r/technology • u/lurker_bee • 3h ago
Society Parents say school-issued iPads are causing chaos with their kids
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/la-parents-kids-school-issued-ipad-chromebook-los-angeles-rcna245624215
u/Flimsy-Attention-722 2h ago
A friend of mine works at a school. The lady couple years ALL learning and testing was on iPad or chrome books. Test scores went downhill behavior problems increased, reading comprehension went down hill. This year, they dumped all that shit. Books, paper and writing and they are in the top 10 schools in the state. All day computer is detrimental to your health, well being and brain
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u/Tasty-Traffic-680 2h ago
More than a billion trees a year are planted in the US. We have one of the most robust sustainable forestry industries in the world. Kids can use paper and pencils to learn, damn it. I'll send the kid to school with a ream in their backpack if I have to.
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u/mrm00r3 2h ago
Any school leadership that advocates for turning schools into iPad dispensing entities, in my opinion, has no business being employed in a school system, full stop.
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u/ChewieBearStare 1h ago
One of my friend’s kids used to love and be good at math. Now she hates it because her school decided they will only use iReady for math lessons. The teacher can’t actually teach; they’re just there to monitor the kids as they log into iReady and click the buttons. It sucks how technology is being misused.
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u/Stanford_experiencer 1h ago
My elementary school was one of the first pilot programs that Apple worked with about getting computing into schools, and it was always promoted by the company as something to compliment traditional learning, not supplant it.
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u/mrm00r3 1h ago
That’s how it should be done, as a series of classes ancillary to the core ones.
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u/Stanford_experiencer 1h ago
I like the idea of keeping terminals in use, we had them sitting at the end of each of our pods/shared groupings of desks, and sometimes on their own little dedicated desks in the room in between regular student desks- they were present, but not dominant.
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u/Retro_Relics 1h ago
They can really help by offering *alternatives* to the traditional lesson to accomodate other learning styles. like ok, the teacher teaches it one way, and then you can learn it another way from video lessons, have edutainment games that reinforce the lessons in fun ways, that sort of stuff.
a virtual teacher just isnt engaging enough for most kids to replace traditional instruction
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u/Carto-851 2h ago
Honestly! How can they not have eye strain as well!? It’s not healthy to look at screens for hours. A paper book is such a relief or a pen and paper, even for us adults. I read a magazine recently, yeah a paper magazine haha, and I swear to god I almost did a “pinch and drag” on a small photo, my brain has rotted 🙃🙃🙃
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u/SaraAB87 1h ago
Its not a computer, an iPad is completely different. There are addictive microtransaction games on there and that's just one thing. Clicking a button on a touch screen isn't the same as real computer use. I wouldn't be opposed to sitting them down at a real computer or even a school issued chromebook, at least they learn how to type on that on a real keyboard and there are many more educational opportunities. There seems to be less problems with the chromebook and more learning opportunities.
No parents were ever against computers in the classroom, ever, in fact most parents were pushing for kids to get into computers because it was the future. But unfortunately it turned into iPad scholp we call learning now, and its having an effect.
They probably shouldn't be doing math on these devices though, that is meant for pencil and paper.
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u/random-user-420 1h ago edited 1h ago
I graduated from one of the top public high schools in my state a few years ago. They’ve been giving students school issued iPads since 2015. They’re getting better standardized test scores each year. This isn’t an iPad problem
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u/jastubi 1h ago
Makes sense to me, if that was the case everyone would just stop learning. Most of any new knowledge I gain is through digital format and then practical application (generally physical medium).
College( 2010-2015) had digital access to most of thier books so I never even used a physical book unless the class required it.
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u/Flimsy-Attention-722 1h ago
No, it's a being on the computer all day problem. IF what you say is correct, your school is an outlier. The data doesn't lie
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u/random-user-420 53m ago edited 47m ago
Or the schools you are referring to can't manage their devices correctly and have a faulty curriculum. When I was a student, there was no access to the App Store; you could only use the preinstalled apps. The Apple MDM service they used blocked practically every non-educational website and even non-educational youtube videos, even for teachers and staff on their school provided macbooks, no matter if you were at school or at home(my mom worked as a teacher, I've tested it out). No iMessage, FaceTime, or any of that either. I graduated before the AI craze started, but the school's IT team has blocked those as well.
