I really like the idea. However, there's a brief note in the article which isn't really addressed in detail: students need computer access to use an on-line text. Although computer access is increasing, poorer students wouldn't have the same amount of access (if any) as students from better-off families.
I can think of a few ways to lessen this problem. One would be to ensure that public libraries are freely accessible to students, and offer Internet access for students who don't have it at home. Another option would be to allow students to print out, at school, relevant materials from on-line texts. The second solution would be very expensive in the long run, so I'd say that some form of the first solution needs to be put into effect for the Governator's proposal to succeed.
OLPC has a solution to that, IIRC each unit needs to be regularly in contact with a base station at the school or it disables itself. Or you could just have remote disabling on-demand like BlackBerry.
I'm tempted to mention "that is hardware DRM". Why am I tempted? Because some of the audience will realize "Uh oh, doomed to failure" and some of the audience will say "NO, NO, IT ISN'T DRM. That is to prevent bad people from stealing stuff. DRM prevents me from ... That isn't DRM!"
I thought that at first too. Then it struck me that if every student has one there's not much incentive to steal. Cellphones were desirable objects for many thieves a few years back, but between location tracking and the sheer ubiquity of the things, a cellphone is no longer an obvious grab.
Then it struck me that if every student has one there's not much incentive to steal.
High-end electronics are worth money, money is still worth stuff even if you have your own high-end electronics. I got graphing calculators stolen off of me at a school where my current income would put me substantially below what my classmates considered poor, and I'm a professional engineer.
So then you fall back to the location beacon in the device. you go to schoolbook.google.com/patio11 and there a worm trail of where it's been for the last 24-48 hours. Oh look, it is at Sidney's house.
As odd as it sounds schools that service poorer students have more computers in general (at least in California where I live). This is because schools are granted what's called Title 1 funds based on the amount of lower income students who attend. Beyond that the state and federal governments subsidize high speed Internet connections like T3 lines through the E-Rate program
It still might be a problem but less because of lower income students and more because there's no way to put a computer on every student's desktop
Computers are more or less a commodity now...I mean you can get one for a few hundred dollars, or a used one off craigslist for 20 bucks, pretty much every household has one nowadays.
"Use the Internet" is different from "have the Internet in their home." Many if not most people do the bulk of their Internet usage in the office. Plus that study doesn't count kids what so ever.
Oh, and it's a small issue that's probably not statistically relevant (due to the city populations) but for the record California consists of more farm land than it does cities. Primarily in Central and Northern regions.
> only 73% of U.S. households have Internet access
We have no reason to believe that cost is a factor here. I strongly suspect that many of the computer-less households contain an expensive TV set and a cable feed.
I can think of a few ways to lessen this problem. One would be to ensure that public libraries are freely accessible to students, and offer Internet access for students who don't have it at home. Another option would be to allow students to print out, at school, relevant materials from on-line texts. The second solution would be very expensive in the long run, so I'd say that some form of the first solution needs to be put into effect for the Governator's proposal to succeed.