Post by gretchenindisguise on Mar 22, 2024 21:22:54 GMT -5
Kids in elementary are issue ipads. Kindergarten was covid for 9yo so it came home. I think it came home a bit in 1st. I don't remember it coming home in 2nd. In 3rd he brings it home when he wants to do something specific.
14 yo was issued a Chromebook in 7th and turned it back in at end of 8th. It was used in most classes and most of her homework was on it.
In 9th again issued a Chromebook. I don't know when it goes back, at end of year or at end of 12th. Used in every class and all homework is on it. In one class teacher makes concerted effort to do non-computer things.
Edit- just realized you were asking about older ages, not elementary. Whoops!
1:1 Chromebook to student here, starting in K. From what I understand the kindergartners don't bring the Chromebook home, it lives at school (DD's kinder year was 2020 so we didn't have that experience). 1-5 they bring the Chromebooks home and charge them every night. They also are given Chromebook homework- usually playing a certain number of dreambox lessons a week and also some things on Raz kids. (I ignored these assignments last year, and her homework would come back with red circles around where she was supposed to check that she had done those š)
I hate the Chromebooks. DD is not at public school this year, and the Chromebooks were an element of our decision. It sounded like they were on them constantly last year. Anytime they had indoor recess (which I also thought was excessive) they would just sit inside and play on their Chromebooks. One time they earned a fort building day, and brought in blankets and stuffies, then I asked if they played in it and dd was like, well, we all brought our Chromebooks in and played on them there. DD was also ahead in both math and reading and when we asked about keeping her challenged the answer was that the Chromebook would challenge her, the apps were adaptive. That was not successful, btw. Also, one night DH found DD playing the Chromebook at three in the morning, soooo it was definitely an issue for us. That was second grade for her.
It is just way too much in my opinion for such little brains. I think screens have their place and can be useful in the classroom, I just don't think this is ideal.
Youtube is blocked here. We, as teachers, have to ask to unblock certain YouTube channels ahead of time.
This might be too in the weeds, but do you know how that's done? Maybe I can make a recommendation to the IT department...
Just today I saw on a Friends of SPS Facebook group that someone asked IT about this. They said you can put your child on a "no YouTube" list and there is also some cyber security pilot program they're working on that the poster says sounds promising.
This might be too in the weeds, but do you know how that's done? Maybe I can make a recommendation to the IT department...
Just today I saw on a Friends of SPS Facebook group that someone asked IT about this. They said you can put your child on a "no YouTube" list and there is also some cyber security pilot program they're working on that the poster says sounds promising.
I just got the email that they're going to try using GoGuardian to help teachers manage appropriate laptop use during class. It sounds like it will be better than the status quo. I wish they would go back to the pre-pandemic policy still, but this is something.
Our district gives all students at all schools, K-12, Chromebooks (this is a post-COVID policy). My 4th grader and 7th grader seem to use them more often than not, though I do see papers come home every day, so they're not exclusively on their computers. 1st grader seems to use hers sparingly. My middle schooler brings hers home to charge/do homework, but at the elementary level, computers stay at school.
YouTube isn't blocked by our district for the same reasons, so kids can access it (and know they can). My middle schooler mentioned kids watching the NCAA Tournament during the school day, among other things.
When the elementary schoolers have indoor recess in the winter, some teachers don't let them use the Chromebooks and make them interact/play with classmates, but that's very teacher-specific.
Just today I saw on a Friends of SPS Facebook group that someone asked IT about this. They said you can put your child on a "no YouTube" list and there is also some cyber security pilot program they're working on that the poster says sounds promising.
I just got the email that they're going to try using GoGuardian to help teachers manage appropriate laptop use during class. It sounds like it will be better than the status quo. I wish they would go back to the pre-pandemic policy still, but this is something.
Go guardian is amazing. It's really an amazing tool for teachers. Hopefully the district gets it up and running soon
My district uses something similar called Securely and I love it. I teach elementary, but I believe it goes through high school. When I was a classroom teacher, the first thing I did every morning was set Securely, which had my customized block list, which obviously included YouTube. If we ever needed to use YouTube (rare), it was simple to unblock. I even set it when I was absent or else the kids would be screwing around all day.
I liked the feature where I could message them or even drop in on a video chat to ask what nonsense website they were on instead of doing their work. We could also lock screens, close tabs, etc. from our own device.
Our middle schoolers have really heavy laptops, high schoolers have chrome books. Elementary has ipads. We also went 1 to 1 during the pandemic even though our state does not allow remote school now. Snow days are snow days. 30 minutes to the east in MO they allow remote learning days so rarely have snow days.
My 11 year old says they do have access to youtube. That's about the extent of what I know but I'd like to know more about what tools they use to filter and block content.
They use the laptops for testing and they use google classroom in class.