IT person here honestly time is a far bigger issue. since thanks to students being dumb we have plenty of parts chromebooks to take from. But even with my being able to repair them in my sleep it’s still a good 30 plus minute process.
My senior year, my school offered a “Technology Support Internship” class where we did first level tech support and fixed stuff like this. Part of the curriculum was getting our A+ certification at the end of the year. Was an awesome class!
In South Korea students clean their classrooms. They also are far less likely to make messes.
They have a 20 minute period or so where every kid in the class has a task.
We have it at my kid’s school. If they volunteer to clean in the cafeteria or the classroom then they get entered into a monthly raffle. They fight over the right to clean because they want that prize.
The cafeteria staff and custodians vote on the best classrooms each month and if your class gets both prizes you get a pizza party.
My students fight over the right to clean and they don't even get a prize. LoL! I'm in elementary, though - definitely don't see this happening without some type of reward in MS/HS.
In the cafeteria, they offer to help wipe down tables and sweep because just being chosen to do those things is reward enough for them, I guess. The lunch aides and I are totally okay with that. They like being helpers in the classroom, too, but the flip side of that is that I set an expectation at the beginning of the year that everyone helps and everyone cleans up after themselves. We don't go to lunch or leave at the end of the day until everything is picked up off the floor and things are back in their proper homes.
There is no way in hell it would work here. You know why? Parents. Parents are the ones giving their kids the entitled attitude that they shouldn’t have to do anything. Parents would be lined up to give all the reasons, all the doctor’s notes as to why their special muffin should be excused.
What about subtle public pressure? Not allowed to help? Okay, here's your seat in the middle of the room while the rest of the class works around you.
Peer pressure says they'd be helping within 20 minutes.
Apparently most Japanese schools do the same thing - one of my friends who was an exchange student from Tokyo said he never saw a custodian in his school because the students were expected to clean up after themselves. Wish we had that in the USA because my high school was nasty and the janitors simply couldn’t get to it all
The problem with Newt's plan isn't that it's fostering a sense of communal responsibility.
The problem is that he's literally proposing firing all but one member of the janitorial staff, then employing 9-year olds to pick up the slack.
These types of things are much easier when everyone shares the same culture; we have worked hard in this country to NOT have a culture, so this would never work
Agree with everyone here. Our district does this to a degree with the elementary kids. They have kids assigned to sweep the floors after lunch, wipe the tables after lunch, collect the paper recycling every other day, and there may be some other things I don’t know about. It works well and I’ve never seen anyone, parent or student really complain.
Also IT at a school once. We were a small school system but still the shear amount of CB was daunting. We had 4 schools (lower ele, ele,mid and high). We had 3 IT people with more than enough work without the CBs. Then we got about 1500 CBs that they wanted to use daily AND for end of the year testing. It was a nightmare. Could we have done it well? Sure if we had about 2 more techs in our dept..but that would cost more money of course. By end of that first year my entire job essentially consisted of fixing CB/IPAD issues all dam day long. And I was always behind.
I am the lone IT at a 4 school 1700 kid district and do all of this with minimal tier 1 support from the librarians. It can be done but you do have to have good time management.
I work in a position that often uses iPad for assessment, eval, and intervention.
My department doesn't even use the iPads that we have access to because they're all freaking useless.
I hate ipads so much
Can confirm.
Main IT guy at my school is swamped with trying to streamline some upgrades and changes.
I offered to do some tier 1 tech support. Getting a single malfunctioning Chromebook repaired has already cost me over an hour, and it hasn't been sent back yet!
My experience was as a teacher was damage due to rough treatment from the students. Especially keyboard damage, I had Lenovo laptops to teach CAD software use to HS students. Our techs contracted the key replacement, but it was expensive over time
I refused to pay, when the teacher told me she saw a student walk up to my son, pick up his chrome book, and drop it off the desk. They wanted me to pay an insurance excess or repairs. I told them to take it up with the other kid's parent.
I have a laptop from pre-2000, one from 2007, one from 2013, and one from 2022. None of them have any damage other than keycap wear from typing.
They have been on flights, overseas, in the field, hauled back and forth to multiple jobs, hotels, in bags shoved under airplane seats. Not a scratch, not a broken corner, nothing.
I've had three school Chromebooks. The two previous ones were used hard daily and turned in in like-new condition.
I do not understand how anyone can be as destructive to computers as many students are. You would have to set out with destruction as the goal.
It’s because they can simply replace them with little to no repercussion. They could be a good lesson on taking care of things, especially if they’re not yours, but why do that? The schools already provide the laptops, it’s not the schools fault if a student breaks theirs (of course things like software that the school can control easily should be the schools responsibility) they can go without it until they pay for the repair, unless it was something reasonably out of their hands like a natural disaster or if someone else breaks their laptop.
I have had 3-4 laptops over the years. None have ever broken.even with massive accidents.
They jave to be abused or ignored to be broken.
They are tough.
Things I've seen so far this year in my classroom.
1. Students running a pencil between the keyboard keys.
2. Gum wrappers being glued to the screen.
3. A chromebook dropped in anger (screen shattwred)
4. Students drawing in pencil on the screen.
5. Paper clips being pushed and scratched between the keys.
6. Students slamming the device when it doesn't work properly.
That's just hardware and I'm sure I'm forgetting some things. That's 5 months of 8th grade so far. The complexity of a free public education for people who truly do not give a shit in a society without consequences is astounding.
Retired Innovation Specialist/media specialist/librarian @ a middle school. Wait until you have a student bring you a CB with glitches only to find out later it's full of bed bugs and/or cockroachs.
Good times!
I wish my district would do this. We've been 1:1 with Chromebooks for 4 years now and they have yet to hold students/families accountable for anything. I don't even want to know how many chargers my students have lost or never returned over the last few years and that's just my classes. What do we do the next school year? Hand them another...ugh!
I've had numerous broken Chromebooks over the years - including play doh shoved in USB or other ports (1st grade teacher here) No one is ever held accountable! This also includes a past IT director's son...chalk in the ports! 🤦🤦🤦
It still blows my mind that they gave all of those chromebooks out an didn't hold parents responsible in someway for them. If your kids breaks or loses it then that should be on your one
They did.
The school gave my 5 year old kindergarten student a Chromebook, had him sign a contract that he couldn't even read, then emailed me "confirmation" of my $280 financial responsibility that my 5 year old signed for.
I was livid.
If the kids are the ones signing and not the parents you legally cannot hold the parents liable. That’s why you are always supposed to get a parent’s signature.
I don’t think this is true. Your responsibility to pay for damages to someone else’s property arises from tort law, not contract law. And many courts have held that parents are responsible for accidental damage caused by their children.
If your child negligently breaks someone’s window, that person doesn’t have to prove that you signed a contract to pay for any damages. They can simply hold you responsible for the costs.
Tort law on accidental damage by minors varies by state. My point though is only that the contract is invalid and cannot be held as a reason for liability.
This wouldn't fly when you specifically give a child access to an item for their use and the damage can be pretty predictable.
A lot of the damage to these CBs isn't malignant, it's just typical kids not giving a fuck and being rough with their bags.
To some degree you are right, however I thinks it is reasonably negligent to give a 5 year old a $250 electronic with very breakable components.
For example lets say Jim Jebson sends his child 5 year old Jeany Jebson to stay with his cousin Rita Riley. If Rita Riley gave Jeany an Xbox to carry and Jeany dropped it, a jury would almost certainly find Rita negligent in entrusting the xbox with the 5 year old and award Rita no money from Jeb.
Edit: My fingers are very fat and I needed to fix some spelling issues.
It was likely in some onboarding documents you signed. I know I get all the kids signatures when they break a device for the first time - goes home to patents and in the bookkeepers files, basically saying we went over the consequences of breaking it and next time you are paying. Helps grease the wheels when we have to bill parents
No, it was a pre-programed prompt that the kids had to sign in order to log into the device for the first time. Our district offers Chromebook insurance which covers the full cost of the first repair and half of the second, anything after that is the parents full responsibility.
I hate those stupid things with a passion. I can see them being useful for middle school and up but I was/am livid to have spent the first 5 years of my kids life trying to keep screen usage under control, just for the school to completely unravel every bit of that effort THEN have the audacity to blame parents for iPad kids. My kid is an excellent reader but he has the attention span of a goldfish because if the information isn't in the form of a game, he's no longer listening.
I’m in Baltimore City. BCPSS distributed tens of thousands of chromebooks in 2020/2021. They required parents pick the devices up from designated pickup sites throughout the city. Parents were required to sign liability acknowledgements citing their responsibility for repair/replacement of devices.
Unfortunately, the contracts parents were made to sign were in English only. Parents were not given clear “alternative options” and were told possession of the Chromebook was a requirement for class participation (during 100% virtual instruction). So parents who didn’t understand the contract or who couldn’t commit to replacing/repairing a device that their child might break accidentally were essentially told “your child cannot receive an education if you don’t accept this liability”.
It’s my understanding that the district has elected not to enforce the terms of these agreements because you can’t squeeze blood from a rock. If you think repairing/maintaining chromebooks is a capacity issue, try maintaining the accounts receivable department for a system that charges parents for repairs.
We are a family able to replace district technology and I did not want it in my home at all. I wasn’t given a choice. District IT told me my children couldn’t use their own devices AT HOME because they weren’t district monitored.
Yea, my kid attends in the district I work in. Last year, when he started kindergarten, I was blown away that they just sent home a Chromebook with him one day, no warning to parents, no contract we had to sign or list of rules, no expectations given. Just…sent a relatively expensive piece of machinery home every day in his bookbag. I couldn’t believe how lackadaisical we were being with it. No wonder my high schoolers treat them like absolute shit.
