I remember, in the dark ages, when I would get so excited with the thought of back to school – with it’s required shopping, including clothes and school supplies. How many of you remember the smell of new books when you cracked them open, and pencils freshly sharpened, and the crisp pages of a new notebook.
Well that is over now for my two High School boys. First, there is the anxiety surrounding AP and Honors classes that ruined the excitement of a new year starting, anxiety that would have seemed as foreign to me as a child, as the “Tablet PC’s” that they were issued somewhere around the second week of school. My sons announced to me that they no longer need their notebooks and looseleaf paper, because the school had issued computers to all Juniors and Seniors, and they would take notes and write assignments on these wonders of technology.
Of course, like all wonders of technology, including the computer on which you are reading this blog, there are still a few “bugs in the system” as they say. I don’t know what genius thought that you could give 100 teenaged boys (and girls for that matter) a bunch of computers and think that simply putting cyber-”locks” on them would keep them from modifying (or “modding” as I believe it is called) these innocent machines.
Within one week, my 15 year old managed to download a virus, after completely over-riding all of the protective software that had been installed, and after changing the orientation, background and anything else he could change without “getting into trouble” (he did stop short of hacking into the Administration area). The computer rewarded him with the “blue screen of death”, taking with it two weeks of physics notes, all of AP English and US History and all of his math homework with it, into the blue oblivion. I did ask the obvious question “didn’t you back it up” to be met with howls of anguish and “I didn’t have time” (?????)
My 17 year old had his computer for one day when it (no fault of his own) decided to shut down after he had written an entire English assignment, making me long for the day when “my dog chewed it up” passed for a reason that homework was missing. Luckily it just as mysteriously rebooted and the English homework reappeared. And this is just the first month of school!
My 15 year did take his dead computer to the High School IT person who looked at him and said “I have 200 computers here that are malfunctioning, I’ll get to it when I get to it”, so he is back to doing homework the old fashioned way (on his own Mac). This is progress?
I hope your Back to School transition is going more smoothly. If it isn’t, perhaps you need a good luck amulet to help you – I have just the thing. I now have in stock the new “Evil Eye” pendants from Michal Golan, the New York based Israeli designer whose enamel and crystal encrusted designs recall Byzantine or other ornate styles. I loved them so much I ordered almost the entire line. Here are two to give you a taste:
Michal Golan Gold & Crystal Evil Eye Necklace
Michal Golan Silver and Turquoise Evil Eye Necklace
For those who have asked – just click on the picture and it will take you to my site where you may purchase these items or see more pictures and styles.
And please, I would love to hear your back to school stories, it’s lonely here in cyberspace without comments or feedback 
I thought I might simply be a Luddite when I moved my “to do list” and calendar out of Google calendar and into a paper planner, but two college students that I worked with last Friday attested that they only use paper lists / planners, too.
So I think it’s curious that mechanical devices are being used for note – taking — for me, learning is a four dimensional process, and part of that process is physically putting ink onto paper. Flipping through my notes, the physicality of the memory of the original note-taking is unleashed.
I wonder how your sons are finding the process of using computers for note-taking?
November 17, 2009 @ 2:44 pmYour comment is quite timely, as my most computer sophisticated son has decided he would rather take notes “by hand” – I think he realizes that despite the physical task of writing on the pc, it still is not the same as writing on paper. I also believe that the act of writing on paper is part of the learning process.
November 24, 2009 @ 9:45 pmIn speaking with the teachers at Parent-Teacher night, they were universally unhappy with the “Tablet experiment” – in part because of the temptation to web surf while in class.
On a positive note – I gave a lecture at our Medical School last week and not one student was sitting with a nose in the computer – the first time in many years….progress?