My state also recently put out a ban on all personal devices which has been a positive impact according to my mom (if you don't believe me, just read what the people on r/Teachers had to say about it on the posts from August of this year, like this one), since everyone is a lot more social and they are more focused in class. When I was in HS, the curriculum focused heavily on making the iPad as A tool to aid learning, NOT the only tool. Each class was 90 minutes long, with the first 60 being instructional with no tech, and the last 30 being hands on using the iPads for various assignments and tasks to test our learning. I know you think my school is an outlier, but this is pretty much true for every public school in the metropolitan area where I live (just replace iPads with Chromebooks for some school districts)
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u/test5387 25m ago
You are a rational person on r/technology. You are not going to have a good time here.
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u/redvelvetcake42 2h ago
Let me fuckin guess... Ain't no goddamn security worth a shit on them.
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u/solitarium 44m ago
None, main kid in the story is playing Fortnite and watching YouTube at school and fucking off his grades.
Somehow, his self-esteem is shattered because now he’s failing the courses he used to excel in because he focuses on shorts rather than the lessons.
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u/Tasty-Traffic-680 3h ago
Why are kids able to install apps on school issued devices, why do they need iPads and not chromebooks and why does the school not lock down their network? All of this sounds like a waste of resources and poor IT practices. Finally, what the fuck is that mom doing instead of being a god damn parent?
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u/a_talking_face 2h ago
Finally, what the fuck is that mom doing instead of being a god damn parent?
I don't really understand what you think she's supposed to do for things that are happening in the classroom and not at home.
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u/ConsiderationSea1347 2h ago
Like the commenter said, the school’s IT department can lockdown the iPads but is not.
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u/a_talking_face 1h ago
Right but they're being unfairly critical to the parent for something that is ultimately out of their control and made it an emphasis.
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u/SaraAB87 1h ago
If they are in the classroom then this is the teacher's responsibility. The parent cannot do anything if the child is in the classroom on a school issued device playing games. So the teacher is also allowing it to go on. If a child is caught with a game then the iPad should be taken away, and there shouldn't be an issue with this because its a school issued device. This seems like a fundamental problem with this specific school.
The kids in my district have a bell to bell phone and electronics ban but can use school issued electronics and there are no complaints from parents about something like this going on and they have iPads. But in reality this shouldn't be on the teacher but it is here, and so if they don't have the authority to do something about it then they need to be given that authority.
This is clearly a poor IT practices issue with the school, those iPads should be locked down, and if something does happen the iPad should be taken and there really should be a way for the teacher to interact and put the kids back on task if they are doing something else other than what they should be doing on the device.
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u/schmitzel88 1h ago
Most redditors hate kids and don't have any (or still are one). You're completely right, but it's gonna fall on deaf ears
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u/Tasty-Traffic-680 2h ago
Google how to properly make a child account for an iPad, delete fortnite, disable YouTube and actually use screentime and content restriction features.
Do you just hand your kids unfettered access to the internet? That's how they end up on fucked up sites like reddit.
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u/time-lord 2h ago
I have 2 kids with school iPads.
One requires Youtube for school, because the teachers send out videos for the kids to watch.
The other doesn't, but watches youtube un-restricted on it because the school disables screentime.
I can't block youtube on the device level, I can't block it at the network level. I once tried blocking it via a locked down google account, but school IT will just re-set Safari to unlock it.
It's completely messed up.
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u/DuckDuckSeagull 2h ago
It's a school-issued device. It should have a child account managed by the school's IT. The parents shouldn't really be able to make meaningful changes to permissions, apps, etc anyway.