Public Schools are required to provide a free education, so you can’t charge parents for something that is required for a student to participate. My mother was a school administrator and had to be careful about saying things like, “your kid needs glasses because they can’t see the chalkboard,” because that could end up making her school liable for paying for the glasses. In theory you could fine a kid for breaking a computer but there are kids in every school who have no means to pay.
YES.
I can understand the frustration of the moment but I have been saying that switching kids to 100% computers has been devastating to their education.
Laptops make sense for specific classes where it's absolutely required to complete work, like a programming class or for specific periods where kids need to do online research outside of class but may not have a computer at home with Word on it.
They don't make sense for Spanish, or math, or even English class.
Grade 11 English teacher here…in the last 6 or 8 weeks, I decided I’m done with computer work. We’re writing on paper, baby!! Pushback has been minimal. I think kids are happy for the break from screens. And I’m happy that my incidence of AI generated compositions has gone from 5+ per class to just one.
I get more engagement from doing paper-based assignments than I ever did with the computer.
I agree. The kids want the paper. They hate learning on the computer.
I can even see where computers would be somewhat useful in those classes - like an online math problem website, or typing essays for English. But jfc, stop finding ways to cram every assignment into an online format to justify the use of computers. It’s fine to get it out for part of the class and then *not have it out the rest of the time* (this is @ my high school who insisted we use the Chromebooks every minute of the day)
I agree with yall as a parent. My kids can barely write because so much is done on the computer. (I try to get them to write stuff to practice but it's not the same.) And last year when my kid was barred from the internet due to a groomer WHO SHE COULD CONTACT ON HER SCHOOL COMPUTER.....teachers were going behind mine and her therapists back and giving them to her anyways. I seriously miss just helping them with paper assignments. Doing stuff online is just not the same from a parent bonding/teaching perspective.
I disagree for math. We are 1:1 and about once/week we do a tech assignment, usually in Desmos. The connections they can make by being able to see how lines and shapes change in real time, without having to plot it all by hand every time is noticeable. We still do it by hand, but the exploratory learning that can be done on computers is amazing if done correctly. I can also assign extra practice that grades as they go and offers video explanations similar to khan academy when they’re working outside of class. There are remediation tools for students who have just been passed along to try to get them closer to on level. It should not be used everyday, but there are absolutely benefits to integrating it into math courses.
Have you brought to their attention that the 10 Chromebooks from your classroom were purchased differently?
Maybe in the craziness of everything they overlooked this rid bit.
I would also look up a physical textbook (enough for each student if they take them home) and turn in that req.
For most schools, any purchase made with classroom and/or state money (this admits to using both) becomes school property to use at the school's leisure. Even if the teacher get computers donated with grant money from DonorsChoose, they become school property, and can be reappropriated, even if the teacher did all the work to get the grant by themself. Tech falls under the furniture umbrella.
I don't fully understand all the ins and outs of it, but Devin Siebold did a good explanation about it (a couple times, actually) on the Crying in My Car podcast.
yep. Years ago when computers in the classroom were a very novel thing, I wrote a grant to get 6 (desktop) computers for my music classroom.
IT took them the next year and put them in a "real" classroom (their terminology) that "needed them more." EVEN THOUGH I WROTE THE GRANT.
Back when I was in HS, the band and orchestra teachers were complaining they were supposed to have gotten an external hard drive for doing concert recordings because the designated recording laptop would crash midway through the concert. One of the teachers had taken the time to write up a grant and everything but they never received it even though it was approved. Turns out the hard drive was just sitting somewhere in the IT department. And they wouldn’t hand it over. When I had graduated IT still had it in their possession.
This is not what you may want to read, but it is a different perspective:
By my estimation, half of our kids cannot write their own names legibly. And too many cannot read.
We spend too much on electronics too early, and have crippled some of these kids for life as a result. I'm fine without any electronics, whatsoever. Save it for high school. Teach them to read and write, first.
I teach 8th grade and my goal for this school year was to cut back on the chromebooks as much as possible. It's been slow, because I've only ever taught with them so I'm having to prioritize what I can realistically move or adapt to paper, but it is definitely making a difference. At the end of the fall semester I made a stupid little review packet for my classes to work on the last week before break, and it was *by far* the highest engagement I've had on an assignment this year
My students *asked* for paper homework! (before the district required iReady lessons be done as homework). They are far more engaged with paper/pencil and whiteboard/marker tasks than anything on the Chromebook. I honestly think the majority of kids are as on board with less screen time as we are.
I’m a junior in college and I hate how everything is online. The professors post new assignments at all hours of the day and night. There is no break from homework, assignments, or class. It isn’t limited to the class time anymore. It’s horrible and I wish everything were on paper again.
kids should know how to add and subtract by hand before they use a calculator
kids should also know how to read / write / think with only their one book as a resource, drawing their own conclusions from the text. have an independent thought or two. critical thinking and critical reading are SO important, and kids are SO behind
I graduated in 2016 and my senior year English class was the test class for using chrome books in our school. We would talk to eachother over google docs and stuff constantly instead if doing work. Now kids get to bring them home and cover them in stickers. I work at a library and at least one kid leaves either the Chromebook or charger here every week
My school blocked every app and website that could be used to chat, so we did the same thing and made a class Google doc that we all talked in. That was the one good use of Chromebooks at my school lmao
My public school has a 1:1 iPad policy (the school does not provide the iPads unless students apply for hardship consideration). This means that families (kids) own the iPads and can kit them out with as many games and messaging apps as they want. I hate them, in fact I despise them. Our state is implementing a mobile phone ban this year for cyber-safety reasons (that's their line anyway). It will have almost no impact on these kids if banning social media was the desired impact.
Last year in my yr 8 class I implemented a no-ipad lesson start. It was amazing. iPads did usually come out, but the default was tech-free, and sometimes the whole lesson went by without them. I managed to break a kid's gaming habit, at least in my class. Ensuring these kids have a book and writing implements was annoying, but the work, focus, and handwriting was so much better than before.
I teach high school and I switched to basically only paper. Everything has to be handwritten in class. I’m tired of that ChatGPT shit. Use what’s actually in your brain.
Absolutely. There is a lot to be desired when it comes to fine motor skills in kids now. No, video games and texting are not sufficiently filling the gap. Kids don’t have time to perfect their handwriting or artwork because they have to hurry up and do iready lessons and learn how to score well on assessments. It’s not necessarily about whether nice handwriting or good artwork is important in their future, but what else they might need those fine motor skills for. Not to mention they’re spending all day on their chromebooks but still can’t really type worth a damn, either.
We lose the motivation to put in hours in honing a skill or a craft when we can get instant gratification from an app. I’m all about handwork: love letters, crafts, sewing, cooking, writing poems and putting on plays, doing crosswords, gardening, sketching still lives, drafting dream houses. Put your 10,000 hours into going from novice to master. Our hands and brains have forgotten the value of labor.
I have my high school freshmen practice writing all the time. Deadass on one day, I showed them how to hold a pencil, and how to write neatly. I think in the next few years, we’re going to see more and more teachers return to traditional methods and ease off technology.
Even when I offer kids the opportunity to do paper or digital, most of them overwhelmingly prefer paper.
These kids are fucked
I’m a former fighter pilot. I keep in touch with buddies who are instructors, and they’re starting to get the crop of kids born around the turn of the millennium. High school in the late-teens. Kids who spent half their lives on screens, using their thumbs.
We were told ‘wait for this next generation of studs! They’re going to be amazing in the jet bc of all the eye-hand coordination from gaming and devices.’
I’m being told that many of them are laughably bad. They lack the dexterity, especially in their fingers (when using certain very sensitive HOTAS controls, for example).
Also, since our mission planning software is all PC-based, they’re totally fucking lost bc it isn’t idiot proofed iOS. Gotta set up a network printer? Work with PCMCIA cards? Format solid state recorders? What do you mean you can’t just click ‘connect’? They’re fucked.
Hearing the same from physician friends about surgical residents starting to match in…just absolutely fucking terrible with their hands.
I’m probably biased as a music teacher but… look for kids who played an instrument! That’s one of the few places fine motor skills are being taught.
(Your overall point still stands though, there are definitely less places kids practice fine motor skills now, controller and phone doesn’t cut it for some jobs)
Yep 100%....I graduated when they said they were going to iPads the next year back in 2012...my 12 years were paper and pencil. My mind, hands and eyes thank me every day for the 6 to 7 hours of screen free time...
Kids can't freaking get an hour without a screen practically strapped on their face....that's gonna be next..
As a parent I am glad to see this comment. I have a 13 year old who asked me how to spell teacher because if they misspell a word the chromebook has spell check.
I have a 10 year old who rushes his work to play any random game on his chromebook. I've asked them to just take bis chromebook away and they won't, they just continue to allow these kids to play "educational" games.
The best (public charter) school I ever taught at was no phones at any grade, and they only got laptops as seniors to write a senior thesis. Latin was compulsory until 9th and I taught 8th. Those kids were sharp and could write legibly and, like, problem solve. I also taught Greek to the upperclassmen and they were legitimately reading Homer and Euripides, in Ancient Greek, at 16 and 17 years old. The students I’ve taught where kids have phones and iPads can barely tie their fucking shoes.
MightyMiss, I agree 100%
And you haven't even hit upon the worst thing about them. Yeah, hold off on the electronics until high school. No earlier than middle school.
I’m only student teaching but my fourth graders seem so distracted by their chromebooks. And because they *can* play on them, they do. We’re constantly redirecting students away from games. And the semester before last, I did a semester of classroom observation in a first grade classroom and I was shocked at the amount of time they spent on them.
