Google is Equipping More Rural School Buses With Wi-Fi and Chromebooks (theverge.com) 59
Google on Monday said it was formally expanding its Rolling Study Halls program, or school buses equipped with WiFi, computers and on-bus educators to help rural students with work beyond school hours. From a report: Google today announced an expansion of its Rolling Study Halls initiative to over 16 additional school districts, giving "thousands" of students access to Wi-Fi and Chromebooks on their buses. Google has piloted the program in North Carolina and South Carolina over the last couple years, focusing its efforts on rural communities where some students have lengthy bus rides between home and the classroom each day.
Providing students with dependable Wi-Fi before and after school is a boon for those who might lack broadband internet at home, giving them two opportunities daily to complete assignments or study for exams while on the bus. Google contributes mobile Wi-Fi routers, data plans, and Chromebook devices.
Providing students with dependable Wi-Fi before and after school is a boon for those who might lack broadband internet at home, giving them two opportunities daily to complete assignments or study for exams while on the bus. Google contributes mobile Wi-Fi routers, data plans, and Chromebook devices.
Obligatory conspiracy theory (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Obligatory conspiracy theory (Score:4, Insightful)
No, because "work hours" and "careers" won't exist then. Instead, it'll be all gig economy things. This is to get them used to the idea that they should spend 100% of their time giving Google data.
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I doubt the data from the students is valuable. Getting them used to being tracked 24/7 is far more valuable.
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I doubt the data from the students is valuable. Getting them used to being tracked 24/7 is far more valuable.
Quoted for truth. Additionally, getting students used to using only "cloud-based" services and not relying on their own tinkering will keep them locked into this ecosystem.
Man, I am so glad I'm not a student in today's school systems.
Re:Obligatory conspiracy theory (Score:5, Informative)
Okay, campers - put the tinfoil aside.
Out here in the sticks (yes, I'm rural), kids routinely spend upwards of an hour or more on the school bus each morning (and afternoon), as their classmates and themselves are picked up from (or dropped off to) their somewhat remote homes. School hours are typically either a bit shorter in response, or that extra time spent on the bus eats into the time kids spend on homework.
May as well let the kids get the homework done before they get home (and/or before they get to school), and as a bonus, the kids won't be eating into the bandwidth caps at home that most Satellite Internet providers impose, which is what most folks in the sticks end up having to use if they want to get online (if there's Internet at all at home, which brings up another point entirely.)
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Something can be both good for the spied upon and be done for tracking reasons. In fact, it results in more efficent use and tracking. Hell, Google gives away internet searches for the purpose of better tracking.
The fact remains that this is properly a governmental function being outsourced to a private company that will track the kids. Google's claims not to do so with their educational offerings have proven false before.
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Kids on a school bus... that's pretty standard stuff, even without a tracker.
Otherwise, said kids will be connected to the school, or researching assignments, or...? It's not like you're going to find farm kids looking up bomb-making materials (they prolly already know how) or soaking in ISIS propaganda.
Finally, the demographic doesn't really lend itself to having much disposable income (rural families don't really have much of that, the kids especially.) Before you say it, unlike suburban/urban kids, yelli
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Targeted advertising is no longer the primary use of data. Now, it's being used to train AI (cue argument on whether DNN are AI; call it whatever you want.)
I'm not sure what exactly you're saying in the first part of your response - kids on a school bus are standard what? What's this about connecting to the school? I'm quite confused by what you're saying.
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"Targeted advertising is no longer the primary use of data. Now, it's being used to train AI"
What data is being used to train AI for what ?
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The value is in emerging trends. Election data sets. Unexpected local news that trends in a city, state, then goes national.
Products and services that are sill in demand all over the USA.
Any emerging fashions, slang, search terms, word use that is very local.
State and federal police also want the terms searched all over rural USA.
Shopping reviews and product searches.
No part of the USA will not be collected on.
The negative comments about pollut
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Umm, how so? Do they have window blinds that make it too dark to read or something?
