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Post by apinnock on Jan 28, 2014 18:07:46 GMT
How to introduce more and better hardware in schoolsIt may be too expensive to introduce a lot of new technology into school this year, but schools can and should plan to maintain and improve resources over a period of time and budget accordingly.
The good news is that technology is generally much cheaper than it used to be. Some new technology is particularly affordable - the Raspberry Pi, for example. Desktop computers are smaller and cheaper than they used to be, but you may find that smaller more portable devices are more effective for use by young children (eg. tablets - see the Samsung Galaxy Kids Tab, for example)
Despite the attraction of new devices, schools should initially concentrate their spending on the quality and resilience of the school network and on the development of wireless networking (to support large numbers of mobile devices in the future).At the same time, make efficient use of the resources that you have - most programming tools do not demand powerful computers. Find ways to share devices effectively so that children have a reasonable amount of access. Some schools may choose to introduce a scheme through which parents pay for personal devices which their children can then use in school and at home.
Using 1:1 to Unlock Learning is a useful slideshow about how to "move towards powerful and engaging learning" with one device per child.Note that many programming activities (eg. algorithm design) may not require the use of any technology at all and can be carried out very effectively using paper and pen (see CSUnplugged)
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