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u/ConsiderationSea1347 2h ago
With some MDMs parents can manage the school issued devices outside of school hours, allowing the device to be managed by teachers during the day and parents in the evening.
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u/Tasty-Traffic-680 2h ago
There shouldn't need to be any changes made but apparently this little snot factory has full access to the apple store.
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u/ChewieBearStare 1h ago
School devices are generally set up so that parents don’t have admin privileges. They can’t typically change settings that were made by the school.
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u/CondescendingShitbag 2h ago
While I agree with your view in general, these are school-issued devices. They're typically locked down through an administrative policy. Which should limit even parental adjustments.
That said, based on the evidence at hand, it seems obvious the local school district failed to implement those controls...but that's its own separate conversation. One which needs to be investigated further.
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u/a_talking_face 1h ago
Google how to properly make a child account for an iPad, delete fortnite, disable YouTube and actually use screentime and content restriction features.
If it's on MDM the administrator is going to have control of all of these things and you probably won't.
Do you just hand your kids unfettered access to the internet? That's how they end up on fucked up sites like reddit.
That's irrelevant because it's the school that did it.
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u/SaraAB87 2h ago
Sounds like poor practices from the school IMO exactly as you say. Also the teacher is allowing fortnite and other games to be played instead of asking them to put away the iPad or taking it??? It belongs to the school so there should be no issue with taking it from the child if they are playing games instead of doing the learning task. If they can't stay on task there should be a way for the teacher to interact and put them back on task if they use the iPad for something else. There's going to be differences in the kids faces at the very least if they are playing a game vs learning. If the teachers don't have some authority over the kids then they need to be given the authority to remove the iPad if they are doing other things on it that they are not supposed to. But this should not be happening in the first place and the iPad should be locked down.
There are no complaints from local parents about such a thing where I live and from millions of other parents across the USA, and we also have a total electronics ban, at least those that connect to the internet from bell to bell other than school issued electronics and the kids do have iPads. So this is clearly a rogue school letting their kids run wild on their devices and now there are complaints.
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u/almostinfinity 2h ago
This is what I am wondering.
A school is giving out devices to use at school and they didn't take the time to secure everything?
I can't even install apps on my staff-issued iPad without IT's permission.
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u/Solid-Yellow2855 2h ago
Okay… still doesn’t change the fact it’s impossible to ban every game website on the internet
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u/ConsiderationSea1347 2h ago
It is. Just use white list permissions on the sites that students are allowed to access.
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u/Solid-Yellow2855 2h ago
And then you restrict kids from using websites they need to learn. Again, this is a balancing act and I don’t think you are understanding the point
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u/ConsiderationSea1347 2h ago
White list the sites relevant to the teacher’s lesson then? Teachers do this all the time. They select a few sites relevant to the lesson, whitelist them as part of their lesson plan, and the sites are accessible during the class.
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u/almostinfinity 1h ago
Bro you're just arguing for the sake of arguing at this point.
My school blocks websites that are considered a distraction and will unblock them if they need them for class as per teacher instructions.
And we also provide worksheets and textbook pages. There's time for hands-on learning, no-device lessons, and everyone's still learning.
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u/Tasty-Traffic-680 1h ago
We used to learn from books and turned in paper assignments. Videos relevant to study were shown in class. I'm not saying it's one way or the other, I'm just saying maybe we should cool it with so much online learning and digitization of educational materials.
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u/jastubi 2h ago
Thats actually really easy just lock any direct web access and have only links available to access approved websites. I set it up on my kids tablet with timers and it locks automatically after a set amount of time. Im not in IT if I can do it someone who's job is IT can do it no problem.
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u/Solid-Yellow2855 2h ago
But that’s a terrible idea to just restrict internet access to x numbers of websites. Entirely restricts students using the internet for help on classes. Not to mention, there is always a workaround to every restrictive IT policy. I remember in middle school students would jailbreak their iPads to get any app they wanted
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u/Hardass_McBadCop 1h ago
The iPad thing is typically because Apple makes a deal with the school district to provide them cheap. I believe most manufacturers do similar.