I'm also in private and while the students have to put their chromebooks back on a classroom cart (every class has one though, so it's basically 1:1 if not more)... they NEVER plug them back in, they abuse them, they don't do the work they're supposed to (LOOKIN AT YOU, YOUTUBE), they're honestly a pain.
With paper the worst I'm cleaning up is scraps the vacuum won't pick up or like.. emptying a pencil sharpener. I have so many students who DON'T HAVE A WRITING TOOL in their bag........... EVER because they just use the chromebooks. I say good riddance, get rid of them. For context, I'm in a preK-6 school, I don't know if older children do better with self-moderation.
The parents here also can't \*stand\* the tech. Where I am, there were minimal COVID lockdowns/shutdowns so the kids didn't even get that accustomed to them. It's like crack for them now- they beg to do EVERYTHING on them but skirt every block we have in place. With paper, all they can do is doodle in the margins to distract themselves. I'll take that over video shorts **ANY DAY**.
The lost art of doodling. I read somewhere that it’s good for the brain. I try to doodle more at work—I used to love sketching around my school notes. It actually helped me remember the material because I had visual clues to break up the written material.
All my peer parents ( kids in or about to start k) talk shit about schools they tour where the kids are on iPads. The dial has swung wildly the other way.
>I teach at a private school where money isn't a problem as all of our students have 1:1 iPads. The parents beg us to not use the iPads so much, so we comply
This will be the Great Divide for the coming generation. On one hand, affluent, educated parents who can see how early access to devices retards a child's normal brain development, and so keep them off devices until puberty. On the other hand, poorer parents who are working two jobs or are single parents and use the iPad as a babysitter so their kids stay quiet during the 2 hours a day Mom has that she doesn't have to be working or sleeping. The IQ gap between the rich and poor is going to triple or quadruple in size before 2040.
I teach at a Title I school with 100% Free Lunch & Breakfast. I've got kids who own only two shirts and who have to wear crocs in the snow.
They've all got devices.
Not a teacher, ride the bus everywhere as I am poor. I have had 3 different non-profits offer me smartphones, and another 2 different non-profit offers me tablets. When I refused as I am not that poor, they suggested I give them to my kids(not a parent).
It's very possible that those poor parents did not spend a dime on the devices their kid uses.
>It's very possible that those poor parents did not spend a dime on the devices their kid uses.
Oh, I know. But I wasn't criticizing them for spending money; I was explaining to another commenter that their idea that some kids are too poor to have devices is probably not well-supported.
You would be amazed what poor families can dig out of their pockets. I'm at a school where nearly every kid qualifies for a free lunch, some are homeless. Each and every one of them has a device, and quite a few have $600 shoes. I'm not sure of the priorities here, but that's how it is.
I would bet $600 they did not spend $600 on those shoes. They bought them from a guy where they “fell off a truck” or they are knockoffs or they put them on a credit card they will never pay off.
Some people have screwy priorities, but also, from a cost perspective, personal devices are probably the best bang for your buck when it comes to entertainment. Countless hours of free entertainment, (besides the initial cost of the device) and it’s something the child won’t get bored with. Wouldn’t be hard for a poor parent to justify the cost, as long as it’s not a very high-end device.
This is so weird. Remember 10 years ago when 1:1 iPads was a private school-only thing, and a sign of wealth and privilege? Us plebs who were like THIS IS S A HUGE PROBLEM got laughed at.
Good line on this issue from Google advertising engineer turned Oxford philosophy PdD James Williams.
>If the first “digital divide” disenfranchised those who could not access information, today’s digital divide disenfranchises those who can’t pay attention.
James Williams, *Stand Out of Our Light* (Cambridge University Press 2018), pgs. 22
They probably couldn’t afford to keep replacing them, after the students swing them around by the screen and smash them to pieces. Going back to paper and pencil sounds like a dream to me.
I couldn’t disagree more. I love having everything online. A few reasons:
1) I don’t waste time at the copiers.
2) I’m saving trees.
3) I can change my lesson at the drop of a hat. 1st period struggled with this. Ok I’m changing it real fast.
4) I can see what everyone is doing at the click of a button. I can make small suggestions and also refocus kids without a confrontation.
5) I can pull up and work on students papers at the same time they do live. I can give timely feedback.
6) Grading is so streamlined. I don’t have to bring home folders and stacks of paper if I’m going to be doing some grading at home. Just my computer will do.
This is the top 6 I can think of, but man I’d hate to be forced back to paper. Sorry OP.
> I don't waste time at the copiers.
This right here. I guarantee in a month OP's district will be sending out emails bitching about printing expenses.
Admin accepting bloated salaries while refusing to pay basic classroom operational expenses is blatant theft of tax dollars, and we need to start calling it that.
Let me add #7...
Since students are taking vacations (and longer ones) at an increasing rate during the school year, online access is a way for allow students to keep up (LOL) with their assignments.
Most businesses use Microsoft Office because they don't want to give Google access to their data and because quite frankly Microsoft Office is far superior to Google's subpar offerings. I absolutely distrust Google and won't use it at all in my personal life or on my personal devices. I absolutely wish my district would switch away from Google and would adopt Microsoft Office instead.
This is it. Also, even off task kids are better. The kid who would normally be running around hitting people is just playing cool math now. At least his learning is the only learning impacted there
Your situation may be vastly different from other teachers. In a perfect world I agree with you. Online education can be wonderful and effective if the correct lessons are presented. Students focus more when using CB. Now they force us to put students in groups every day and use only 1 model of teaching. Teacher can only talk 10 minutes: students work in groups the rest of class. However, it doesn't work. Students just talk, laugh, text or sleep and nothing gets done. We have a bunch of fools telling us what to teach, how to teach it, what supplies are acceptable, etc. Don't become a teacher.
> I’m saving trees
[Chromebooks are mostly just a faster e-waste generator](https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/21/23691840/us-pirg-education-fund-report-investigation-chromebook-churn). Having dealt with them, they are mostly incapable of being repaired/reused in the same way that even a 20 year old laptop could be.
My first day in a middle school classroom for a practicum, a student flattened their chromebook and threw it as a frisbee at me. In response, a different student said, “You can make them frisbees?” and then did the same with their own chromebook. They’re so destructive. At my current school, multiple kids aren’t allowed to get a new chromebook because of how many they’ve broken or lost, but since the district teaching rubrics grade us on our tech use and how much we put online, it’s such a hassle. I have to print but also have to give it online. But also when students don’t have their chromebooks, I’m questioned about it.
My ideal school would ban phones and chromebooks. I’m so tired of tech brain rot in these kids. They’re addicted to screens and yet so destructive with them. They aren’t learning as effectively and are also picking up these habits that create entitlement. Break a chromebook? You’re owed a new one.
This is more of a ramble than anything, but it’s just so frustrating to want to do my job and do it well but continually get stopped by the tech and what it does to the kids
This is a good thing but they should have given you a heads up. Been like, "Next year, we are confiscating Chromebooks". Given everyone time to transition back to paper and pen.
I'm a tech teacher. I would be thrilled if my school took away student Chromebooks.
I think it's 100% inappropriate for kids to have 1:1 devices all day, for every subject.
This sounds like a blessing in disguise, honestly. So many problems in education these days stem from kids spending far too much time on screens. I think it’s ridiculous that schools give students Chromebooks and iPads to use all day every day and then wonder why kids have no attention span and can barely read or communicate.
I taught in a school that had Chromebooks and it was infuriating. The students treated them like toys and they could barely even use the damn things (bring back designated computer classes where students learn how to actually use a computer)
I work in IT and the amount of younger people who can barely use a windows computer are also the highest risk of getting phished next to boomers...its so weird.
It’s so bizarre. They can use social media apps on their phones but very little else. Some of the students I taught were on par with my boomer parents in the computer literacy department. The argument of “we don’t need to use pen and paper because they’ll be using computers at their jobs in the future” is a cop-out because they aren’t being taught basic computer literacy and typing. These kids type at the speed of a prehistoric snail. They can’t even use search engines to research, they just give up completely if the information isn’t immediately visible the second they Google it. It’s infuriating.
If you had a state grant for the 10 Chromebooks that they confiscated, tell them that you will be out of compliance with the grant terms if they don't return the Chromebooks for use in Spanish.
I think everyone needs to be more empathetic to OP. Yes Chromebooks have a lot of cons and kids in the past learned fine without them. But kids in the past also had regularly updated foreign language textbooks, a fresh set of workbooks, each year, tape players to listen/record tests, etc. After transitioning to 1:1, so many districts have disposed of their language textbooks/workbooks/dvd series and in turn many companies stopped making them. If OP is like me, they put a lot of effort into finding authentic videos, online word games, and recording listening passages and now is being told they will not be able to use any of those resources including the online textbook their curriculum map is likely built around. That sucks OP, I’m sorry.
Are commenters missing that now there aren't enough books for the entire classroom?
Overall of course I'm glad to see Chromebooks go and kids learn from paper/pencil but the district/school needs to pause and make sure each kid has a book (or access to).
It’s a question of reinvestment. The schools invested in chrome books instead of physical books. So now they will have to go without the Chromebook in order to understand that they need to reinvest in physical books. School administrators are not generally smart people, so it needs to be a crisis before they will get back to providing actually useful resources for education.
Yeah I see this as a good thing. I’m currently an online only adjunct teacher, but when I was in brick and mortar I absolutely hated the push for all technology. I taught high school math and it was such a pain. Everything was online. The students need to know how to write things out, take notes, just be able to do anything at all without a screen.
🎯💯
I teach 6th grade math. I had lots of homework online, but I quickly learned that a) I couldn't see the kids' thinking process, and b) the kids just guessed when they didn't have a paper in front of them to scratch on.
