Cape students to receive laptops Wednesday

CAT Tracks Editor's Note:

I truly hope that Cape Girardeau schools have more success with their "convertible laptops" than Los Angeles had with their iPads.

My limited personal experience with 1:1 computing in the classroom was a supervision nightmare. Hopefully the website filtering systems have radically improved, although the news out of Los Angeles was anything but comforting.

I liked the assurance given to parents by Assistant Superintendent for Academic Services Sherry Copeland:

Cope­land wished to reassure parents the devices won't allow students to access anything at home that they can't access at school.

Ha!

As Shakespeare's "Hamlet" famously lamented:

"Aye, there's the rub."

Perchance you dream, Sherry!

Most of the students will probably learn the "bad sites" at school from the children who Copeland identified as "very tech savvy who can go around our system." But, again, have no fear, parents! To her acknowledgment of the "tech savvy" hackers and their following, Copeland appended..."but they're not supposed to."

Okay, okay, I know...

...with dinosaurs like me, students would still be using slate tablets, copying down precisely what I wrote on my basic black chalkboard. (Out, damned smartboard!)

THAT is why...

...as you trundle off to school Wednesday morning in this age of "digital transformation" (digital disruption?)...

...I will spend another "Saturday" hacking away on my desktop keyboard. Then, I will retire (pun intended) to my living room couch to read magazines and books on my tablet...

...until 6 p.m., when I shall crank up my nightly DVD orgy on my 40-inch flat screen TV.

Ooh, ooh, ooh...

If you need to reach me, my smartphone is always at hand for calls, e-mails, or texts...

...whether I'm on the couch, taking a bathroom break, or have "retired" for the night. (Yes, I'm so in love with my smartphone that I sleep with her.)

Aside to Mr. Duck Dynasty:

"Don't get your feathers ruffled, Pat. As with ships, my smartphone is a 'her', not a him!"

In short...

I understand the fascination, the obsession, with digital devices. There is a time and a place.

However, trying to "teach" in the 1:1 environment, definitely not for this old dinosaur.

I would liken it to taking a group of gaming addicts to a casino, sitting them down on stools in front on their own personal slot machine, and trying to teach them the history of the mob in Vegas and Atlantic City.

Good luck with that!

As I was saying...