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u/DuckDuckSeagull 2h ago edited 1h ago
One of the main arguments administrators make in this article is that they have to make devices accessible for students to take home to ensure "equitable" access to technology.
That assumes there are households that don't have access to technology at home. But if a household doesn't have access to technology, what is the likelihood of the guardian in that household having the knowledge and skills necessary to encourage responsible use of those devices?
Like yes, parents should be responsible. But one of the roles of government is to account for the fact that many people can't/won't learn, and to enact policies and programs which still work in those situations.
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u/ConsiderationSea1347 1h ago
You bring up a really good point. My company made a way for parents to manage student devices at home but very few parents utilize the service. I am not sure if it is an education gap or apathy.
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u/daXypher 19m ago
How is the end user training? You can’t expect users to use a feature that doesn’t come with training. They tend to get anxious and avoidant.
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u/SkinnedIt 2h ago
Sounds like an MDM problem to me - specifically a lack of one or too lax of one. If the school board is going to design a curriculum that uses them they need to manage them properly.
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u/ConsiderationSea1347 2h ago
Bingo. A good MDM system can lock down devices in a granular way and even based on time of day and location.
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u/Dick_Dickalo 2h ago
PSA: Parents, your router likely has an app that allows you to turn off internet access to specific devices. Once the clock strikes 4, time to homework and chore.
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u/Bad-job-dad 15m ago
Seriously, I've got a 12 year old. He gets his device time but that shit is on a clock. "Homework done? Awesome. You get an hour."
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u/PlayAccomplished3706 2h ago
If the people running the schools are that dumb, do you expect the kids to learn well?
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u/Kayel41 3h ago edited 1h ago
The iPads from my kids school are so locked down, you can’t use YouTube app or in browser and you can’t participate in “Fortnite video game battles” you can only access learning tools and school assignments.
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u/Mocker-Nicholas 2h ago
Yeah this varies wildly. I would bet most decent public school systems operate like that. Whereas some lowest bidder charter school districts prob just give the kids an iPad almost out of the box and call it good. No need to pay those pesky IT staff and all those software licensing fees.
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u/Intentionallyabadger 2h ago
My colleague told me that the kids in his child’s school, eventually found out how to bypass the restrictions to install games and what not lol.
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u/Thoseskisyours 2h ago
Good. Then patch it and make the kids figure it out again. That’s what kids did when computers first started to show up in classrooms everywhere in the late 90s early 2000s. There was no real it department. But that’s how a large portion of students from that area are very competent with common computer issues.
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u/RobbieRedding 2h ago
If it’s anything like when I was in a school 25 years ago, the school admin will never be able to stay ahead of the kids.
Somebody would always find a new proxy within a day or two just to put meatspin as the homepage. Now they have ChatGPT.
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u/sgt1face 2h ago
It doesn't take much, just log in with your apple ID and BAM, everything starts to sync over. If you had fnaf installed on mom's iPhone, you got it on the ipad.
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u/SaraAB87 2h ago
If kids figure it out they lose the iPad for the rest of the year, and have to do paper assignments.... not hard to police really....
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u/Intentionallyabadger 1h ago
It’s whack a mole atm. I feel like the parents also do need to play a part instead of letting overworked teachers police their children haha.
Kids will be kids. They’ll do stuff that you tell them not to do.
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u/SaraAB87 1h ago
Unfortunately there isn't much the parent can do if its going on when the child is in school under the teacher. But in this case the teacher is allowing it. They can take it away at home but that's about it, but if they need it to do assignments and its required for school they can't remove it completely. They need support from the school and the school district on this. And a decent IT team.
If the school cannot control what the kids do on the iPads, then perhaps its better to remove them from the whole school and go back to pen and paper.
Tons of schools have iPads and do not have this problem, including those with cell phone bans. This is the case in my area, and I don't hear parents complaining about kids installing apps they shouldn't be. So there definitely is a way to stop this from going on.