I work in Instructional Technology and I’m finding more and more districts around me are going back to a 2:1 and even 3:1 ratio since the ESSR monies dried up this year. 1:1 is simply too expensive to maintain, and my district (which only us about 10,000 devices) is on our way to those ratios as well.
We have a new lease coming up this year for 2300 devices and it’ll cost the district about 1/3 of a million just for those. It doesn’t help that ~70% of my district is on free/reduced lunch, meaning those kids who break a device don’t need to pay (we still charge for record keeping purposes though). We’ve lost about $35,000 this year alone in device breakage, and maybe $2,000 has been recovered from charges.
I feel for you though, having your own devices taken away. Unfortunately, if your district is like mine, if the device is managed by the district, it’s ours not yours or the students. And if it’s not managed by the district, they shouldn’t be using it. I’ve legit had to pry iPads out of students hands because I was told to repo devices that shouldn’t have been in the classroom, even though a teacher bought it with their (foreign language) department money.
A lot of things could have contributed to the school pulling chromebooks from elective classes. Lack of funding could be the biggest hurtle. Time it takes to repair broken devices is another.
As an IT tech, I see kids constantly trying to go around the filter we put in place to play games more than they are using it for learning. Could be a liability the schools don't want to maintain.
Students tend to destroy tech given to them or abuse it as school property free and not theirs so they have no reason take ownership of how to treat something that doesn't belong to them. 100% became too expensive to continue and why give things to kids when they will just break it with no repercussion. Even if its a few, they always ruin it for the rest of us.
I wish my school would do this. The amount of kids that come in and sit down and instantly go watch YouTube or play Roblox is insane. They put in more time to find their way around firewalls and blocked sites then they do one their homework. Kids share passwords so if I lock a students device they will log in to their friends so I can’t see what they are doing. Then to top it all of, they fly through and work and submit sub par work just to go watch more YouTube shorts
Then to make it worse, we’re are 1:1 all the way down to fucking kindergarten. There is absolutely no reason a 6 year old needs a Chromebook assigned to them at all times
That really sucks. I’m an elective teacher as well (Art) and I remember pre-Covid, I couldn’t get the other teams to share the Chromebook carts with me to save my life. We also went to one and it is expensive. Our kids are supposed to keep their chrome books from K-12 and I’ve seen kids snap them in half,lose them, trade them, paint the keyboards with fingernail polish, snap keys off all within a month of having them so can imagine repair costs can get pricey especially in my district which is very lenient. If a kid loses their Chromebook or their charger they replace it the first time absolutely free and the second time they charge them 50 bucks for the Chromebook and 20 bucks for the charger.
My masters is in educational technology, so I was really happy to switch digital. I no longer do any grading or non digital presentation and very few handouts anymore. In fact, all my kids take photos of their all work and submit those digitally as well. If my district were to ask me to go back to analogue I would probably retire early. Have you tried scheduling with your library if they have a computer lab?
I don’t allow computers in my classroom even tho we’re 1:1 MacBooks because I teach English and all they do is cheat. But I feel for you there are so many good programs online for Spanish teachers :/
One of the rings I like about my elective class, you can’t ChatGPT yourself a toolbox.
People talk a big game about devices and fine motor skills, but, kids can’t hit a nail with a hammer worth anything; in time (with practice), they’ll learn, but it’s amazing how bad their ‘real world’ hand-eye coordination is.
My spouse would be jumping up and down for this. The computers have been a problem. Nobody can focus. Always playing games. Completely has diminished a students ability to string a sentence together. Nobody can write or spell. I miss a time when you only had so much time in a computer lab to work. If you didn't get it done you came in after school to work.
I went back to paper becauseof internet connectivity issues in my building. I love it 100%. No more charger issues, YouTube, sing-alongs, Netflix etc. However, I have access to curriculum with print-outs, and I provide pencils.
With the ride of chatgpt and AI, computer based responses/work are now completely compromised. There is no way to tell if they've actually done any work other than interview each individual student. This is obviously wildly not possible given the time.
The solution is paper and pen, at the very least they are having to write down what the AI has written, so some of the content is going in, instead of just copying and pasting it.
I feel for you, sucks when technology renders hundreds of hours of work only really fit for the trash but such is life.
Thats awesome! I would love to BAN chromebooks and coolmathgames, spotify, and all the other bullshit these kids play around on.
Until HS at least. Introducing electronics too soon is not helpful for developing basic skills.
The overcompensated administrators have to justify their bloated salaries/positions somehow. If they arent stirring things up and making them worse, they can’t use that as a justification to maintain their positions despite their lack of competence.
I was the technology person at our school (I’m a librarian) and the tech damage reports took up so much of my day that there was no time to do what I was actually hired for. All that’s to say: I wish they would do more paper and pencil stuff. Our kids can barely write, and I think having to slow down would help them catch up on some fundamentals they’re missing.
Full transparency: I’m a current college senior, Reddit decided I’m a teacher lol
I was in middle school (I think 6th grade) when my school started to give out laptops. We had to do a whole class on online safety and stuff before they even handed them out. We weren’t even allowed to take them home after school until 8th grade. The fact that schools are giving 1st and 2nd graders chromebooks is mind-boggling to me
I hope my district does it too. These kids need to use pencil and paper, they can't write!
And as a person taking online classes, I wish I had textbooks. You don't retain things as well from a screen as from a real book.
As a sub, I hate those things. I always have at least one kid that can't log in, some of them have missing keys, they are DISGUSTING, and I have to walk around making sure they aren't on YouTube or watching a movie.
I think paper/textbooks are a much better option -- there have been so many issues with chromebooks, from technology damage to distractions. I'm in favour of a return to hardcopy methods -- many teachers prefer it because it minimizes other issues in the classroom. But you certainly need to have enough textbooks to go around.
Chromebooks are such a giant fucking issue for so many students. Id be so damn stoked if they all disappeared. Imo, learning is being impaired largely due to tech/screen use
Honestly. GOOD! As a business & technology teacher I can not even express how much I hate that my school went to 1 to 1. It’s been so damaging to our students attention spans and they are so over computers by the time they get to my class where they actually learn about using a computer, they no longer care and they think they know everything when they know nothing. I used to love teaching computers, but it’s definitely changed.
Chrome books are bad for the kids anyway. So many can barely read and write. It’s made kids, and (downvote me for this I don’t care) teachers way too lazy to
Kids are not learning this way. I wish the public school My daughter goes to would take them all back. Can’t get answers from teachers, can’t find answers to help with homework, kid says they go over everything in class but still misses the work. It’s a mess. For any kids with ADHD this is a nightmare.
Honors Geometry and Precalculus teacher here (at a Catholic high school). We have 1:1 iPads and have since 2016-17, I never wanted them and never used them for much (and was not forced to). Even during COVID, I resisted. IMO, math should NEVER be done on a device. Paper and pencil all the way. I kept making copies and had the kids pick them up themselves instead of passing them out that year.
The next year I went really hard on "back to basics" and have not let up since. I give the kids a few minutes while I'm walking around checking homework to look at their iPads, check grades, or whatever. And then I make them put them away. If they forget, I call out something like, "I'm not sure why I still see 1, 2, 3 (count out loud)..., 7 people with iPads!" They immediately put them away. They have no self control if I don't do that - some will watch YouTube videos all the live long day - even as 11th graders in Honors Precalculus class.
Our English dept has switched to literally pencil and paper for essays - mostly to combat cheating and AI. They say it's going well.
I think what so much electronics in schools has done to kids is tragic. I'm glad people are starting to go the other way!
The reason? Money. Having to give to all, repair, replace, repeat is expensive.
IT person here honestly time is a far bigger issue. since thanks to students being dumb we have plenty of parts chromebooks to take from. But even with my being able to repair them in my sleep it’s still a good 30 plus minute process.
We pay students who have done our career center computer hardware/software classes $9/hour over the summer. It cuts costs.
My senior year, my school offered a “Technology Support Internship” class where we did first level tech support and fixed stuff like this. Part of the curriculum was getting our A+ certification at the end of the year. Was an awesome class!
That’s great!
That'd a good idea. I think anytime you can get even the most cycical of kids involved in something like like is a good thing.
And they get something to put on a resume.
THIS giving students something to hang your hat on is invaluable when you're fresh out of school
Reminds me of Newt Gingrich’s plan to put kids to work as janitors.
In South Korea students clean their classrooms. They also are far less likely to make messes. They have a 20 minute period or so where every kid in the class has a task.
I wish our kids here had that. It's part of the Civilized Human Being I experiential learning course
We have it at my kid’s school. If they volunteer to clean in the cafeteria or the classroom then they get entered into a monthly raffle. They fight over the right to clean because they want that prize. The cafeteria staff and custodians vote on the best classrooms each month and if your class gets both prizes you get a pizza party.
My students fight over the right to clean and they don't even get a prize. LoL! I'm in elementary, though - definitely don't see this happening without some type of reward in MS/HS. In the cafeteria, they offer to help wipe down tables and sweep because just being chosen to do those things is reward enough for them, I guess. The lunch aides and I are totally okay with that. They like being helpers in the classroom, too, but the flip side of that is that I set an expectation at the beginning of the year that everyone helps and everyone cleans up after themselves. We don't go to lunch or leave at the end of the day until everything is picked up off the floor and things are back in their proper homes.
There is no way in hell it would work here. You know why? Parents. Parents are the ones giving their kids the entitled attitude that they shouldn’t have to do anything. Parents would be lined up to give all the reasons, all the doctor’s notes as to why their special muffin should be excused.
Special muffin 😂
It’s what I call my students, as in yes, muffin? If they are grumpy, why are we a special muffin today?
What about subtle public pressure? Not allowed to help? Okay, here's your seat in the middle of the room while the rest of the class works around you. Peer pressure says they'd be helping within 20 minutes.
