Arizona School Bus Gains Wi-Fi, Students Amazingly Do More Work
"Kids these days" has never had a deeper meaning. Back in our day, rolling along on the school bus was a painful experience. The only chance we had to break from the misery was to bust out a textbook and start studying (not gonna happen), or if we were lucky, we'd get a driver nice enough to allow us to use our Walkman while riding.
These days, kids have it made. A school in the south of Arizona has been experimenting with a new kind of bus, and apparently the results have been incredible. Bus No. 92 near Vail, AZ is equipped with Wi-Fi, and students are not only allowed to surf the Web while riding to and from school, they're encouraged to do so. It's not that having the Internet on a vehicle is anything new; consumers can get Wi-Fi integrated into their General Motors car right now if you choose to pay for it.
What's unique is that a school is encouraging the use of laptops and mobile web-enabled devices on a bus. Contrary to what you may expect, this Wi-Fi installation has actually curbed mischievous behavior on the bus. Many students are using the ride to handle homework instead of just goofing off, and teachers are apparently noticing that more assignments are being turned in on time thanks to the additional time that they have to work on tasks. We can only hope that more schools take notice of this and start to implement similar options for students, but hopefully teachers won't counter by giving folks more homework just because the ride to and from school has been transformed into an extended school session.
These days, kids have it made. A school in the south of Arizona has been experimenting with a new kind of bus, and apparently the results have been incredible. Bus No. 92 near Vail, AZ is equipped with Wi-Fi, and students are not only allowed to surf the Web while riding to and from school, they're encouraged to do so. It's not that having the Internet on a vehicle is anything new; consumers can get Wi-Fi integrated into their General Motors car right now if you choose to pay for it.
What's unique is that a school is encouraging the use of laptops and mobile web-enabled devices on a bus. Contrary to what you may expect, this Wi-Fi installation has actually curbed mischievous behavior on the bus. Many students are using the ride to handle homework instead of just goofing off, and teachers are apparently noticing that more assignments are being turned in on time thanks to the additional time that they have to work on tasks. We can only hope that more schools take notice of this and start to implement similar options for students, but hopefully teachers won't counter by giving folks more homework just because the ride to and from school has been transformed into an extended school session.