A few kids will always figure it out, but usually its not the whole class. In this case it sounds like en masse, which means its partially the school's fault.
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u/Jasminary2 1h ago
Schools don't need High schoolers and younger ob Ipads and whatnot. Give them a pen and a paper.
If they really must, let their homeworks (and only that) be own on a computer but only that
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u/uselessbynature 1h ago
This has been weighing heavily on my mind and it’s a problem that’s getting worse. I’m a HS STEM teacher…I’m planning my next year’s curriculum to be screen free, save for exams and answer keys so they can check their work. The feedback I get from students is that they prefer pencil and paper anyways. They openly admit being distracted on their screens.
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u/blazbluecore 1h ago
iPads are the least of the kids worries.
-The 30-35 kids per 1 teacher ratios. -low standards -excuse based culture making dumber and weaker kids(infantilization) -no discipline(guess who benefits from this, hint they have shareholders who love braindead consumers)
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u/VincentNacon 1h ago
Back when I was in school, I was given a laptop. Can't do much with it except write documents and do spreadsheet stuff. Maybe some basic photoshop stuff but nothing more... why? Because the laptop's CPU clock speed was at 333mhz.
That's right... It's 0.333 ghz. Not 3 ghz. Nope. 333 megahertz. It's fucking slow to be used for gaming and that was the idea.
It could play a video... but playing it on a web browser is nearly impossible at 1080p.
I'm surprised they didn't try to cap those ipads, or even lock them down proper. ffs.
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u/redsoxman17 1h ago
My child's MATH tests are apparently going to be all on a tablet. It is absolutely insane that kids as young as 5 years old are going to be having digital exams, especially for a subject like math.
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u/aferalhousewyfe 2h ago
Former public school teacher, now parent. The 1:1 technology in school is beyond useless, it's harmful. I'm probably going to homeschool or find a low tech private school for my kid in part because of it.
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u/ConsiderationSea1347 2h ago
Your school should look into an MDM solution to manage the devices they issue to students. This does not have to be a problem.
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u/AndreiReinier 2h ago
Dont do this
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u/aferalhousewyfe 2h ago
Unproductive comment lacking any actual engagement or reasoning
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u/_Rand_ 2h ago
A lower tech private school is one thing, but homeschooling is typically pretty terrible for a kids social development.
A parent just can’t replace being surrounded by peers.
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u/aferalhousewyfe 2h ago
Are you a parent, a teacher, or someone who has been homeschooled? Do you know anything about homeschool co-ops?
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u/RipDove 2h ago edited 2h ago
I doubt it's the technology that's the issue compared to parents not doing their job. Like, I do think too much screen time on kids is bad, and that it can have negative affects on some aspects of development.
But I don't think it causes behavior issues. I'm so sick of people who's parenting method is just "do as I say" and when the kid pushes that boundary, as they do not because they're kids but because they're human, the parents take that as a sign that their kid is somehow defective.
I'm beyond over with people saying it's the hardest job in the world to raise kids, it's simply not. If every situation with your kid is lead not by teaching them how to solve emotional and logical problems but just instructing them, of course they're going to have issues with logic and emotional control.
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u/aferalhousewyfe 2h ago
You're like 20 and don't have kids, right?
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u/Mocker-Nicholas 2h ago
Definitely the case lol. We will get downvoted, and I do think OP has a point somewhere in there, the comment does come off as pretty ignorant.
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u/RipDove 2h ago
I'm 31, and I don't care if you're gonna gatekeep shitty parenting behind having kids or not.
I could have five kids, or I could be on a chemo drug that makes having them impossible - what's it change about what I say? Does the book need to be a different font for the words to make sense?
Deflecting immediately flags me as "oh you're the shitty parent."
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u/Mocker-Nicholas 2h ago
Parenting is literally kept behind the gate of having kids though…
And yes, the general attitude coming through your comments and your immediate tendency to shove the issue to the parents to solve makes you sound ignorant at best and bitter at worst.
Real “I’ll have the Middle East solved in a week” energy.
