Impact of DET laptops (2 Viewers)

[cookeemonstah]

This is the first year where we will see the effects of the DET laptops towards our education. Since our ATAR is based on percentile and the DET laptops generally improve our studying (read notes, type essays etc.), our nationwide average may go up for most subjects. This means our overall ATAR may be lower then expected (ie ATAR estimate 96 --> 95). However, there are other students (like me) who also use their laptops to watch youtube and procrastinate, so this may have the opposite effect towards our ATAR. Generally though, I think our estimated ATAR might drop, what do you ppl think?

 

[RishBonjour]

It had no effect on my studies/life.

 

[Aysce]

In my opinion, I think the ATAR average might drop since there are several comprehensive and catholic schools with, I dare say, less studious individuals compared to say cohorts within selective schools. As a result, I'd think that quite a few students within every cohort will procrastinate and be distracted by these laptops which hinders them to be able to study effectively. In my opinion, giving away DET laptops was a very poor decision but I'm only basing this opinion on my cohort, which is being distracted greatly by these laptops...

Although, they are very good for education if used correctly and self-discipline is practiced.

 

[unLimitieDx]

Hours spent on laptop at school : ~20hours

 

[MiPh]

Oh THAT laptop. Excuse me while I go search the basement for it. My grade hated them. Too heavy and people liked writing.

 

[LoveHateSchool]

Gave mine back today, like noone in my year used them past playing games in Yr10.

 

[enoilgam]

Giant waste of money would be an accurate description in my opinion. Worse than that, they probably result in decreased productivity. I'm glad I was gone when they implemented this scheme.

 

[cookeemonstah]

hmm.. im just saying, since most of our grade has used these laptops to take down notes, email essays and keep track of work. I know its improved my study a lot, since I can browse past papers, online notes and read pdfs (i didnt have a laptop b4 then). Sure most ppl bludge around on them, but the students who care about their education would study and now some students on the poorer side have an opportunity to do well.

 

[asadass]

Used them for games/youtube in year 10, but I think only around 2-3 people used them consistently throughout year 12.

Waste of money

 

[cookeemonstah]

I guess we'll just have to wait and see. If this 'education revolution' doesn't work, labour government is gonna get destroyed in the next election.

 

[Rawf]

Oh gosh, I hated these laptops when we first got them. Teachers kept enforcing that we had to bring our laptops EVERYDAY regardless of whether we use them or not (we have no lockers, idk if other schools do but I have to walk 2km to school and 2km from school everyday and I feel like dying).
And yes, from year 9-10 I'm pretty sure almost everyone had movies, music and games on their laptop lol, however sometimes the TSO would check up on random students and give afterschool detentions for those who did. Everything on our laptops seemed to be blocked though ie. youtube, boredofstudies etc but it works fine when using a TAFE account. If you were found to use a TAFE account though, you'd get a detention as well lol. I rarely brought my laptop to school during years 10 and 11.
However, by the time I got to year 12, I started to appreciate the fact that I could work on my laptop without being distracted (working at home that is - like typing up notes). I have 2 other laptops at home and 2 computers, however I'm one to procrastinate and get distracted by msn, checking my emails (hotmail) and youtube. Thus, when I needed to study I would use my DET laptop.
Half way through year 12, I realised that most of the textbooks I had were available in PDF forms on my laptop which helped me out a lot because I was basically juggling text books on my way to school (cambridge 3u maths, economics and business studies + a binder folder). So then I started to bring my laptop everyday, unless I had a subject which didn't require laptops at all - like a double period of english and then a double free period followed by chemistry (we never use our textbook for chem - spotlight sucks lmao).

Overall, I think I came to appreciate the laptop when I got into year 12. I started to bring it everyday, it was effective in viewing/writing notes, doing past papers when there was nothing to do and reduces the amount of textbooks I need to bring (that's a giant bonus).

