Parents opt kids out of school computers, insisting on pen and paper instead
www.nbcnews.com
Parents are forming a loose network teaching one another how to get their children off school-issued Chromebooks and iPads.

The middle schooler had been begging to opt out, citing headaches from the Chromebook screen and a dislike of the AI chatbot recently integrated into it.

Parents across the country are taking steps to stop their children from using school-issued Chromebooks and iPads, citing concerns about distractions and access to inappropriate content that they fear hampers their kids’ education.

    • comradegodzilla@lemmy.mlEnglish
      20·
      9 hours ago

      Teacher here: In my classroom I’m purposely moving towards pen and paper. Each middle schooler has a Chromebook and it has wrecked their brains (along with social media and phones that they are on outside of school.) You leave them to do an assignment and they will be on a game in 10 seconds unless you keep on them. Tech needs to be used, but right now it is killing any curiosity and stamina for learning that they have left.

      • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        8 hours ago

        You leave them to do an assignment and they will be on a game in 10 seconds unless you keep on them.

        Why even have games in them? If I am an entrepreneur, a school notepad or laptop without games is a good business idea…

        • ButteredMonkey@lemmy.worldEnglish
          14·
          7 hours ago

          School Chromebooks don’t come with games, except for the “No Internet Game” which is baked into Chrome. The games being used are web games. Schools have blocking agents, but the websites mutate faster than the blocking software. (Looking at you .io domains)

          My school eventually deployed software that only allows students on teacher approved sites, a “block all BUT…” rule and the little devils learned that if they opened more than 50 tabs that agent stopped filtering. I’ve also had students buy an identical Chromebook to their school issued one and use a hotspot to bypass all detection and filtering.

          • Virtvirt588@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            6 hours ago

            Just like everything in life, uncooperation means the system is broken in some way. This is not about being assertive enough so that children, teenagers or adult students will have to live off the current tyrrany - but realising that this system is designed to encourage this.

            The students no matter the age know best; and in this case their word, that AI has no place in their education, should be obeyed by the ones truly ignorant of the educational system.

    • AnarchistArtificer@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      8 hours ago

      Maybe they’re just sick of staring at screens, and the Chromebook screen was the thing they hated the most because of the activities associated with it. Plus if you’re using it for most school work, a kid would be likely to be staring at that longer than their phone or other devices at home.