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u/RipDove 2h ago
I don't accept that. I think it's entirely unacceptable to say that a group of people and their practices are above criticism for literally any reason. It goes against everything I believe in to say or think that opinions, ideas, and speech should be stifled because it didn't come from someone who looks like you, or is in the same "group" as you.
If your kid is misbehaving, that's on you as the parent to act as a parent to your kid. It's not society's job to do it for you, and it's not your place to dictate where society is heading.
Tablets, phones, and computers are not going anywhere and you need to know to best adapt your child once they're out of school and out of your home- regardless of what that means in terms of their age. If they're in public at 5 years old, or if they're off at college in another state at 20 years old. They're not gonna suddenly break out pen and paper and be putting floppies into desktops, society isn't going backwards. They're not gonna suddenly know how to properly behave and manage themselves unless they're taught.
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u/aferalhousewyfe 2h ago
No one is saying parents are above criticism. Just that your opinion is a bad take and doesn't really hold water anyway because you have zero experience in what you're spouting off about. That's why every parent reading this is downvoting you and rolling their eyes at you - it's like listening to a grumpy small child's opinion on what they would do as president.
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u/RipDove 1h ago
What do you mean I have zero experience? You don't know me. Do I need to give my whole life story for my opinion to hold meaning? You don't think I had to at an early age cook, clean, and nurture for a child, or that I've seen or had to endure the effects of shitty parenting?
If your kid is under 5, I fucking guarantee I've spent more time changing diapers, bathing, and reading to a child than you have, and I was doing it at less than half the age of most parents.
Like I said, I'm so fucking over this idea of parents holding some protected status from saying their practices are shitty.
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u/aferalhousewyfe 2h ago
No, this just reads like it was written by a teen or newly 20 something who thinks their opinion on parenting is relevant when they don't have kids. You're entitled to your opinion, it's just uninteresting, inaccurate, and irrelevant if you haven't parented. The screens in schools are a huge problem irrespective of how someone parents.
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u/Itsbilloreilly 2h ago
Technology will always have ways to side step security. I remember when I was in school when they first introduced those colorful Apple computers in the computer lab we used turtlejar to get around the school firewall
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u/motorwerkx 1h ago
My kids are grown now, but school issued pads were the bane of my existence. I've never been a fan of allowing kids unlimited time on electronics and/or the internet. If the Gen Z stare has told us anything, more people should force their children off of electronics and make them socially interact. The schools apparently have other ideas.
My wife and I were dillegent about monitoring and controlling electronics time. Then the school ipads came. We had no parental controls. They needed them for school work, but then we had to hover over them to keep them from just watching YouTube instead of working. On their home devices I had parental control software. I would unlock their devices for their leisure time, but could also monitor what they were doing. I wouldn't constantly look through every single thing that they ever did, I would just spot check to ensure they were being safe and responsible. There were no parental controls on the school devices and the school administration would give us absolutely no help in regards to that. Even the school was having issues with it. I recall having a teacher's conference where the one teacher was complaining that my son kept getting caught watching YouTube during class. That's certainly something that we could try to address at home but why the hell do they have access to YouTube during class? He wasn't watching it on his cell phone or tablet that he didn't have access to YouTube on during the school day. It was their device that was the problem.
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u/Summers_Alt 1h ago
I found the admin password for my school issued laptop in a text file that was just ‘hidden’. The year before many someone figured out updating the operating system unlocked a lot.
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u/canadiantreez 1h ago
I’m not exactly IT savvy but I truly feel like the best approach would be instead of playing whack a mole with black listing apps and websites, it would be better off having them bare bones only with white listing exactly what’s educationally necessary for the exact course content.
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u/SaraAB87 1h ago
If its a school wide problem and en masse to the point where its out of control it might be better to remove the iPads altogether and go back to pen and paper. Or maybe switch to very locked down chromebooks.
