My friend, I'm an elementary school teacher with a master's degree in Learning and Technology, and my students' classroom experience is almost entirely unplugged. I'm intensely picky about the learning tools I provide, so when I do have them use their Chromebooks (and don't get me started on those pieces of busted-ass shit (I have feelings)), web monitoring and limiting software is crucial. Being able to see their screens, shut them down, redirect them, or restrict them to a pre-approved domain - like Chrome Music Lab during free time, or PebbleGo for animal research - is the epitome of micromanagement and a pain in the ass, but it's the only way I've found to keep control over what's going on at their desks. Also, Ctrl+Shift+T reopens closed browser tabs. That's a fun tool to have in your back pocket.
LOL - Busted-ass shit indeed! Your class sounds divine, and you’re lucky to have the flexibility to conduct it that way. Alas the teachers in many mega-districts are *compelled* to use these horrid systems. And so much budget has been squandered on the Google hardware and e-learning platforms licensing (not to mention endless IT support), that many teachers who would prefer to educate analog-style, can’t do so because there are strict budget caps on paper and printing. Mind-boggling!
Catch22 Tech... Make sure the "Tech dissidents" are deterred. And of course Ukraine war and following crisis helped raise the price of paper and create a paper industry crisis at least in Europe. How convenient...Agatha Christie would feel uncomfortable with all these coincidences.
100%. My man, I thank God above every day that I have as much freedom as I do when it comes to decisions about my classroom. Before I started teaching (in one of those mega-districts out west), I managed a sales team and, later, a logistics team for an ecommerce retailer. I also studied marketing management and accounting until I decided that I actually hated sitting behind a desk all day with the intensity of a thousand burning suns. But, because of that background, there will always be a part of me that thinks in terms of ROI; as I like to tell my kids when I see them being wasteful (OMG PUT THE LID BACK ON THE PLAYDOH WHEN YOU'RE DONE WITH IT), "I don't love money, but I love what it can do." Now that I have experience and education, I'm aghast at how so many of our already sparse resources are being wasted on tech products and services by:
1. Teachers who don't know how to assess whether a tool will be beneficial (or potentially harmful - see the FTC investigation into popular "educational MMO" Prodigy Math)
2. Administrators in top-heavy districts who need to justify their position and salary, so they roll out a steady stream of "tools" for the teachers to learn and integrate into their instruction
I started typing a whole-ass rant about what I hate about Chromebooks (flimsy, not really a laptop, overused, etc.), but I just had to chase my puppy down in the rain, and now I'm tired. I'll just sign off by saying that, having taught in a major metro and a small, rural area, I'm confident that, were districts to move computers off desks and back into a Lab, where there's an adult monitor or teacher available to do the necessary micromanagement while the classroom teacher actually teaches, the vast majority of teachers would be super stoked about it. Maybe that's what we should be asking for...
Doing the right thing well Is already Effort Energy and Love taking but Always worthwhile. Now, when technology creates multiple Energy absorbing obstacles to the correct desirable execution of one's own duties, as a parent or an educator, something has gone terribly wrong...
Hiya Lila! Signed! The petition is great. Unfortunately it's going to take a long time to turn the LAUSD supertanker around. Based on my experience, the first baby step with the biggest impact would be for them to *BLOCK YOUTUBE* at the district firewall. Yes, there's some solid educational content there, but 99.999% of student usage is just streaming brainrot...
SFCxUS has you covered on that one, John! Jodi Carreon, co-lead in our org, has been successful in getting YouTube banned in her kids’ district. 🥳 (and she lives in CA too!) I’ll connect you with her, and I’m so thrilled that Lila from our group has reached out to connect with you as well. Haidt is correct that this is a collective action problem, and the more that we can team up, the stronger we will become!
My take on kids behind computers....Phones are One Half the Problem
We need to get EdTech and AI out of the classrooms.
Everyone tells me we need to prepare our kids for the future workplace; that technology is inevitable. Research is showing that putting kids behind Chromebooks every day in every class is not helping them learn. Kindergartners do not need iPads. Global PISA scores show that we are falling behind. In fact, all this screen time filled with unfocused distractions is not neurologically appropriate for proper brain development. The scrolling, swiping, and gaming are not teaching our children the skills they will need to succeed in six to ten years when they graduate. School administrators like the tidy workflow that Edtech provides them. But at what expense to our future generations?