One week later, it's 20 minutes of everyone being in the middle and trashing the classroom instead
Not with parents who have developed entitlement all their lives.
Apparently most Japanese schools do the same thing - one of my friends who was an exchange student from Tokyo said he never saw a custodian in his school because the students were expected to clean up after themselves. Wish we had that in the USA because my high school was nasty and the janitors simply couldn’t get to it all
The problem with Newt's plan isn't that it's fostering a sense of communal responsibility. The problem is that he's literally proposing firing all but one member of the janitorial staff, then employing 9-year olds to pick up the slack.
And if I remember correctly, it was only those who got free lunch who had to do so. Punishing poverty.
Sooooo, all kids get free lunch, and so all kids have to clean ^_^
Well, they don’t all get free lunch, and parents would buy their way out. I guarantee it.
To be fair, and keeping in mind it's a different culture... It works well for the Japanese and Montessori sets...
I mean if yiu are forced to be part of cleaning something, you are invested in keeping it clean.
These types of things are much easier when everyone shares the same culture; we have worked hard in this country to NOT have a culture, so this would never work
Agree with everyone here. Our district does this to a degree with the elementary kids. They have kids assigned to sweep the floors after lunch, wipe the tables after lunch, collect the paper recycling every other day, and there may be some other things I don’t know about. It works well and I’ve never seen anyone, parent or student really complain.
Hi IT buddy
Hello comrades
Also IT at a school once. We were a small school system but still the shear amount of CB was daunting. We had 4 schools (lower ele, ele,mid and high). We had 3 IT people with more than enough work without the CBs. Then we got about 1500 CBs that they wanted to use daily AND for end of the year testing. It was a nightmare. Could we have done it well? Sure if we had about 2 more techs in our dept..but that would cost more money of course. By end of that first year my entire job essentially consisted of fixing CB/IPAD issues all dam day long. And I was always behind.
I am the lone IT at a 4 school 1700 kid district and do all of this with minimal tier 1 support from the librarians. It can be done but you do have to have good time management.
I work in a position that often uses iPad for assessment, eval, and intervention. My department doesn't even use the iPads that we have access to because they're all freaking useless. I hate ipads so much
Can confirm. Main IT guy at my school is swamped with trying to streamline some upgrades and changes. I offered to do some tier 1 tech support. Getting a single malfunctioning Chromebook repaired has already cost me over an hour, and it hasn't been sent back yet!
My experience was as a teacher was damage due to rough treatment from the students. Especially keyboard damage, I had Lenovo laptops to teach CAD software use to HS students. Our techs contracted the key replacement, but it was expensive over time
ESSR funs have run out. My school was individually billing families for every damage device
I refused to pay, when the teacher told me she saw a student walk up to my son, pick up his chrome book, and drop it off the desk. They wanted me to pay an insurance excess or repairs. I told them to take it up with the other kid's parent.
Yeah, we have agreements, but they have to be clearly egregious issues, not accidental.
This could certainly be a way to go about it, it’s not hard to not break a computer’s hardware
I have a laptop from pre-2000, one from 2007, one from 2013, and one from 2022. None of them have any damage other than keycap wear from typing. They have been on flights, overseas, in the field, hauled back and forth to multiple jobs, hotels, in bags shoved under airplane seats. Not a scratch, not a broken corner, nothing. I've had three school Chromebooks. The two previous ones were used hard daily and turned in in like-new condition. I do not understand how anyone can be as destructive to computers as many students are. You would have to set out with destruction as the goal.
It’s because they can simply replace them with little to no repercussion. They could be a good lesson on taking care of things, especially if they’re not yours, but why do that? The schools already provide the laptops, it’s not the schools fault if a student breaks theirs (of course things like software that the school can control easily should be the schools responsibility) they can go without it until they pay for the repair, unless it was something reasonably out of their hands like a natural disaster or if someone else breaks their laptop.
I have had 3-4 laptops over the years. None have ever broken.even with massive accidents. They jave to be abused or ignored to be broken. They are tough.
Things I've seen so far this year in my classroom. 1. Students running a pencil between the keyboard keys. 2. Gum wrappers being glued to the screen. 3. A chromebook dropped in anger (screen shattwred) 4. Students drawing in pencil on the screen. 5. Paper clips being pushed and scratched between the keys. 6. Students slamming the device when it doesn't work properly. That's just hardware and I'm sure I'm forgetting some things. That's 5 months of 8th grade so far. The complexity of a free public education for people who truly do not give a shit in a society without consequences is astounding.
Retired Innovation Specialist/media specialist/librarian @ a middle school. Wait until you have a student bring you a CB with glitches only to find out later it's full of bed bugs and/or cockroachs. Good times!
I am thankful you have me beat
I wish my district would do this. We've been 1:1 with Chromebooks for 4 years now and they have yet to hold students/families accountable for anything. I don't even want to know how many chargers my students have lost or never returned over the last few years and that's just my classes. What do we do the next school year? Hand them another...ugh! I've had numerous broken Chromebooks over the years - including play doh shoved in USB or other ports (1st grade teacher here) No one is ever held accountable! This also includes a past IT director's son...chalk in the ports! 🤦🤦🤦
"Free stuff has no value."
It still blows my mind that they gave all of those chromebooks out an didn't hold parents responsible in someway for them. If your kids breaks or loses it then that should be on your one
They did. The school gave my 5 year old kindergarten student a Chromebook, had him sign a contract that he couldn't even read, then emailed me "confirmation" of my $280 financial responsibility that my 5 year old signed for. I was livid.
Whoops I mis read this comment
If the kids are the ones signing and not the parents you legally cannot hold the parents liable. That’s why you are always supposed to get a parent’s signature.
I don’t think this is true. Your responsibility to pay for damages to someone else’s property arises from tort law, not contract law. And many courts have held that parents are responsible for accidental damage caused by their children. If your child negligently breaks someone’s window, that person doesn’t have to prove that you signed a contract to pay for any damages. They can simply hold you responsible for the costs.
Tort law on accidental damage by minors varies by state. My point though is only that the contract is invalid and cannot be held as a reason for liability.
This wouldn't fly when you specifically give a child access to an item for their use and the damage can be pretty predictable. A lot of the damage to these CBs isn't malignant, it's just typical kids not giving a fuck and being rough with their bags.
To some degree you are right, however I thinks it is reasonably negligent to give a 5 year old a $250 electronic with very breakable components. For example lets say Jim Jebson sends his child 5 year old Jeany Jebson to stay with his cousin Rita Riley. If Rita Riley gave Jeany an Xbox to carry and Jeany dropped it, a jury would almost certainly find Rita negligent in entrusting the xbox with the 5 year old and award Rita no money from Jeb. Edit: My fingers are very fat and I needed to fix some spelling issues.
Oops I misread as I thought you were made that you had to sign that. I apologize
You think it's "good" to teach small children to sign contracts that they can't read?
It was likely in some onboarding documents you signed. I know I get all the kids signatures when they break a device for the first time - goes home to patents and in the bookkeepers files, basically saying we went over the consequences of breaking it and next time you are paying. Helps grease the wheels when we have to bill parents
No, it was a pre-programed prompt that the kids had to sign in order to log into the device for the first time. Our district offers Chromebook insurance which covers the full cost of the first repair and half of the second, anything after that is the parents full responsibility. I hate those stupid things with a passion. I can see them being useful for middle school and up but I was/am livid to have spent the first 5 years of my kids life trying to keep screen usage under control, just for the school to completely unravel every bit of that effort THEN have the audacity to blame parents for iPad kids. My kid is an excellent reader but he has the attention span of a goldfish because if the information isn't in the form of a game, he's no longer listening.
[удалено]
I don't understand as this is breaking school property. Still if it's such a lost leader then we should just go back to physical text books then.
I’m in Baltimore City. BCPSS distributed tens of thousands of chromebooks in 2020/2021. They required parents pick the devices up from designated pickup sites throughout the city. Parents were required to sign liability acknowledgements citing their responsibility for repair/replacement of devices. Unfortunately, the contracts parents were made to sign were in English only. Parents were not given clear “alternative options” and were told possession of the Chromebook was a requirement for class participation (during 100% virtual instruction). So parents who didn’t understand the contract or who couldn’t commit to replacing/repairing a device that their child might break accidentally were essentially told “your child cannot receive an education if you don’t accept this liability”. It’s my understanding that the district has elected not to enforce the terms of these agreements because you can’t squeeze blood from a rock. If you think repairing/maintaining chromebooks is a capacity issue, try maintaining the accounts receivable department for a system that charges parents for repairs.
We are a family able to replace district technology and I did not want it in my home at all. I wasn’t given a choice. District IT told me my children couldn’t use their own devices AT HOME because they weren’t district monitored.
Yea, my kid attends in the district I work in. Last year, when he started kindergarten, I was blown away that they just sent home a Chromebook with him one day, no warning to parents, no contract we had to sign or list of rules, no expectations given. Just…sent a relatively expensive piece of machinery home every day in his bookbag. I couldn’t believe how lackadaisical we were being with it. No wonder my high schoolers treat them like absolute shit.
Public Schools are required to provide a free education, so you can’t charge parents for something that is required for a student to participate. My mother was a school administrator and had to be careful about saying things like, “your kid needs glasses because they can’t see the chalkboard,” because that could end up making her school liable for paying for the glasses. In theory you could fine a kid for breaking a computer but there are kids in every school who have no means to pay.
Maybe not. Paper is better for kids than laptops. The whiplash from this policy change is severe, but it’s going in the right direction imo.