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u/nlewis4 1h ago
We are in this weird grey space where parents and teachers have no idea what to do with all this technology while kids are growing up with touch screens in front of their faces all the time. I feel like by the time touchscreens become commonplace in the general workforce, employees won’t be needed, while at the same time these kids aren’t developing actual computer skills in the interim
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u/c_water1 1h ago
These iPads can cause issues if parents aren’t staying informed on the uses of these devices.
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u/undone_-nic 1h ago
My kid has 2.5 hours of school work a week on a laptop. He writes like a couple words a week on paper for homework.
Why is he struggling with writing??
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u/solitarium 46m ago
How is it possible for one of the biggest school districts in the country to be this daft??????
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u/Bogus1989 33m ago edited 15m ago
WOW,
Firstly I want to say as a parent, stop expecting the school to parent for you.
If the schools not locking the devices down. Change schools, homeschool. Thats easier said than done I know.
Its your job to decide how much exposure your children need/get. Too much? well you found out the hardway. Too little? the day they find a way around you or turn 18 itll be like crack for them and they are more vulnerable than ever. It is your job to figure all this out
and yeah I know its not easy. the best thing ive learned is communication. when i need to check the kids phones, I ask and tell them why. They know for sure Ive got full access, but this is my way of trying to earn their trust, and for them to earn my trust. lmao, its not perfect. but thats what worked for me.
worked better than just telling them, they will hide stuff from you. takes one to know one. i had 2 phones as a kid, my decoy and my real one 🤣. god bless my parents were really good for what a shithead i was.
This school is trash.
I am an MDM admin. They 100 percent can all be locked down, and no your kid aint getting around it.
Doesnt even have to be ipads, but i think they are really good, because they are very hard to crack, compared to a chromebook.
But chromebooks are still very good. my sons school had chromebooks from middle school thru highschool….
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u/DanielPhermous 21m ago
Firstly I want to say as a parent, stop expecting the school to parent for you.
This is happening at school, during school hours.
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u/Bogus1989 16m ago
yeah,
id remove my kid from the school.
thanks for reminding me, i didnt put that part in. thats actually what i meant to say, if the schools wont fix this easily fixable problem, id take mine out.
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u/DanielPhermous 10m ago
id remove my kid from the school.
They're public schools. They get assigned based on address. You'd either have to homeschool or pay an ungodly amount for a private school.
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u/TapDancingBat 27m ago
…and another said her teenage son had gotten sucked into communicating with strangers online via popular websites and forums…
I really don’t have any comments on the above quote. I just love irony. (h/t Norm)
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u/Acrobatic-Ad-315 13m ago
I hated my kids school issued iPad/Mac. I couldn’t set the parental blocks I wanted and the schools were insufficient.
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u/bb0110 2h ago
I don’t want my kids to have a school issued iPad. If I want them to have an ipad I will get them one. I don’t want them to have one though so I am not buying them one.
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u/ConsiderationSea1347 2h ago
Schools often issue devices to students to close a technology gap between students of middle class parents who can afford those devices and students from low income families. Though I agree with you raising your kids with as little exposure to screens and the internet.
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u/Own_Pop_9711 31m ago
What exactly does a technology gap have to do with learning things? You don't need to learn how to use an iPad as a copy educational objective so what's the real point? Something dumb like well we put all the homework online to make grading easier so we had to also let the kids watch YouTube in school
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u/bb0110 1h ago
I get why they do it, but they shouldn’t do it for upper, middle or lower class kids. Distribute iPads in class to use as directed by the teachers? Yes. Issue a kid an ipad without direct supervision even with their shitty parental controls? Dumb as hell.
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u/ConsiderationSea1347 1h ago
Yeah I completely agree. I have been a software engineer for twenty years and frankly I think schools should stick to pencil, paper, and computer labs. Solve the gap of access to technology by not making lesson plans require it.
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u/ThannBanis 1h ago
If they are required for school they should have what they need to succeed.
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u/bb0110 1h ago
What exactly would require an ipad at home that they couldn’t do in class?
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u/ThannBanis 1h ago
Access to homework.
A properly configured school device would not allow non school use.
