as well? Why or why not?
Actually came up with a couple more.
ReplyDelete71. If students are taking classes from other sources and schools, how do parents and administrators handle the issue of different school customs and mores?
72. If many students are taking classes from many different sources, how do school administrators and community members keep that from diluting school and community identity?
73. If students are taking classes outside of the school itself, how will that affect the school's measurement of its adequate yearly progress?
ReplyDeleteSome people on Facebook posted this link to a New York Times article about schools abandoning laptop program.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/04/education/04laptop.html?_r=1
I read that Luna will use K12, a company based in the Washington DC area, for the online classes- won't this be like taking money from the local economy (firing teachers) and sending it east?
ReplyDeleteIt'll be exactly like that, yes.
ReplyDelete74. Will students be allowed to take *more* than one online class per semester if they wish? Why or why not? Will such students get priority over students who are just registering for their first class?
ReplyDelete75. Will students be allowed to register for an online class if it is already available in a live class in their school? Why or why not?
76. If the money that a school gets for a student partially goes to another school if a student takes a class there, what safeguards will there be in case schools try to prevent students from taking classes elsewhere and losing the money?
ReplyDeleteCan't remember if this one was in the list or not but: If students are allowed to complete online courses at home then will they be required to come to school for that class? And IF they are allowed to complete the online course at home, then what is to stop them from having someone else do the online course for them?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in Luna's plan teachers will be paid by performance (actually, paid by how their STUDENTS perform) on the ISAT; however, not all teachers teach students that take the ISAT. For example, if you teach 11th grade English, by the time you get those students they have already taken and hopefully passed the ISAT as a 10th grader. How is a teacher going to be paid by performance on students that no longer need to take the ISAT? Or will they be paid by the types of grades their students earn? What is to stop a teacher from simply boosting grades to avoid a cut in their pay? And what about teachers who do not teach a core class like English, math or science? What if you teach art, or choir? Are you going to be paid by how well a student can draw or paint or carry a tune? Pay by performance is asinine at best.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so these are questions. Big deal. I guess you could write down a 1,000 questions about how an engine works, but it doesn't make it any less valid. To be honest, all these questions do is make me think the author is closed to any change. Sure, their legitimate questions, but is it the intent to imply change is bad or is this really a sophomoric attempt to discredit any attempt at progress.
ReplyDeleteNo, change isn't intrinsically bad. But there's a lot of things that concern me about this.
ReplyDeleteYug, good question about online courses at home; perhaps that's why they're saying the courses will be done at school.
Who is the public going to blame when the students are failing the online classes? Online classes are supposed to be student driven and promote independent work. Will it still be the faut of the teachers when students fail these required online classes?
ReplyDeleteScott, your comparison between an engine and Luna's plan makes NO sense. An engine works. This plan does not. How do I know? How about you read this article from the New York Times from 3 years ago: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/04/education/04laptop.html?_r=1
ReplyDeleteNot only is Tom Luna 8 years behind what other schools have done, but he's 3 years behind on realizing that this SAME PLAN hasn't worked and has been abandoned by the school's that have tried it. These questions do not imply that the author is closed to change. It shows that the author questioning the type and amount of change taking place. To keep with your engine metaphor, when a car company wants to introduce something new and "innovative" they test it out before producing it, and then they have a sample market to see if it actually works in real life and is something that consumers want and THEN they go nationwide with it. Luna didn't propose that he would have a "sample district" for two years to see if this is an effective plan and an efficient way to spend money. He skipped the research that OTHERS have already done on this plan (it failed) and went straight to throwing it the faces of parents, teachers and taxpayers.
77. If taking the laptops home will be a local decision, will the local districts also be responsible for paying for any loss or repairs if the laptop is damaged or stolen while away from school?
ReplyDelete