Wi-Fi Turns Rowdy Bus Into Rolling Study Hall

[groovedaddy]

VAIL, Ariz. — Students endure hundreds of hours on yellow buses each year getting to and from school in this desert exurb of Tucson, and stir-crazy teenagers break the monotony by teasing, texting, flirting, shouting, climbing (over seats) and sometimes punching (seats or seatmates).

But on this chilly morning, as bus No. 92 rolls down a mountain highway just before dawn, high school students are quiet, typing on laptops.

Morning routines have been like this since the fall, when school officials mounted a mobile Internet router to bus No. 92’s sheet-metal frame, enabling students to surf the Web. The students call it the Internet Bus, and what began as a high-tech experiment has had an old-fashioned — and unexpected — result. Wi-Fi access has transformed what was often a boisterous bus ride into a rolling study hall, and behavioral problems have virtually disappeared.

“It’s made a big difference,” said J. J. Johnson, the bus’s driver. “Boys aren’t hitting each other, girls are busy, and there’s not so much jumping around.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/education/12bus.html?th&emc=th

[onehandle]

1. Man, could I have used that when I was a kid.

Kids were Crazy on my early High School bus days.

The second I turned 16, I made sure I had a car.

This also upped my coolness factor with the ladies.

[gristy]

2. More de-socialization of the human psyche

Vail’s superintendent, Calvin Baker, says he knew from the start that some students would play computer games.

“That’s a whole lot better than having them bugging each other,” Mr. Baker said.

So the whole bus is quiet because the kids are "studying". And this is better than social interaction? I'm missing something here...

[MineralMan]

3. Hmph! Not on my band bus they wouldn't.

Somehow, we always found ways to amuse ourselves on the band bus, especially on return trips from out of town football games. Yes, indeed. No need for Wi-Fi.

[4_TN_TITANS]

4. Return trips after games when it was DARK

been there done that, Dude. Band buses are never boring, but then the kids are usually more responsible and disciplined than average.

[MineralMan]

5. Band Trip Rules from my journal

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/MineralMan/11