Keeping up digitally

Opinion

Discussion

COMMENTING ON STORIES:

Welcome to our story comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including the unpopular ones. We only ask that you keep your conversations clean, civil and on the topic of the story you are commenting on.

Coinciding with our websites redesign, we launched our new story comments feature through Disqus.

Disqus gives users the ability to log into our story comments feature so that they may be able to track their conversations, receive emails when their comments get a reply or to even have your comments update onto your Facebook or Twitter accounts.

For the time being, our story comments feature will continue to have the ability to post comments anonymously. We reserve the right to require registration in the future using your name and verified email address.

Not all comments are deemed printable. Some are disqualified at the newspaper’s discretion for a number of different reasons. Please follow our Online Rules of Conduct at all times.

RULES OF CONDUCT:

We reserve the right to remove comments that are unacceptable, to wit:

1. False and inacurate statements.
2. Personal attacks. Explicit name-calling.
3. Harassing, harmful, vulgar, obscene and defamatory language.
4. Threatening statements or statements that suggest violence.
5. Hate speech of any kind.
6. Intolerant comments on religion, race, age, gender, sexual preference or disabilities.
7. Accusations of criminal activity.
8. Content that is harmful to children and minors in any way.
9. References to any type of sexual activity and other private matters.
10. Random and inflammatory statements that are off topic.
11. Advertising of any kind.
12. Typing in all caps.

WE ENCOURAGE REASONABLE AND COURTEOUS COMMENTS THAT:

1. Create conversation on issues of interest and concern to fellow readers and local community members.
2. Express opinions and contrarian views.
3. Stimulate debate with respectful language.
4. Stay within the boundaries of these rules.

WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SUSPEND OR TERMINATE ACCESS FOR:

1. Violating any of these Online Rules of Conduct.
2. Deliberately disrupting discussions with repetitive messages, meaningless messages or spam.
3. Misrepresentation of identity or impersonating another user.

WE WELCOME:

1. Flagging violations of these rules that you observe to our attention.

MONITORING:

We monitor comments regularly Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Approval of comments outside of this time will be sporadic.

comments powered by Disqus

October 11, 2012

Keeping up digitally

Anonymous The Cooperstown Crier Fri Oct 12, 2012, 11:09 AM EDT

Parents, do you think your children spend too much time with their faces buried in a computer screen?

Soon, they may be required to spend even more time doing just that.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan called for the nation to move as fast as possible away from printed textbooks and toward digital ones. “Over the next few years, textbooks should be obsolete,” he declared.

Duncan claims it is not just about keeping up with the times, but is about keeping up with other countries whose students are leaving their American counterparts in the dust.

One of the most wired countries in the world, South Korea, has set a goal to go fully digital with its textbooks by 2015.

Proponents may have a point — saying digital learning engages students in a way a textbook never could.

For example, if students get stuck, interactive help features could figure out the problem. Personalized quizzes ensure they’re not missing anything — and if they are, it could bring them up to speed before they move on to the next lesson.

However, what about the rural areas? Will those students be left in the dust or will measures be taken to make sure they have the same capabilities technologically?

There are still places in the area where the Internet is slow or very costly. What about those who can’t afford the Internet plans or gadgets needed?

Would districts, already buckling from diminished budgets, be responsible to make sure every student has either a laptop or a tablet computer? Would schools have to upgrade their bandwidth or the equipment to make digital materials available to every student?

Another thing to consider is whether textbooks, like music, will become easy to steal or copy without payment, or whether the industry will find new ways to make money off of teaching materials.

Using certain tech devices can also have an effect on students’ eyes. This may be something to which parents and teachers have not given much thought

With smartboards, tablets and other digital tools being incorporated into daily school curriculum, the technology has students spending a lot of their time learning and socializing in front of a screen. This can pose a number of challenges to the visual system. Breaks for the eyes will definitely be needed if students are required to do most of their learning digitally.