Droid Incredibles for 5th graders? Well, I'm glad you found the Forum useful and I really do welcome you. I just am having a hard time of trying to understand why a 5th grader would have an Incredible? I know some parts of the country are doing better then others, I can accept that but this just seems like a bit much to me.
Tell you what, I'll keep my mind open if you can answer 2 questions. How was this funded? And the other question is aren't you just a bit concerned about what this kids might find in the Market and on the net?
Great questions hookbill. Let me give you a little more info on the project.
The Phone & Texting functions are turned off. Students can only use the Data & Internet functions. As you noted, the Marketplace is a minefield of inappropriate apps for students of any age. So we use a protector app to lock down the marketplace and settings. The teacher must unlock the Device to add a new app and then lock it back. When they are at school they connect to our heavily filtered WiFi network. When they take them home Verizon routes the 3G connection back through our filters. This keeps the kids from getting to inappropriate sites. We also block facebook, twitter, myspace and other social networking sites. Since we've locked down settings they cannot connect to another WiFi network, which would most likely not be filtered like ours. Also, locking settings keeps them from downloading any 3rd party apps.
What the students CAN do is access our educational sites like BrainPop, Edmodo and Discovery Ed. to take quizes, watch videos, do virtual labs, turn in homework, watch video explanations of hard concepts in Math & Science, etc. There are also a lot of educational apps for classroom blogs, math activities, note taking, and more.
Why we chose 5th? Probably the most asked question, I asked it too when i joined the project. In Texas 3rd, 5th and 8th graders have to pass reading & math tests to go to the next grade. In our district starting in 6th grade, students go to Jr. High. They switch classes about 7 or 8 times a day. 5th graders switch maybe 1 to 2 times a day. So we didn't want to go higher than 5th because of all the daily movement. Plus a lot more teachers to train. We didn't want to go lower than 5th, because of the basic maturity level.
How is it funded? Actually, the project is only in our lower income schools. Schools that qualify for more financial assistance. There are also a surprising amount of grants out there for technology in lower income schools, so we use those as well.
We are over half way into the project and we are seeing a huge improvement. Students are much more motivated in class and actually want homework so that they can take their droid home. It's even improved our attendance rate. The students who never attempted to answer questions and remained silent in class are now actively involved.
So, hope that answers your questions. I can completely understand if you're still skeptical, but it's working for us, and more importantly working for our students. dancedroid