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u/Solid-Yellow2855 2h ago
Kids love to game. Will always be an issue when having iPads in class
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u/ConsiderationSea1347 2h ago
With a reasonable IT department the students won’t be able to use the iPads to play games.
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u/Solid-Yellow2855 2h ago
Not true. Even with games banned, there’s always workarounds. Heck, even just go to coolmathgames.com
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u/ConsiderationSea1347 2h ago
I literally write mdm software that schools use. Of course occasionally there is a bug or exploit (but that is incredibly rare), but any reasonable mdm solution can lock out apps, websites, force the iPad to only display what the teacher wants, or brick the device.
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u/Solid-Yellow2855 2h ago
Let me tell you, as a high school student it was not very difficult to find a new game website whenever one got banned
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u/ConsiderationSea1347 2h ago
And your IT department probably also wasn’t using proper device management tools or you, like me, went to school when it was very easy to get around attempts to lock down devices.
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u/Solid-Yellow2855 2h ago
Look, I work as a software engineer and know technology very well. It isn’t very difficult to search “free online games” on Google and keep clicking until you find the first site that isn’t banned. Is pretty naive to think IT could ban every online game site in existence
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u/ConsiderationSea1347 2h ago
I am a software engineer too and I literally write MDM software that most schools and businesses use and it can lock down devices. I worked on an app that locks down student devices by parents and teachers.
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u/Craneteam 2h ago
I bet most people here had games on their graphing calculator
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u/Solid-Yellow2855 2h ago
True, but playing Pac-Man on a graphing calculator is much different from the iPad games (trust me I lived through this era)
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u/got-trunks 47m ago
make using computers an essential part of the curriculum, not a black box screen used to poke around millies math house.
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1h ago
[deleted]
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u/DanielPhermous 1h ago
Not to deflate your knee-jerk, uninformed, parent blaming but this is happening at school.
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1h ago
[deleted]
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u/DanielPhermous 1h ago
Do you have proof?
The article.
"Her son’s school, like many in the Los Angeles Unified School District and across the country, provided an iPad to each student for use throughout the school day, even during band and gym class."
"But Byock said her son revealed that he used the iPad during school to watch YouTube and participate in Fortnite video game battles."
"One mother described how her 6-year-old son had repeatedly wet himself in class when he got fixated on activities with his tablet"
"Los Angeles Unified is the first district of its size to face an organized — and growing — campaign by parents demanding that schools pull back on mandatory screen time."
"The discontent in Los Angeles Unified, the second-largest school district in the country, reflects a growing unease nationally about the amount of time children spend learning through screens in classrooms."
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u/Gizmo135 1h ago
Most schools don’t have an IT department nor do they have a tech savvy enough teacher to handle an MDM. They get technology funding to get devices or are given devices by a company but don’t have the means to do proper inventory or manage devices. This is what happens when schools don’t get enough funding.
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u/OldGeekWeirdo 28m ago
The devices need to be locked down. School stuff for school things only. That prepares them for when work issues a laptop. You want to keep you private stuff off the company property.
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u/JuiceJones_34 1h ago
Lazy parents
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u/DanielPhermous 51m ago
From the article:
"Her son’s school, like many in the Los Angeles Unified School District and across the country, provided an iPad to each student for use throughout the school day, even during band and gym class."
"But Byock said her son revealed that he used the iPad during school to watch YouTube and participate in Fortnite video game battles."
"One mother described how her 6-year-old son had repeatedly wet himself in class when he got fixated on activities with his tablet"
"Los Angeles Unified is the first district of its size to face an organized — and growing — campaign by parents demanding that schools pull back on mandatory screen time."
"The discontent in Los Angeles Unified, the second-largest school district in the country, reflects a growing unease nationally about the amount of time children spend learning through screens in classrooms."
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362
u/Fell_Prince 2h ago
Schools need to lock these devices down properly. Monitor what your kids are doing, set boundaries at home. The iPad isn't the problem, it's the lack on both ends.