I think this idea is genius – wifi on the school buses. The story comes from Arizona but it seems like something that could be implemented anywhere. In Vail, Arizona they have attached a mobile router to the bus. Now kids can use the travel time as a study hall, rather than boisterous play time.
Here’s the picture they paint, I must admit it doesn’t sound like any bus ride I tooka s a kid…
On this morning, John O’Connell, a junior at Empire High School here, is pecking feverishly at his MacBook, touching up an essay on World War I for his American history class. Across the aisle, 16-year-old Jennifer Renner e-mails her friend Patrick to meet her at the bus park in half an hour. Kyle Letarte, a sophomore, peers at his screen, awaiting acknowledgment from a teacher that he has just turned in his biology homework, electronically.
Apparently the administrators got the idea from their own travel. When they travel one drives one direction while the other works and vice versa on the way home. They realized that might make sense for the kids too.
Ahhhh, yeah. I suppose if high school kids can wifi Facebook or World of Warcraft that might keep them on the bus instead of driving to school. Call it congestion management.
By: John Shepard on February 15, 2010
at 4:49 pm
I love that perspective. That perspective might get some individual donors to underwrite the routers!
By: Ann Treacy on February 15, 2010
at 6:03 pm