We need to prioritize printed text books, handwritten note taking, and hands on assignments. We should return to the century’s old proven methods of learning. Schools could have a computer lab for coding skills and typing only. AI should not replace reading and writing for kids. Ditch the 1:1 computers... Finland and Sweden are.
The worst part Is that thanks to social media platforms entire populations' cognitive kidnapping they are now all over schools in EU countries.... Just learned that while Big Tech continues to reject huge amount of International studies proving the toxicity of their products for learning, in Italy, Google only Needs One study to persuade religious educational institutions of the positive impact on students learning. Same in France, Germany, ..they seem unstoppable😱
They can and it varies greatly by district/school. The fact that LA schools don’t block YouTube is sheer educational malpractice. Even if the Chromebooks were totally locked down web-wise they would still be massive distractions. Middle schoolers are highly gifted at finding ways to screw around! 😆
There are workarounds plus most districts leave YouTube wide open (it is easier for teachers - no blocking or unblocking needed). Have you been on google lately...cute pictures abound, change your fonts, change your backgrounds, on and on, it goes. Kids can spend hours, and days just messing about and over-riding district protections.....
Add email and they can ask to have cute hairstyles sent daily....on and on it goes, ask it anything what is the weather report, oh math assignment why learn it when you can google an answer. I would not have believed it unless I had seen it for myself.
The whole thing is a travesty. I am waiting for parents to wake up. They are so protective except when it comes to technology devices......
Your consistently immaculate sentence structure and expansive vocabulary leads me to think that you might have been a little more studious in your youth than you would have us believe. Haha.
Oh gosh... dreading returning to the US with my daughter who is a rising middle schooler next year. At her school in Spain there was absolutely zero tech in classrooms.
I think part of the result of the education system(s) letting down children can be seen in some of those 'vox pop' videos. They're kind of entertaining, in a 'watching-open-mouthed in shock' sort of way.
I just cackled my way through this hilarious exposé, thank you for a great start to the day! The sanctimonious schools who blame students for their failures are on my shit list and this was glorious confirmation that it will probably all blow up in their faces while someone else is building a better mousetrap somewhere else…. Best of luck to them!
Anecdotes from a former 7th grade English teacher. I taught at a private school with 1:1 Chromebook usage starting in 4th grade. Many of the teachers used tech for every aspect of their lessons; the reasoning they gave was that it was more engaging, but it was clear that the real reason was often laziness. With tech, homework and quizzes can grade themselves, and there is no need to collect and organize paper. My school banned phones and used GoGuardian for Chromebooks, which teachers can use to monitor each device and even close tabs, block websites during their class time, or adjust settings so that only one website is permissible. But many teachers I know never learned all the aspects of this program. As the English teacher, my class sessions were twice the length of others, and Chromebooks only came out to (1) type essays - outlining and drafting were handwritten (2) complete research for said essays, with heavy monitoring from me (3) play IXL class-wide grammar games or vocabulary reviews as a special treat on Fridays, again with strict monitoring. After only a few weeks where my ability to catch every student was clear, most kids simply stopped playing games in my class. I’d rather them avoid work by staring out the window!
As a teacher, I have been saying since Covid that we need to get rid of computers in classrooms. This continued reliance on computers as much as online learning during Covid has contributed to continued lack of learning in classrooms.
A friend who is a really great (high school) teacher just retired for this reason - walking the halls, and peeking into classrooms, she didn’t see any interaction, discussion, or debate - only screens. And the kids don’t know how to talk to each other anymore.
My friend, I'm an elementary school teacher with a master's degree in Learning and Technology, and my students' classroom experience is almost entirely unplugged. I'm intensely picky about the learning tools I provide, so when I do have them use their Chromebooks (and don't get me started on those pieces of busted-ass shit (I have feelings)), web monitoring and limiting software is crucial. Being able to see their screens, shut them down, redirect them, or restrict them to a pre-approved domain - like Chrome Music Lab during free time, or PebbleGo for animal research - is the epitome of micromanagement and a pain in the ass, but it's the only way I've found to keep control over what's going on at their desks. Also, Ctrl+Shift+T reopens closed browser tabs. That's a fun tool to have in your back pocket.