 

[Spiritual Being]

laptops were used in my school for year 9 and 10 to play games especially halo altogether lol

now everyone only uses them for school work but there's that odd kid that plays games

 

[Gigacube]

Wow, I forgot about the laptops. I'm also interested to see if anyone will gain any long term injuries or whether a lot more people applied for disability provisions.

There could also be a drop in our averages because I think we're the first year that had the school leavers rule. Something to do with being 18 years old before you can leave the education system or something along those lines.

 

[jessm10]

my school didnt give out the laptops , instead they used the money for computers for school

 

[Wonder]

Hmm, this is interesting...
I think there are some benefits to the laptops, like the software - having the CS5 suite, for example, is quite useful. It's also quite convenient for me because before Year 9, I didn't have my own laptop, so I could access, like you said, stuff on the Internet more easily. However, I wouldn't really say it's been beneficial to study, it's too easy to procrastinate and most of my year's the same, always playing games on them. I personally find it difficult to study from the screen, anyway, so I prefer to use print textbooks and printed out worksheets. So IMO no, wasn't all that useful for study.

 

[HybridKath]

Similar to existing posters, from getting them to about Year 10, they were pretty much useless. Games all day. And the enforcement policies sucked, bring your clunky distracting laptop in addition to your books or you get yelled at by the teachers on noes

Mine broke at the beginning of Year 11 and I didn't get a replacement till about 2 months ago (pfft). I found it a lot easier to concentrate without the thing, and kinda silently laughed at everyone I saw who were distracted (and there were a LOT). Though, early Year 11, many people just stopped bringing laptops and that number only increased. There were also people who brought in Macbooks and iPads. Later in Year 12, people who brought netbooks actually used them for work.

So I'd say, higher ranked schools with people under more pressure would do equivalent or better, but there are those few people who continually procrastinate with their netbooks, so they're likely going down.

 

[ahdil33]

Laptops were the greatest thing ever imo. Firstly it provided a fun way to spend Yrs 9 and 10, seriously you could be doing anything behind the laptops and no one would know. Unlike most people my academic performance increase heaps after we got our laptops, because I began using it for everything, and it helped heaps. But eventually I always needed to access YouTube or something, and heaps of websites were blocked, so I just bought my own laptop and used it. Most of my grade uses them to study, if they haven't bought their own laptop already.

Honestly, it's so convenient to just go sketch a graph on GeoGebra or check your answers on Wolfram Alpha. Or for English, to organise all your notes/essays together. Always things in Economics I was curious about where I had to read online/wikipedia. and for SDD since the textbook wasn't very good imo I always did research online. It's about 100x easier to do past papers and read solutions off your computer than print them all off as well.

 

[Rawf]

Similar to existing posters, from getting them to about Year 10, they were pretty much useless. Games all day. And the enforcement policies sucked, bring your clunky distracting laptop in addition to your books or you get yelled at by the teachers on noes

Mine broke at the beginning of Year 11 and I didn't get a replacement till about 2 months ago (pfft). I found it a lot easier to concentrate without the thing, and kinda silently laughed at everyone I saw who were distracted (and there were a LOT). Though, early Year 11, many people just stopped bringing laptops and that number only increased. There were also people who brought in Macbooks and iPads. Later in Year 12, people who brought netbooks actually used them for work.

So I'd say, higher ranked schools with people under more pressure would do equivalent or better, but there are those few people who continually procrastinate with their netbooks, so they're likely going down.

I fully snapped my screen and laptop in half before trials but they gave me a replacement the next day.
I don't think I get to keep it though, although it doesn't affect myself that much.. I was hoping to give it to my mum.

 

[soloooooo]

Don't you get to keep these when you finish school?

 

[Green Pup]

^Yes. But these are notorious for their crappyness, so would you enjoy using them?

Laptops screwed my school life in the first year we got them, Year 9. I would hardly pay attention in class and just play games, watch videos, etc. In fact, science class was everyone's favourite subject since the teachers hardly bothered to check what we were up to. I remember how we ran to get the best seats in science.

It did have a positive in that it reduced the number of textbooks you had to carry around.