SA township schools get free tablets, unlimited mobile data

Which tablets are these? Is this what the forumite looking for 2000 tablets here recently wanted them for?
 
Lol, interactive smart boards are really crap. Especially with load shedding and with teachers always having technical problems with the things. The best is still plain old chalkboards, also the cheapest to maintain. I have been in university lectures, where the professor couldn't use the smart board, how will these teachers be able to use them.

What good will the tablets be if they can't write on the things. We will see in a few months how effective this will be with the teachers that can't even do maths themselves, and now have to use a smart board to teach maths. And with the internet available at their finger tips, way more distractions available. They will spend more time trying to gain access to the blocked sites, than studying.
 
Tablets 1st, toilets and teachers later.

Comrade Economic Empowerment.
 
Look, I love the technology and this industry as much as anyone. I've given much of my life to it, and been fortunate to have seen and done much. But these sorts of reports sadden me. Our social and societal problems are not technical problems, but moral and spiritual. Throwing more technology at them won't solve anything. If anything, it just deepens the despond into which our culture is falling, because the good intentions and the hope that inspire these tech solutions will inevitably cone to nought. As certainly as night follows day. Sorry to say. Really.
 
Arthur said:
Look, I love the technology and this industry as much as anyone. I've given much of my life to it, and been fortunate to have seen and done much. But these sorts of reports sadden me. Our social and societal problems are not technical problems, but moral and spiritual. Throwing more technology at them won't solve anything. If anything, it just deepens the despond into which our culture is falling, because the good intentions and the hope that inspire these tech solutions will inevitably cone to nought. As certainly as night follows day. Sorry to say. Really.
Click to expand...

Agreed, the benefit from this will be small compared to if they had put that money into improving the poor schooling standards in the rural areas.
 
Arthur said:
Look, I love the technology and this industry as much as anyone. I've given much of my life to it, and been fortunate to have seen and done much. But these sorts of reports sadden me. Our social and societal problems are not technical problems, but moral and spiritual. Throwing more technology at them won't solve anything. If anything, it just deepens the despond into which our culture is falling, because the good intentions and the hope that inspire these tech solutions will inevitably cone to nought. As certainly as night follows day. Sorry to say. Really.
Click to expand...

Well said!
 
“As of tomorrow… [in] every classroom we will remove the chalkboard and put in a LED screen. As of tomorrow, if you want to see a chalkboard, you must go to a museum, you must not come to our schools.”
Click to expand...

Pity the chalk board works during load shedding, whilst the LED screen doesn't.

Some actual questions:
1) Will they be able to get their textbooks on them?
2) Do they have software catered for the South African syllabus?
3) Do the tablets have keyboards?
4) Can the tablets be used to teach the current IT syllabus?
5) Do the teachers actually want another distraction in class?

If they can truthfully answer yes to all 5 questions, then it will have a really positive effect on the education system. If not, they would have been better off just making sure all the schools have complete IT labs and decent internet connections.
 
Stolen, lost or broken in a year. If it makes it that long the cheap tablet's battery will give in. At least a textbook you can pass on to the next year.

I am proud to declare that as from tomorrow your life will never be the same again,” Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi told thousands of Grade 12 pupils at the Grace Bible Church in Soweto on Monday afternoon.
Click to expand...
Instant access to porn does change your life.
 
Keen to see what they are using and what software they are bringing into the curriculum. Have any studies in first world countries found that tablets improve learning?
 
Parents would also be emailed their child’s reports.
Click to expand...

That would be great except:

“From tomorrow, a child of a domestic worker or a child of a gardener or a child of an unemployed parent… will have a tablet in their hands. Gone are the days where [only] those that are rich will have a quality education.”
Click to expand...

What is the parent meant to get their e-mails on? The Nokia poverty-spec they bought from Pep?
 
Unlimited data - "Thando how do you spell utorrent?"
 
konfab said:
Pity the chalk board works during load shedding, whilst the LED screen doesn't.

Some actual questions:
1) Will they be able to get their textbooks on them?
2) Do they have software catered for the South African syllabus?
3) Do the tablets have keyboards?
4) Can the tablets be used to teach the current IT syllabus?
5) Do the teachers actually want another distraction in class?

If they can truthfully answer yes to all 5 questions, then it will have a really positive effect on the education system. If not, they would have been better off just making sure all the schools have complete IT labs and decent internet connections.
Click to expand...

I was actually part of this 66,000 Tablet project for Edu Solutions and ITSI we flashed and copied over the Grade 12 syllabus.
1) yes all their textbooks are PDF
2)Yes
3) No, just on screen
4)Yes, they have textbooks on that
5) :/

I do think this project is a success, today was chaos when all the schools came to pick up the tablets.
They cant download anything, the ROM is locked down to one app which is the for GDE.
 
Last edited:
skimread said:
Stolen, lost or broken in a year. If it makes it that long the cheap tablet's battery will give in. At least a textbook you can pass on to the next year.
Click to expand...
I was actually thinking the same thing. Not necessarily stolen by themselves. You think we have crime? Those kids are gonna be targeted by petty criminals in the townships if they are allowed to take them home.

Dunno. Maybe I'm just disillusioned. Like someone else said, throwing technology at the problem is not gonna solve it. Will be nice to be proved wrong.
 
Last edited:
Necuno said:
Tablets 1st, toilets and teachers later.

Comrade Economic Empowerment.
Click to expand...

This ^^

Priority is a bit mixed up. Educate the masses so that when they become self aware they will realise they are living in squalor.

That finger you swipe the screen with is the same finger you swipe your ass with ............ :sick:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X