LOL - Busted-ass shit indeed! Your class sounds divine, and you’re lucky to have the flexibility to conduct it that way. Alas the teachers in many mega-districts are *compelled* to use these horrid systems. And so much budget has been squandered on the Google hardware and e-learning platforms licensing (not to mention endless IT support), that many teachers who would prefer to educate analog-style, can’t do so because there are strict budget caps on paper and printing. Mind-boggling!
Catch22 Tech... Make sure the "Tech dissidents" are deterred. And of course Ukraine war and following crisis helped raise the price of paper and create a paper industry crisis at least in Europe. How convenient...Agatha Christie would feel uncomfortable with all these coincidences.
100%. My man, I thank God above every day that I have as much freedom as I do when it comes to decisions about my classroom. Before I started teaching (in one of those mega-districts out west), I managed a sales team and, later, a logistics team for an ecommerce retailer. I also studied marketing management and accounting until I decided that I actually hated sitting behind a desk all day with the intensity of a thousand burning suns. But, because of that background, there will always be a part of me that thinks in terms of ROI; as I like to tell my kids when I see them being wasteful (OMG PUT THE LID BACK ON THE PLAYDOH WHEN YOU'RE DONE WITH IT), "I don't love money, but I love what it can do." Now that I have experience and education, I'm aghast at how so many of our already sparse resources are being wasted on tech products and services by:
1. Teachers who don't know how to assess whether a tool will be beneficial (or potentially harmful - see the FTC investigation into popular "educational MMO" Prodigy Math)
2. Administrators in top-heavy districts who need to justify their position and salary, so they roll out a steady stream of "tools" for the teachers to learn and integrate into their instruction
I started typing a whole-ass rant about what I hate about Chromebooks (flimsy, not really a laptop, overused, etc.), but I just had to chase my puppy down in the rain, and now I'm tired. I'll just sign off by saying that, having taught in a major metro and a small, rural area, I'm confident that, were districts to move computers off desks and back into a Lab, where there's an adult monitor or teacher available to do the necessary micromanagement while the classroom teacher actually teaches, the vast majority of teachers would be super stoked about it. Maybe that's what we should be asking for...
Doing the right thing well Is already Effort Energy and Love taking but Always worthwhile. Now, when technology creates multiple Energy absorbing obstacles to the correct desirable execution of one's own duties, as a parent or an educator, something has gone terribly wrong...
💯 Teacher, here. I monitor and control the screens. They are used at very specific times for specific purposes.
John, your experience corresponds almost exactly with mine, after my son entered an LAUSD middle school last year. I organized a group of equally-appalled parents & teachers, and we’re starting to fight back against these (bananas) policies. Please join Schools Beyond Screens and sign our petition! https://papa.fournorms.com/campaigns/schools-beyond-screens-lausd-reduce-lausd-s-reliance-on-classroom-tech
Hiya Lila! Signed! The petition is great. Unfortunately it's going to take a long time to turn the LAUSD supertanker around. Based on my experience, the first baby step with the biggest impact would be for them to *BLOCK YOUTUBE* at the district firewall. Yes, there's some solid educational content there, but 99.999% of student usage is just streaming brainrot...
SFCxUS has you covered on that one, John! Jodi Carreon, co-lead in our org, has been successful in getting YouTube banned in her kids’ district. 🥳 (and she lives in CA too!) I’ll connect you with her, and I’m so thrilled that Lila from our group has reached out to connect with you as well. Haidt is correct that this is a collective action problem, and the more that we can team up, the stronger we will become!
Thanks Kathleen that would be great!
I completely agree—both about YouTube and the LAUSD supertanker. Fortunately the petition is just Step One in our larger battle :)
My take on kids behind computers....Phones are One Half the Problem
We need to get EdTech and AI out of the classrooms.
Everyone tells me we need to prepare our kids for the future workplace; that technology is inevitable. Research is showing that putting kids behind Chromebooks every day in every class is not helping them learn. Kindergartners do not need iPads. Global PISA scores show that we are falling behind. In fact, all this screen time filled with unfocused distractions is not neurologically appropriate for proper brain development. The scrolling, swiping, and gaming are not teaching our children the skills they will need to succeed in six to ten years when they graduate. School administrators like the tidy workflow that Edtech provides them. But at what expense to our future generations?
