WiFi On The School Bus
from the the-wifi-on-the-bus-goes...-data-data-data? dept
WiFi has been showing up on airplanes and trains lately, and in Silicon Valley, it's used on the special shuttle buses that companies like Google and Yahoo use to get employees to work. But what about for high schoolers? The NY Times recently had an article about a high school out in the far reaches of Arizona that has put WiFi on a school bus, and found that the impact is really quite amazing:Wi-Fi access has transformed what was often a boisterous bus ride into a rolling study hall, and behavioral problems have virtually disappeared.What's amusing here is the juxtaposition of this article with recent articles that fret about kids spending too much time online, with worries that they're becoming addicted or wasting time that could be better spent. But, here the article is suggesting exactly the opposite: that not only is more internet access leading to a less rowdy bus ride, but it's helping the students become better students.
"It's made a big difference," said J. J. Johnson, the bus's driver. "Boys aren't hitting each other, girls are busy, and there's not so much jumping around."
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Filed Under: bus, internet access, schools, wifi
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No New Tech
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A) The school district.
B) The superintendent.
C) The bus driver.
D) The IT department.
E) The student.
F) The student's parents.
G) The student's teachers.
H) The manufacturer of the bus.
I) All of the above.
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not surprising
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Unlike state governments that are protected under sovereign immunity, such immunity does not extend to school districts.
Doubtful a suit would ever be filed...but then again who knows what the future may hold, especially if WiFi is even installed on school buses for a large school district.
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And anyway, what happens as soon as someone one the bus uses the wifi to sext and harass? School busses are abusive environments, and this new tool will lead to new abuses.
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"In 2005, it inaugurated Empire High as a digital school, with the district issuing students laptops instead of textbooks,"
They are all provided school laptops.
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>and this new tool will lead to new abuses.
These are just the old abuses with new tools.
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To be fair...
Spending all their time in front of the TV/computer is different then using the internet in a situation in which all they would be doing otherwise is pissing off the bus driver--or reading, but no one does that anymore.
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Porn Solves Everything
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Fabrication?
However, I am waaaaayyy too cynical to believe that the rate of laptop use in high schools is high enough to quiet down an entire busload of teens.
The New York Times article (http://nyti.ms/98Gcvh) essentially lied, as far as I'm concerned.
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Re: Fabrication?
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http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=JUpMgSzY9TI
Sometimes I worry about the future, internets.
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If I had access to porn just before classes I'd be one well behaved rider, let me tell you.....
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Our bus driver became really interested when all of a sudden a crowd formed at the back of the bus around Little Johnny and his dad's playboy...
The kids now a days have it to easy; they can surf for porn on there way to school and no one is the wiser.
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Take a trip to Copenhagen, Denmark
So here all the suburban kids can use the internet on their way to school (along with everybody else).
@ several other comments:
Why does WiFi have to be limited to laptops? Most people use their WiFi smartphones here.
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Great...
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Better students?
So, I am skeptical that this has actually provided any real education benefit. Not that there isn't some real value just for getting a busload of screaming kids to shut up for the duration of the ride to and from school...
HM
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wifi on bus
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WIFI WAY
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