Wait, you surely weren't suggesting that internet access is a necessary condition for doing homework, were you?
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Nowadays, even out here, at least some assignments require an Internet connection (and for kids who don't have one, I believe they're given alternate homework, or they're stuck with doing their homework at lunch or study hall, etc).
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Umm, how so? Do they have window blinds that make it too dark to read or something?
Wait, you surely weren't suggesting that internet access is a necessary condition for doing homework, were you?
Annoyingly, yes, it's starting to be a necessary condition. The assumption is that you can do research using the internet, and the homework itself may be online. A significant number of students I tutor are doing homework that's online, computer-generated and -graded, and sometimes you can really tell the computer-generated part because of the mistakes in how the questions are written.
I did have some classes where the homework was online when I was in college, too, for my various math and math-heavy class
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Give it ten years and if Wikipedia goes down civilisation will grind to a halt.
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Ten years? A decent number of them would be convinced that the rare tree octopus exists in their area if you showed them a Wikipedia page that asserted this as fact.
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It's sort of just believed that computers are a benefit education wise, but has it actually been empirically demonstrated beyond the extent that saws, Bunsen burners and voltmeters are?
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No, because "work hours" and "careers" won't exist then.
Of course they will. Lazy commies are going to keep complaining that they should get shit for free, but rational people will be working.
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I tried that but I never solved the problem of the ink bottle tipping over when the driver swerved to avoid a mammoth.
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It will also help Google know if hentai tentacle porn is more popular than hentai furry porn.
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Their parents are, you slack bastard.
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Google contributes mobile Wi-Fi routers, data plans, and Chromebook devices.
Study? Ha! (Score:2, Informative)
My 12-year old son would LOVE this idea...it would make it much easier to play games on his school-provided Chromebook if he had internet access for the long bus ride home. I can assure you that Chromebook gets used for much more gaming and YouTube watching than for actual schoolwork. No, they can't install apps, but there are lots of games available via the browser...
Let's be honest. Games + games. (Score:2)
My kids went through a mix of public and private schools. Homework is barely even a thing anymore.
Let's be honest about what this will be: an extra 60-120 minutes of gaming per day on the bus, inside the closed Android/Chromebook ecosystem. (Not that that's necessarily a bad thing.)
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Homework is barely even a thing anymore.
educating your kids is YOUR responsibility, if they don't have homework it's YOUR fault
Vomit comets? (Score:3)
Ever tried to work on a laptop in a moving car or bus, especially one with as crappy a suspension as a school bus? Motion sickness city.
If Google was so damn generous, they'd donate laptops with 4G modems and access, so students can do homework at home, not in a rolling distraction-box.
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Even if you don't get motion sick, you're likely to get a few more busted units from the thing flying off their lap.
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If Google was so damn generous, they'd donate laptops with 4G modems and access
You heard it here, folks: b0s0z0ku has spoken, Google's gift isn't generous enough to meet b0s0z0ku's standards.
Note that TFA says this is an expansion of an earlier pilot program that has been working out. But according to b0s0z0ku's thought experiment, it won't work. Silly Google!
P.S. I get carsick in buses too, but I'm not going to snark at Google over this. Maybe school-age kids can use a Chromebook in a bus without gettin
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"Google's gift isn't generous enough to meet b0s0z0ku's standards."
Because corporations have a duty to maximize profit, I don't believe they can ever really be called generous.
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That is why I avoid reading and watching in moving vehicles. I easily get carsick. :( I'd rather sleep!
Next step (Score:3)
Now all we need is all rural school buses equipped with seat belts. At least they will be able to use the Wi-Fi and Chromebook's to say a final good-bye to their loved ones or report that they survived the crash.
Disagree... (Score:2)
115 fatalities in 2017 alone, in school bus accidents. Whiles since 2012 the have been 138 fatalities due to school shootings. So despite what the news might say, there are more kids dying in school bus accidents than in school shootings. One just makes for much better ratings and is a current hot button issue for many liberal individuals and politicians, while the other is just business as usual.