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.

  • partofthevoice@lemmy.zipEnglish
    2·
    19 hours ago

    That makes a lot of sense. I think there’s plenty of research to back up your claim about writing helping memory, too. I used to try to remember things better by (1) writing it down, (2) reading it aloud, (3) thinking about the next level up.

    Number 3 is probably less useful outside fields where you’re constantly trying to “scale” systems… but in any case, it’s a thought experiment that happens to be really good at exposing the boundaries of concepts. Like… “okay, I built one server… now, what if I needed to manage a farm of 1000? What issues then become more pronounced?”

    Out of curiosity, do any of these platforms try to marry itself with paper workflows? Maybe stuff like:

    • teachers can submit a printable paper doc
    • students can print it out as needed, submit the finished result
    • students can take pictures of their handwritten notes and store them in a digital journal
    • platform comes with handwriting analysis, full-text-search, … all that jazz?
    • andros_rex@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      13 hours ago

      Canvas has a very neat “annotation” tool, where the teacher can upload a document and students can write on it and submit.

      I also see a lot of canvas assignments where the answer is in an auto graded quiz, but the teacher has the students take a picture and upload to show their scratch work. This can be added as a “question” to the assignment.

      There are good ways to use the tools for sure - I did really like that the auto graded quizzes on canvas could use randomized numbers. Eg, when I did speed/distance/time, I could write a word problem where it would randomize the quantities so each student got a unique quiz and couldn’t cheat.

      Tools like PHeT/CK12/other simulation programs are also a godsend. Even working with college chemistry, being able to show visual representations of acid/base dissociation or how to balance an equation makes things so much easier.

      The platforms are great - the work flow problems are more consequent to the way the school system is set up, especially in the Title 1 hell schools that are left to fall through the cracks.