We need to prioritize printed text books, handwritten note taking, and hands on assignments. We should return to the century’s old proven methods of learning. Schools could have a computer lab for coding skills and typing only. AI should not replace reading and writing for kids. Ditch the 1:1 computers... Finland and Sweden are.
💯
I still teach cursive 🌹💕
The worst part Is that thanks to social media platforms entire populations' cognitive kidnapping they are now all over schools in EU countries.... Just learned that while Big Tech continues to reject huge amount of International studies proving the toxicity of their products for learning, in Italy, Google only Needs One study to persuade religious educational institutions of the positive impact on students learning. Same in France, Germany, ..they seem unstoppable😱
Can't we block sites on Chromebooks? Do they not do that in school?
They can and it varies greatly by district/school. The fact that LA schools don’t block YouTube is sheer educational malpractice. Even if the Chromebooks were totally locked down web-wise they would still be massive distractions. Middle schoolers are highly gifted at finding ways to screw around! 😆
The kids are way sharper than we are. They find a workaround fast.
There are workarounds plus most districts leave YouTube wide open (it is easier for teachers - no blocking or unblocking needed). Have you been on google lately...cute pictures abound, change your fonts, change your backgrounds, on and on, it goes. Kids can spend hours, and days just messing about and over-riding district protections.....
Add email and they can ask to have cute hairstyles sent daily....on and on it goes, ask it anything what is the weather report, oh math assignment why learn it when you can google an answer. I would not have believed it unless I had seen it for myself.
The whole thing is a travesty. I am waiting for parents to wake up. They are so protective except when it comes to technology devices......
Your consistently immaculate sentence structure and expansive vocabulary leads me to think that you might have been a little more studious in your youth than you would have us believe. Haha.
Oh gosh... dreading returning to the US with my daughter who is a rising middle schooler next year. At her school in Spain there was absolutely zero tech in classrooms.
I think part of the result of the education system(s) letting down children can be seen in some of those 'vox pop' videos. They're kind of entertaining, in a 'watching-open-mouthed in shock' sort of way.
This one is typical - from Fleccas Talks channel.
"What is a country, again?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu7RXlIEbog
I just cackled my way through this hilarious exposé, thank you for a great start to the day! The sanctimonious schools who blame students for their failures are on my shit list and this was glorious confirmation that it will probably all blow up in their faces while someone else is building a better mousetrap somewhere else…. Best of luck to them!
Also -it is available on our YouTube Channel! https://www.youtube.com/@SmartphoneFreeChildhoodUS
Anecdotes from a former 7th grade English teacher. I taught at a private school with 1:1 Chromebook usage starting in 4th grade. Many of the teachers used tech for every aspect of their lessons; the reasoning they gave was that it was more engaging, but it was clear that the real reason was often laziness. With tech, homework and quizzes can grade themselves, and there is no need to collect and organize paper. My school banned phones and used GoGuardian for Chromebooks, which teachers can use to monitor each device and even close tabs, block websites during their class time, or adjust settings so that only one website is permissible. But many teachers I know never learned all the aspects of this program. As the English teacher, my class sessions were twice the length of others, and Chromebooks only came out to (1) type essays - outlining and drafting were handwritten (2) complete research for said essays, with heavy monitoring from me (3) play IXL class-wide grammar games or vocabulary reviews as a special treat on Fridays, again with strict monitoring. After only a few weeks where my ability to catch every student was clear, most kids simply stopped playing games in my class. I’d rather them avoid work by staring out the window!
GoGuardian is a game changer!
As a teacher, I have been saying since Covid that we need to get rid of computers in classrooms. This continued reliance on computers as much as online learning during Covid has contributed to continued lack of learning in classrooms.
A friend who is a really great (high school) teacher just retired for this reason - walking the halls, and peeking into classrooms, she didn’t see any interaction, discussion, or debate - only screens. And the kids don’t know how to talk to each other anymore.
I'm left curious what you're doing to address your child's education after this experience? What solutions are you considering for your family?
So did you take your son out of that school?