Anecdote - in 2010, my kids were 13, 12, and 5. We moved to a school district that had ALL.THE.THINGS. My kids brought them home and abused them as much as the next kid. When we saw this, we worked it out with the school that they did anything that NEEDED the computer while they were at school, but it never came home. Later that same school year, they all came home to homeschool, so Chromebooks were no longer a thing. Fast forward 2 years, when my oldest started taking Drivers' Ed at the public school after school. Because he was the only kid without one, he actually paid attention and aced everything, while the other students were very distracted.
This is amazing….Go Yair and friends! I was subbing just last week and the high schoolers in my classes were playing games on their Chromebooks instead of doing the assignment. I asked them how they were accessing games when they’re supposed to be blocked (as I often do). “Student secret, Miss” one of the students immediately responded. Enough of such student secrets… let’s help these kids start learning again!
Until we change the mission of school, these things will always be a problem. The mission needs to change from the undefinable well educated to helping people become successful. Right now, we're blindly putting kids through a 13 year endurance test and don't really know why, so we're always going to find things we don't like because we don't like the ambiguous mission.
To actually change a district policy like this requires two things: a number of teachers who have enough backbone to speak up and a significant group of parents who band together simultaneously to demand an opt out option. I worked in districts where many teachers complained quietly behind closed doors and lone brave parents desperately tried to challenge the system on their own to save their children, but without enough teachers willing to speak up and protect their students, parents won't know the truth and be willing to help out that lone parent protesting in the wild.
And make sure you look into the curriculum in computer based instruction…the curriculum company our students used was developed in Seattle and was highly tribal and politically polarizing. I remember a student refusing to type answers to questions that only had one “correct” partisan answer.
The featured quote is quite eye opening: Edtech sold itself as the great equalizer. In practice, it has often been the opposite, the great leveler downward. The kids whose parents can opt them into Kumon, piano lessons, and paper-based math learn differently than the kids who only ever touch a trackpad.
It does seem as if education has a tendency to be sold big, fancy things that then appear to cause more problems than they fix. I also do not love the trend of students only using Chromebooks.
I loved the article. I do think there is another item or two that are getting skipped over. My sister teaches at a school that just added a similar program. She teaches at juvie and therefore often has many different grade levels in the same class. The new 'program' was supposed to help make that easier. But it seems to cut teacher bases instruction time and make it impossible for them to each the class together. So, I think this isn't just a two step to change policy on parents and students. It is also policy possible replace teacher, after all we hear about the teacher shortages...
Wonderful! Excellent story!I was very concerned about impact from radiation from devices and antennas on children's bodies, especially with females needing their eggs to last a lifetime. I sent the bioinitive report to all my daughters teachers and the principle. https://bioinitiative.org/
Stories like this give me hope, the reckoning is coming! Administrators won't be able to get away with it much longer. So grateful for Jared's voice in this fight, his book Digital Delusion is a must read by all parents and educators!
Yeah. I was told I couldn't opt out of the computer garbage or the over testing garbage because that would mean that I was opting out of the curriculum. Guess what? I opted out of public education and put my 2nd child into a private high school for boys. Yes, they had computers that we had to purchase for them, BUT they were used appropriately and there was still plenty of work that was done by pencil/paper.
We need many more parents, each passing moment our grandchildren and children are in front of technology for learning, it is medically proven by a neurologist, is a depletion in their cognitive development.
Anecdote - in 2010, my kids were 13, 12, and 5. We moved to a school district that had ALL.THE.THINGS. My kids brought them home and abused them as much as the next kid. When we saw this, we worked it out with the school that they did anything that NEEDED the computer while they were at school, but it never came home. Later that same school year, they all came home to homeschool, so Chromebooks were no longer a thing. Fast forward 2 years, when my oldest started taking Drivers' Ed at the public school after school. Because he was the only kid without one, he actually paid attention and aced everything, while the other students were very distracted.
Happy to see this! Hopefully they won’t stop at Chromebooks and will keep kids away from smartphones and social media as well.
"They refused to take no for an answer."
So...what exactly did they do? Lawsuit? Withdraw their students?
This is amazing….Go Yair and friends! I was subbing just last week and the high schoolers in my classes were playing games on their Chromebooks instead of doing the assignment. I asked them how they were accessing games when they’re supposed to be blocked (as I often do). “Student secret, Miss” one of the students immediately responded. Enough of such student secrets… let’s help these kids start learning again!
Until we change the mission of school, these things will always be a problem. The mission needs to change from the undefinable well educated to helping people become successful. Right now, we're blindly putting kids through a 13 year endurance test and don't really know why, so we're always going to find things we don't like because we don't like the ambiguous mission.
To actually change a district policy like this requires two things: a number of teachers who have enough backbone to speak up and a significant group of parents who band together simultaneously to demand an opt out option. I worked in districts where many teachers complained quietly behind closed doors and lone brave parents desperately tried to challenge the system on their own to save their children, but without enough teachers willing to speak up and protect their students, parents won't know the truth and be willing to help out that lone parent protesting in the wild.
People don’t remember all the problems Chromebooks solved. They’ll remember soon enough.
i love this, parents need to rage against this machine.
And make sure you look into the curriculum in computer based instruction…the curriculum company our students used was developed in Seattle and was highly tribal and politically polarizing. I remember a student refusing to type answers to questions that only had one “correct” partisan answer.
The featured quote is quite eye opening: Edtech sold itself as the great equalizer. In practice, it has often been the opposite, the great leveler downward. The kids whose parents can opt them into Kumon, piano lessons, and paper-based math learn differently than the kids who only ever touch a trackpad.
It does seem as if education has a tendency to be sold big, fancy things that then appear to cause more problems than they fix. I also do not love the trend of students only using Chromebooks.
I loved the article. I do think there is another item or two that are getting skipped over. My sister teaches at a school that just added a similar program. She teaches at juvie and therefore often has many different grade levels in the same class. The new 'program' was supposed to help make that easier. But it seems to cut teacher bases instruction time and make it impossible for them to each the class together. So, I think this isn't just a two step to change policy on parents and students. It is also policy possible replace teacher, after all we hear about the teacher shortages...
Another man-made crisis!
Wonderful! Excellent story!I was very concerned about impact from radiation from devices and antennas on children's bodies, especially with females needing their eggs to last a lifetime. I sent the bioinitive report to all my daughters teachers and the principle. https://bioinitiative.org/
Stories like this give me hope, the reckoning is coming! Administrators won't be able to get away with it much longer. So grateful for Jared's voice in this fight, his book Digital Delusion is a must read by all parents and educators!
I’m trying to talk about this book with EVERYONE.
Yeah. I was told I couldn't opt out of the computer garbage or the over testing garbage because that would mean that I was opting out of the curriculum. Guess what? I opted out of public education and put my 2nd child into a private high school for boys. Yes, they had computers that we had to purchase for them, BUT they were used appropriately and there was still plenty of work that was done by pencil/paper.
We need many more parents, each passing moment our grandchildren and children are in front of technology for learning, it is medically proven by a neurologist, is a depletion in their cognitive development.
And school administrators and teachers gobble this crap up. Who’s to blame?