Topic: Homework mountain

[1066]

MummyBunny - I think the points you raised in your post are very valid, and I'd be interested to hear what the school said. I'm in IT and have witnessed the benefits of IT in all sorts of scenarios - but the one you describe does concern me, mostly around the issue of access to broadband and creating divisions in school between the kids who have and those that don't. And who actually owns the PDA's - and what happens if they are lost of damaged? I've dealt with adults using PDA's and that's been bad enough at times!!

[mummybunny]

Hi 1066,

Well this is the problem its a pilot scheme at his school. I just cant seem to get my head around it.

Firstly the parents were asked to make a contribution of £11 a month for what they call insurance purposes and when the children left the PDA would then be theirs to keep.
If the parents paid the child was allowed to take it home with them obviously there was some use of it without internet connection however not much help if you don't have wifi at home!.
As you can imagine some people paid and some didn't. Some people just couldn't afford it . We decided that we would pay as if it got damaged it was covered. This turned out not to be the case if it was damaged off school premises it wasn't covered!! As a few children found out so we stopped making payments. So basically some parents seemed to be paying towards the item to be insured in school!!

Yes they do get to keep it if they pay but if it gets damaged outside of school you would have to pay to fix it!!

Now the worst bit is my partner has just become a school governor and at his last meeting he was told that ALL the children would get to keep their PDA's when they left school!! Meaning that some parents have been paying for the last 3 years for a PDA at £11 a month while others haven't but they still get to keep it!

As for creating divisions in the school it has first there were the children who we able to take home and use with there internet access, then children that could take it home but have no internet access then the children who couldn't take it home because parents couldn't afford it. Thomas would come home complaining that it wasn't fair that he couldn't bring his home and I'm sure that there would have been other parents in the same situation as me.

I just couldn't validate bringing something home that could get damaged that i was paying £11 a month (to start with) that i would have to then pay again for if something did happen out side of school.

The PDA's were used in school for lessons however when Tom brought it home the first time i checked what he had been looking at in school seems you tube was a favorite site as was Google searches for silly things!!!! Looked at during lesson time.

Unfortunately the school wasn't very good at explaining what was going on which is one of the many reason's why my partner has become more involved with the school. We are not the only parents asking the same questions we just don't seem to be getting any answers!

A total mess if you ask me and now they are on about bringing Notebook computers into the school for the pupils. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying computers are bad just really are they needed at the age of 8 in junior schools?
What happened to just having IT lesson's during school. My son has a great understanding of computers however i don't think this is down to using a PDA! 

Lucy x

[1066]

thanks for the feedback. I did wonder if it was a "trial", seems like it's more of a trial for the parents!! And what a mess - to have so many variations on a theme.

And £11 a month isn't cheap - basically they wanted parents to fund their experiment and by running it for 3 years, at £11 a month - according to my maths that is nearly £400. I think I would be demanding a refund!! Besides by the time they leave the PDA will be kn***ered" and pretty worthless anyway.

As to what they use the PDA's for - no surprise about the searching, what do they expect kids to do?  It must be frustrating for the teachers as well.

It all sounds so confusing and messy. If I ran a project like that I wouldn't be in work for very long....... and I wonder what the "official" reports will say?!

Well done to your hubby for getting involved, seems like a common sense approach is needed  :)

1066