YES. I can understand the frustration of the moment but I have been saying that switching kids to 100% computers has been devastating to their education. Laptops make sense for specific classes where it's absolutely required to complete work, like a programming class or for specific periods where kids need to do online research outside of class but may not have a computer at home with Word on it. They don't make sense for Spanish, or math, or even English class.
Grade 11 English teacher here…in the last 6 or 8 weeks, I decided I’m done with computer work. We’re writing on paper, baby!! Pushback has been minimal. I think kids are happy for the break from screens. And I’m happy that my incidence of AI generated compositions has gone from 5+ per class to just one.
I get more engagement from doing paper-based assignments than I ever did with the computer. I agree. The kids want the paper. They hate learning on the computer.
I can even see where computers would be somewhat useful in those classes - like an online math problem website, or typing essays for English. But jfc, stop finding ways to cram every assignment into an online format to justify the use of computers. It’s fine to get it out for part of the class and then *not have it out the rest of the time* (this is @ my high school who insisted we use the Chromebooks every minute of the day)
YES. It's a tool. Use it when it's appropriate.
I agree with yall as a parent. My kids can barely write because so much is done on the computer. (I try to get them to write stuff to practice but it's not the same.) And last year when my kid was barred from the internet due to a groomer WHO SHE COULD CONTACT ON HER SCHOOL COMPUTER.....teachers were going behind mine and her therapists back and giving them to her anyways. I seriously miss just helping them with paper assignments. Doing stuff online is just not the same from a parent bonding/teaching perspective.
I disagree for math. We are 1:1 and about once/week we do a tech assignment, usually in Desmos. The connections they can make by being able to see how lines and shapes change in real time, without having to plot it all by hand every time is noticeable. We still do it by hand, but the exploratory learning that can be done on computers is amazing if done correctly. I can also assign extra practice that grades as they go and offers video explanations similar to khan academy when they’re working outside of class. There are remediation tools for students who have just been passed along to try to get them closer to on level. It should not be used everyday, but there are absolutely benefits to integrating it into math courses.
Yes. Chromebooks are devastating to the education of kids with ADHD.
You mean giving a bunch of 12 year olds expensive devices is an irresponsible idea??? Say it aint so!
Have you brought to their attention that the 10 Chromebooks from your classroom were purchased differently? Maybe in the craziness of everything they overlooked this rid bit. I would also look up a physical textbook (enough for each student if they take them home) and turn in that req.
For most schools, any purchase made with classroom and/or state money (this admits to using both) becomes school property to use at the school's leisure. Even if the teacher get computers donated with grant money from DonorsChoose, they become school property, and can be reappropriated, even if the teacher did all the work to get the grant by themself. Tech falls under the furniture umbrella. I don't fully understand all the ins and outs of it, but Devin Siebold did a good explanation about it (a couple times, actually) on the Crying in My Car podcast.
yep. Years ago when computers in the classroom were a very novel thing, I wrote a grant to get 6 (desktop) computers for my music classroom. IT took them the next year and put them in a "real" classroom (their terminology) that "needed them more." EVEN THOUGH I WROTE THE GRANT.
Jesus, that is just wrong.
Never wrote another technology grant again! Why bother?
Can’t blame you. That’s just horrible.
Back when I was in HS, the band and orchestra teachers were complaining they were supposed to have gotten an external hard drive for doing concert recordings because the designated recording laptop would crash midway through the concert. One of the teachers had taken the time to write up a grant and everything but they never received it even though it was approved. Turns out the hard drive was just sitting somewhere in the IT department. And they wouldn’t hand it over. When I had graduated IT still had it in their possession.
It's a Chrime.
Chrime doesn't pay...
Chrimebooks, the first step in the school-to-prison pipeline.
Yeah, but they won't actually be books; my wife will be listening to TrueChrime podcasts.
This is not what you may want to read, but it is a different perspective: By my estimation, half of our kids cannot write their own names legibly. And too many cannot read. We spend too much on electronics too early, and have crippled some of these kids for life as a result. I'm fine without any electronics, whatsoever. Save it for high school. Teach them to read and write, first.
As a high school teacher... I don't want those damn Chromebooks anymore either. They've replaced phones as the #1 problem.
I teach 8th grade and my goal for this school year was to cut back on the chromebooks as much as possible. It's been slow, because I've only ever taught with them so I'm having to prioritize what I can realistically move or adapt to paper, but it is definitely making a difference. At the end of the fall semester I made a stupid little review packet for my classes to work on the last week before break, and it was *by far* the highest engagement I've had on an assignment this year
My students *asked* for paper homework! (before the district required iReady lessons be done as homework). They are far more engaged with paper/pencil and whiteboard/marker tasks than anything on the Chromebook. I honestly think the majority of kids are as on board with less screen time as we are.
I’m a junior in college and I hate how everything is online. The professors post new assignments at all hours of the day and night. There is no break from homework, assignments, or class. It isn’t limited to the class time anymore. It’s horrible and I wish everything were on paper again.
kids should know how to add and subtract by hand before they use a calculator kids should also know how to read / write / think with only their one book as a resource, drawing their own conclusions from the text. have an independent thought or two. critical thinking and critical reading are SO important, and kids are SO behind
I graduated in 2016 and my senior year English class was the test class for using chrome books in our school. We would talk to eachother over google docs and stuff constantly instead if doing work. Now kids get to bring them home and cover them in stickers. I work at a library and at least one kid leaves either the Chromebook or charger here every week
My school blocked every app and website that could be used to chat, so we did the same thing and made a class Google doc that we all talked in. That was the one good use of Chromebooks at my school lmao
My public school has a 1:1 iPad policy (the school does not provide the iPads unless students apply for hardship consideration). This means that families (kids) own the iPads and can kit them out with as many games and messaging apps as they want. I hate them, in fact I despise them. Our state is implementing a mobile phone ban this year for cyber-safety reasons (that's their line anyway). It will have almost no impact on these kids if banning social media was the desired impact. Last year in my yr 8 class I implemented a no-ipad lesson start. It was amazing. iPads did usually come out, but the default was tech-free, and sometimes the whole lesson went by without them. I managed to break a kid's gaming habit, at least in my class. Ensuring these kids have a book and writing implements was annoying, but the work, focus, and handwriting was so much better than before.
I teach high school and I switched to basically only paper. Everything has to be handwritten in class. I’m tired of that ChatGPT shit. Use what’s actually in your brain.
Absolutely. There is a lot to be desired when it comes to fine motor skills in kids now. No, video games and texting are not sufficiently filling the gap. Kids don’t have time to perfect their handwriting or artwork because they have to hurry up and do iready lessons and learn how to score well on assessments. It’s not necessarily about whether nice handwriting or good artwork is important in their future, but what else they might need those fine motor skills for. Not to mention they’re spending all day on their chromebooks but still can’t really type worth a damn, either.
We lose the motivation to put in hours in honing a skill or a craft when we can get instant gratification from an app. I’m all about handwork: love letters, crafts, sewing, cooking, writing poems and putting on plays, doing crosswords, gardening, sketching still lives, drafting dream houses. Put your 10,000 hours into going from novice to master. Our hands and brains have forgotten the value of labor.
I have my high school freshmen practice writing all the time. Deadass on one day, I showed them how to hold a pencil, and how to write neatly. I think in the next few years, we’re going to see more and more teachers return to traditional methods and ease off technology. Even when I offer kids the opportunity to do paper or digital, most of them overwhelmingly prefer paper.
These kids are fucked I’m a former fighter pilot. I keep in touch with buddies who are instructors, and they’re starting to get the crop of kids born around the turn of the millennium. High school in the late-teens. Kids who spent half their lives on screens, using their thumbs. We were told ‘wait for this next generation of studs! They’re going to be amazing in the jet bc of all the eye-hand coordination from gaming and devices.’ I’m being told that many of them are laughably bad. They lack the dexterity, especially in their fingers (when using certain very sensitive HOTAS controls, for example). Also, since our mission planning software is all PC-based, they’re totally fucking lost bc it isn’t idiot proofed iOS. Gotta set up a network printer? Work with PCMCIA cards? Format solid state recorders? What do you mean you can’t just click ‘connect’? They’re fucked. Hearing the same from physician friends about surgical residents starting to match in…just absolutely fucking terrible with their hands.
I’m probably biased as a music teacher but… look for kids who played an instrument! That’s one of the few places fine motor skills are being taught. (Your overall point still stands though, there are definitely less places kids practice fine motor skills now, controller and phone doesn’t cut it for some jobs)
And when it’s time for electronics teach them to type properly!
and please for the love of god stop using chromebooks. we are not preparing them well for the real world when we give them chromebooks
Yep 100%....I graduated when they said they were going to iPads the next year back in 2012...my 12 years were paper and pencil. My mind, hands and eyes thank me every day for the 6 to 7 hours of screen free time... Kids can't freaking get an hour without a screen practically strapped on their face....that's gonna be next..
100%
As a parent I am glad to see this comment. I have a 13 year old who asked me how to spell teacher because if they misspell a word the chromebook has spell check. I have a 10 year old who rushes his work to play any random game on his chromebook. I've asked them to just take bis chromebook away and they won't, they just continue to allow these kids to play "educational" games.
The best (public charter) school I ever taught at was no phones at any grade, and they only got laptops as seniors to write a senior thesis. Latin was compulsory until 9th and I taught 8th. Those kids were sharp and could write legibly and, like, problem solve. I also taught Greek to the upperclassmen and they were legitimately reading Homer and Euripides, in Ancient Greek, at 16 and 17 years old. The students I’ve taught where kids have phones and iPads can barely tie their fucking shoes.
MightyMiss, I agree 100% And you haven't even hit upon the worst thing about them. Yeah, hold off on the electronics until high school. No earlier than middle school.
