A sixth grader settles downs to tackle her homework on a weekday afternoon in 2004. She is sitting on the bus with her laptop; logging on to the Internet to take a math-skills test in the school home page and get her own personalized assignment. She downloads the software she’ll need, seeks help from an online school librarian and emails the finished work to her teacher. Mom and dad check in from their office computer, comparing her scores with the class and the state averages.
Homework in the future may not any less laborious, but it will certainly be more wired. And as more children gain access to computers and the Net—75%of teens and 47% of kids aged 2 to 12 are expected to be online by 2002—schools and technology companies are responding with unique assignment and high-tech homework help for parents and kids. On the menu: TAILOR-MADE ASSIGNMENTS. The most profound way homework will change is that instead of everybody heading home with the same lesson; each student will sit down to an individual assignment. The school server, or central computer, will maintain information on each student’s progress and dole out the appropriate work when the child checks the Web page.
Keeping in touch. For students like high school junior Samantha Symonds of Pottstown, pa, the simple ease of getting assignments on line and turning in via emails is reason enough to take homework digital. Samantha, a competitive fencer, travels far from her school for tournament and boots up to stay on top of her assignment. Logging on in hotel rooms and airports, she gets copies of course lectures and lab assignments, emails her teacher when she is stumped and even takes tests on line. “You can actually focus on what you need to know rather than tracking down someone to answer your questions,” Samantha says.
Unlimited research. Kids are rapidly becoming experts at searching websites and CD-RoMS for research projects and wowing teachers with what they find. The most profound way homework will change is that instead of everybody heading home with the same lesson; each student will sit down to an individual assignment.
Wiring the Have-Nots. As computers become the homework to tool of choice, educators worry about children who don’t have access to the technology. “The kids who don’t have computers at home will be at such a fundamental disadvantage. It will be as if they don’t have a pen or paper,” says Ellyot Solovay, a professor at he university of Michigan. He’s just finished a study in which internet TVs were placed in the homes of a class of Detroit public-school students, and found it not only benefited the kids but boosted parental involvement as well.
Yet wining kids over to become fans of homework may take more than high-tech help. Annette Bitter’s seventh–graders love doing research on the laptops they got through a Microsoft study. “But of course there are always excuses” says Bitter, who keeps hearing a modern tale of woe. “The computer ate my homework.”
1.How will assignments in 2004 be finished?
A. Students will go to school and finish the school work assigned by teachers.
B. Middle school teachers will require students to type our all their assignments.
C. Different assignments will be given to students according ti their own will.
D. Staying at home, students can get their assignments through the Internet and email to their teachers after finishing them.
2. According to the passage, laptop probably refers to ____.
A. a small-sized portable computer
B. a newly-invented TV set C. a kind of calculator
D. an old-fashioned private computer
3.What does the author mean by saying “it (homework) will certainly be more wired”?
A. More wires will be needed to finish homework.
B. homework is going to be done by wiring the house.
C. Students are expected to finish school work through the Internet.
D. Teachers will inform students of homework by phoning.
4.What kind of assignment will teachers give to students in 2004 according to the passage?
A. Less laborious than today’s homework.
B.Assignment given according to students’ different conditions.
C. Easy to complete with the help of online information.
D. work that are most entertaining to the students.
5.It is implied in the passage that _____
A. information technology enables education to vary from person to person.
B. assignment in 2004 will be more entertaining and less paining
C. all students are going to be fans of homework in the future.