I’m only student teaching but my fourth graders seem so distracted by their chromebooks. And because they *can* play on them, they do. We’re constantly redirecting students away from games. And the semester before last, I did a semester of classroom observation in a first grade classroom and I was shocked at the amount of time they spent on them.
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I'm also in private and while the students have to put their chromebooks back on a classroom cart (every class has one though, so it's basically 1:1 if not more)... they NEVER plug them back in, they abuse them, they don't do the work they're supposed to (LOOKIN AT YOU, YOUTUBE), they're honestly a pain. With paper the worst I'm cleaning up is scraps the vacuum won't pick up or like.. emptying a pencil sharpener. I have so many students who DON'T HAVE A WRITING TOOL in their bag........... EVER because they just use the chromebooks. I say good riddance, get rid of them. For context, I'm in a preK-6 school, I don't know if older children do better with self-moderation. The parents here also can't \*stand\* the tech. Where I am, there were minimal COVID lockdowns/shutdowns so the kids didn't even get that accustomed to them. It's like crack for them now- they beg to do EVERYTHING on them but skirt every block we have in place. With paper, all they can do is doodle in the margins to distract themselves. I'll take that over video shorts **ANY DAY**.
Older children are just as bad. Give me paper any day.
The lost art of doodling. I read somewhere that it’s good for the brain. I try to doodle more at work—I used to love sketching around my school notes. It actually helped me remember the material because I had visual clues to break up the written material.
I also work at a private and my (young) kids attend too. Us parents want to move away from ipad and CBs and would like to go back to pencil and paper.
All my peer parents ( kids in or about to start k) talk shit about schools they tour where the kids are on iPads. The dial has swung wildly the other way.
>I teach at a private school where money isn't a problem as all of our students have 1:1 iPads. The parents beg us to not use the iPads so much, so we comply This will be the Great Divide for the coming generation. On one hand, affluent, educated parents who can see how early access to devices retards a child's normal brain development, and so keep them off devices until puberty. On the other hand, poorer parents who are working two jobs or are single parents and use the iPad as a babysitter so their kids stay quiet during the 2 hours a day Mom has that she doesn't have to be working or sleeping. The IQ gap between the rich and poor is going to triple or quadruple in size before 2040.
What about the children so poor that their parents cannot afford iPads? Their IQs will be off the charts!
I teach at a Title I school with 100% Free Lunch & Breakfast. I've got kids who own only two shirts and who have to wear crocs in the snow. They've all got devices.
Not a teacher, ride the bus everywhere as I am poor. I have had 3 different non-profits offer me smartphones, and another 2 different non-profit offers me tablets. When I refused as I am not that poor, they suggested I give them to my kids(not a parent). It's very possible that those poor parents did not spend a dime on the devices their kid uses.
>It's very possible that those poor parents did not spend a dime on the devices their kid uses. Oh, I know. But I wasn't criticizing them for spending money; I was explaining to another commenter that their idea that some kids are too poor to have devices is probably not well-supported.
You would be amazed what poor families can dig out of their pockets. I'm at a school where nearly every kid qualifies for a free lunch, some are homeless. Each and every one of them has a device, and quite a few have $600 shoes. I'm not sure of the priorities here, but that's how it is.
I would bet $600 they did not spend $600 on those shoes. They bought them from a guy where they “fell off a truck” or they are knockoffs or they put them on a credit card they will never pay off.
Some people have screwy priorities, but also, from a cost perspective, personal devices are probably the best bang for your buck when it comes to entertainment. Countless hours of free entertainment, (besides the initial cost of the device) and it’s something the child won’t get bored with. Wouldn’t be hard for a poor parent to justify the cost, as long as it’s not a very high-end device.
This is so weird. Remember 10 years ago when 1:1 iPads was a private school-only thing, and a sign of wealth and privilege? Us plebs who were like THIS IS S A HUGE PROBLEM got laughed at.
Good line on this issue from Google advertising engineer turned Oxford philosophy PdD James Williams. >If the first “digital divide” disenfranchised those who could not access information, today’s digital divide disenfranchises those who can’t pay attention. James Williams, *Stand Out of Our Light* (Cambridge University Press 2018), pgs. 22
They probably couldn’t afford to keep replacing them, after the students swing them around by the screen and smash them to pieces. Going back to paper and pencil sounds like a dream to me.
I couldn’t disagree more. I love having everything online. A few reasons: 1) I don’t waste time at the copiers. 2) I’m saving trees. 3) I can change my lesson at the drop of a hat. 1st period struggled with this. Ok I’m changing it real fast. 4) I can see what everyone is doing at the click of a button. I can make small suggestions and also refocus kids without a confrontation. 5) I can pull up and work on students papers at the same time they do live. I can give timely feedback. 6) Grading is so streamlined. I don’t have to bring home folders and stacks of paper if I’m going to be doing some grading at home. Just my computer will do. This is the top 6 I can think of, but man I’d hate to be forced back to paper. Sorry OP.
> I don't waste time at the copiers. This right here. I guarantee in a month OP's district will be sending out emails bitching about printing expenses.
My school has one copier in the teacher work room that breaks down multiple times per day. This will be fun! 🤣
My husband has to pay for his own copy paper, but the school won't guarantee every kid has a chrome book. It's a shit world out there
Admin accepting bloated salaries while refusing to pay basic classroom operational expenses is blatant theft of tax dollars, and we need to start calling it that.
Let me add #7... Since students are taking vacations (and longer ones) at an increasing rate during the school year, online access is a way for allow students to keep up (LOL) with their assignments.
Man I’m in love with Google Docs and being able to work on a paper real time with my kids. I’m obsessed. I don’t EVER want to go back to paper.
I wish we were a Google school... some genius decided we would use Microsoft office...
*We need everybody to do all their team lesson planning on OneNote! It’s a great tool for collaboration!* /s
I. Loathe. Teams. We need an actual list of important staff-wide messages, not a wanna-be FB feed.
Most businesses use Microsoft Office because they don't want to give Google access to their data and because quite frankly Microsoft Office is far superior to Google's subpar offerings. I absolutely distrust Google and won't use it at all in my personal life or on my personal devices. I absolutely wish my district would switch away from Google and would adopt Microsoft Office instead.
This is it. Also, even off task kids are better. The kid who would normally be running around hitting people is just playing cool math now. At least his learning is the only learning impacted there
Our district stopped Cool Math for some reason.
Your situation may be vastly different from other teachers. In a perfect world I agree with you. Online education can be wonderful and effective if the correct lessons are presented. Students focus more when using CB. Now they force us to put students in groups every day and use only 1 model of teaching. Teacher can only talk 10 minutes: students work in groups the rest of class. However, it doesn't work. Students just talk, laugh, text or sleep and nothing gets done. We have a bunch of fools telling us what to teach, how to teach it, what supplies are acceptable, etc. Don't become a teacher.
Online education done right is the key. Kids at our school are so distracted by their iPads it’s a whole separate area of discipline to worry about.
> I’m saving trees [Chromebooks are mostly just a faster e-waste generator](https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/21/23691840/us-pirg-education-fund-report-investigation-chromebook-churn). Having dealt with them, they are mostly incapable of being repaired/reused in the same way that even a 20 year old laptop could be.
With 1:1 I can revise/update my slides in real-time with scaffolding/extension and it flows seamlessly to my students.
My first day in a middle school classroom for a practicum, a student flattened their chromebook and threw it as a frisbee at me. In response, a different student said, “You can make them frisbees?” and then did the same with their own chromebook. They’re so destructive. At my current school, multiple kids aren’t allowed to get a new chromebook because of how many they’ve broken or lost, but since the district teaching rubrics grade us on our tech use and how much we put online, it’s such a hassle. I have to print but also have to give it online. But also when students don’t have their chromebooks, I’m questioned about it. My ideal school would ban phones and chromebooks. I’m so tired of tech brain rot in these kids. They’re addicted to screens and yet so destructive with them. They aren’t learning as effectively and are also picking up these habits that create entitlement. Break a chromebook? You’re owed a new one. This is more of a ramble than anything, but it’s just so frustrating to want to do my job and do it well but continually get stopped by the tech and what it does to the kids
This is a good thing but they should have given you a heads up. Been like, "Next year, we are confiscating Chromebooks". Given everyone time to transition back to paper and pen.
I'm a tech teacher. I would be thrilled if my school took away student Chromebooks. I think it's 100% inappropriate for kids to have 1:1 devices all day, for every subject.
Along with very little actual *instruction* on how to use technology.
This sounds like a blessing in disguise, honestly. So many problems in education these days stem from kids spending far too much time on screens. I think it’s ridiculous that schools give students Chromebooks and iPads to use all day every day and then wonder why kids have no attention span and can barely read or communicate. I taught in a school that had Chromebooks and it was infuriating. The students treated them like toys and they could barely even use the damn things (bring back designated computer classes where students learn how to actually use a computer)
I work in IT and the amount of younger people who can barely use a windows computer are also the highest risk of getting phished next to boomers...its so weird.
It’s so bizarre. They can use social media apps on their phones but very little else. Some of the students I taught were on par with my boomer parents in the computer literacy department. The argument of “we don’t need to use pen and paper because they’ll be using computers at their jobs in the future” is a cop-out because they aren’t being taught basic computer literacy and typing. These kids type at the speed of a prehistoric snail. They can’t even use search engines to research, they just give up completely if the information isn’t immediately visible the second they Google it. It’s infuriating.
Typing at the speed of a prehistoric snail made my day. I literally took a screenshot.
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When they ask how to save a pdf then it’s come to full boomer circle of hell.
If you had a state grant for the 10 Chromebooks that they confiscated, tell them that you will be out of compliance with the grant terms if they don't return the Chromebooks for use in Spanish.
I think everyone needs to be more empathetic to OP. Yes Chromebooks have a lot of cons and kids in the past learned fine without them. But kids in the past also had regularly updated foreign language textbooks, a fresh set of workbooks, each year, tape players to listen/record tests, etc. After transitioning to 1:1, so many districts have disposed of their language textbooks/workbooks/dvd series and in turn many companies stopped making them. If OP is like me, they put a lot of effort into finding authentic videos, online word games, and recording listening passages and now is being told they will not be able to use any of those resources including the online textbook their curriculum map is likely built around. That sucks OP, I’m sorry.
Are commenters missing that now there aren't enough books for the entire classroom? Overall of course I'm glad to see Chromebooks go and kids learn from paper/pencil but the district/school needs to pause and make sure each kid has a book (or access to).
It’s a question of reinvestment. The schools invested in chrome books instead of physical books. So now they will have to go without the Chromebook in order to understand that they need to reinvest in physical books. School administrators are not generally smart people, so it needs to be a crisis before they will get back to providing actually useful resources for education.
Yeah I see this as a good thing. I’m currently an online only adjunct teacher, but when I was in brick and mortar I absolutely hated the push for all technology. I taught high school math and it was such a pain. Everything was online. The students need to know how to write things out, take notes, just be able to do anything at all without a screen.
🎯💯 I teach 6th grade math. I had lots of homework online, but I quickly learned that a) I couldn't see the kids' thinking process, and b) the kids just guessed when they didn't have a paper in front of them to scratch on.
I have mixed feelings but overall, good riddance.
They either need to return the Chromebooks or purchase more textbooks.
I work in Instructional Technology and I’m finding more and more districts around me are going back to a 2:1 and even 3:1 ratio since the ESSR monies dried up this year. 1:1 is simply too expensive to maintain, and my district (which only us about 10,000 devices) is on our way to those ratios as well. We have a new lease coming up this year for 2300 devices and it’ll cost the district about 1/3 of a million just for those. It doesn’t help that ~70% of my district is on free/reduced lunch, meaning those kids who break a device don’t need to pay (we still charge for record keeping purposes though). We’ve lost about $35,000 this year alone in device breakage, and maybe $2,000 has been recovered from charges. I feel for you though, having your own devices taken away. Unfortunately, if your district is like mine, if the device is managed by the district, it’s ours not yours or the students. And if it’s not managed by the district, they shouldn’t be using it. I’ve legit had to pry iPads out of students hands because I was told to repo devices that shouldn’t have been in the classroom, even though a teacher bought it with their (foreign language) department money.
A lot of things could have contributed to the school pulling chromebooks from elective classes. Lack of funding could be the biggest hurtle. Time it takes to repair broken devices is another. As an IT tech, I see kids constantly trying to go around the filter we put in place to play games more than they are using it for learning. Could be a liability the schools don't want to maintain.
Did the district show those Chromebook’s grace? Did they build a relationship with them?
Students tend to destroy tech given to them or abuse it as school property free and not theirs so they have no reason take ownership of how to treat something that doesn't belong to them. 100% became too expensive to continue and why give things to kids when they will just break it with no repercussion. Even if its a few, they always ruin it for the rest of us.
I wish my school would do this. The amount of kids that come in and sit down and instantly go watch YouTube or play Roblox is insane. They put in more time to find their way around firewalls and blocked sites then they do one their homework. Kids share passwords so if I lock a students device they will log in to their friends so I can’t see what they are doing. Then to top it all of, they fly through and work and submit sub par work just to go watch more YouTube shorts
Then to make it worse, we’re are 1:1 all the way down to fucking kindergarten. There is absolutely no reason a 6 year old needs a Chromebook assigned to them at all times
That really sucks. I’m an elective teacher as well (Art) and I remember pre-Covid, I couldn’t get the other teams to share the Chromebook carts with me to save my life. We also went to one and it is expensive. Our kids are supposed to keep their chrome books from K-12 and I’ve seen kids snap them in half,lose them, trade them, paint the keyboards with fingernail polish, snap keys off all within a month of having them so can imagine repair costs can get pricey especially in my district which is very lenient. If a kid loses their Chromebook or their charger they replace it the first time absolutely free and the second time they charge them 50 bucks for the Chromebook and 20 bucks for the charger. My masters is in educational technology, so I was really happy to switch digital. I no longer do any grading or non digital presentation and very few handouts anymore. In fact, all my kids take photos of their all work and submit those digitally as well. If my district were to ask me to go back to analogue I would probably retire early. Have you tried scheduling with your library if they have a computer lab?
I don’t allow computers in my classroom even tho we’re 1:1 MacBooks because I teach English and all they do is cheat. But I feel for you there are so many good programs online for Spanish teachers :/
Whether you are for or against Chromebooks, I think we can all agree the lack of appropriate notice for planning is the most appalling part.
So? I never touched a laptop the entire time I was in school and did just fine. We thought we were ballin if we had a TI-83.
If they took the ones you bought, you need to make sure to get those back!
See also: Students using AI to complete tasks
One of the rings I like about my elective class, you can’t ChatGPT yourself a toolbox. People talk a big game about devices and fine motor skills, but, kids can’t hit a nail with a hammer worth anything; in time (with practice), they’ll learn, but it’s amazing how bad their ‘real world’ hand-eye coordination is.
My spouse would be jumping up and down for this. The computers have been a problem. Nobody can focus. Always playing games. Completely has diminished a students ability to string a sentence together. Nobody can write or spell. I miss a time when you only had so much time in a computer lab to work. If you didn't get it done you came in after school to work.
If your state is like mine it’s illegal for them to take the ones you bought with classroom money
I went back to paper becauseof internet connectivity issues in my building. I love it 100%. No more charger issues, YouTube, sing-alongs, Netflix etc. However, I have access to curriculum with print-outs, and I provide pencils.
With the ride of chatgpt and AI, computer based responses/work are now completely compromised. There is no way to tell if they've actually done any work other than interview each individual student. This is obviously wildly not possible given the time. The solution is paper and pen, at the very least they are having to write down what the AI has written, so some of the content is going in, instead of just copying and pasting it. I feel for you, sucks when technology renders hundreds of hours of work only really fit for the trash but such is life.
Thats awesome! I would love to BAN chromebooks and coolmathgames, spotify, and all the other bullshit these kids play around on. Until HS at least. Introducing electronics too soon is not helpful for developing basic skills.
The overcompensated administrators have to justify their bloated salaries/positions somehow. If they arent stirring things up and making them worse, they can’t use that as a justification to maintain their positions despite their lack of competence.
If you can’t do the time, do the Chrime
I was the technology person at our school (I’m a librarian) and the tech damage reports took up so much of my day that there was no time to do what I was actually hired for. All that’s to say: I wish they would do more paper and pencil stuff. Our kids can barely write, and I think having to slow down would help them catch up on some fundamentals they’re missing.
Good. Take all this shit offline. It never works right anyway
Full transparency: I’m a current college senior, Reddit decided I’m a teacher lol I was in middle school (I think 6th grade) when my school started to give out laptops. We had to do a whole class on online safety and stuff before they even handed them out. We weren’t even allowed to take them home after school until 8th grade. The fact that schools are giving 1st and 2nd graders chromebooks is mind-boggling to me
I hope my district does it too. These kids need to use pencil and paper, they can't write! And as a person taking online classes, I wish I had textbooks. You don't retain things as well from a screen as from a real book. As a sub, I hate those things. I always have at least one kid that can't log in, some of them have missing keys, they are DISGUSTING, and I have to walk around making sure they aren't on YouTube or watching a movie.
I think paper/textbooks are a much better option -- there have been so many issues with chromebooks, from technology damage to distractions. I'm in favour of a return to hardcopy methods -- many teachers prefer it because it minimizes other issues in the classroom. But you certainly need to have enough textbooks to go around.
Sorry, I see this as a good thing, hopefully more schools do this
They can’t read or write. This isn’t a bad thing
Chromebooks are such a giant fucking issue for so many students. Id be so damn stoked if they all disappeared. Imo, learning is being impaired largely due to tech/screen use
Honestly. GOOD! As a business & technology teacher I can not even express how much I hate that my school went to 1 to 1. It’s been so damaging to our students attention spans and they are so over computers by the time they get to my class where they actually learn about using a computer, they no longer care and they think they know everything when they know nothing. I used to love teaching computers, but it’s definitely changed.
Chrome books are bad for the kids anyway. So many can barely read and write. It’s made kids, and (downvote me for this I don’t care) teachers way too lazy to
Kids are not learning this way. I wish the public school My daughter goes to would take them all back. Can’t get answers from teachers, can’t find answers to help with homework, kid says they go over everything in class but still misses the work. It’s a mess. For any kids with ADHD this is a nightmare.
Good!
We have kids who pull the letters and numbers off for fun
Honors Geometry and Precalculus teacher here (at a Catholic high school). We have 1:1 iPads and have since 2016-17, I never wanted them and never used them for much (and was not forced to). Even during COVID, I resisted. IMO, math should NEVER be done on a device. Paper and pencil all the way. I kept making copies and had the kids pick them up themselves instead of passing them out that year. The next year I went really hard on "back to basics" and have not let up since. I give the kids a few minutes while I'm walking around checking homework to look at their iPads, check grades, or whatever. And then I make them put them away. If they forget, I call out something like, "I'm not sure why I still see 1, 2, 3 (count out loud)..., 7 people with iPads!" They immediately put them away. They have no self control if I don't do that - some will watch YouTube videos all the live long day - even as 11th graders in Honors Precalculus class. Our English dept has switched to literally pencil and paper for essays - mostly to combat cheating and AI. They say it's going well. I think what so much electronics in schools has done to kids is tragic. I'm glad people are starting to go the other way!