One of the big districts here in DFW just installed smartboards in the classrooms in the middle of the school year. Not sure why lower grades need smart boards but especially why do it in the middle of the school year.

Complete waste of money and time for the teachers to adjust to new technology.

Computers are good for measurement. The new standardized tests that use algorithms to respond to correct and wrong answers to hone in on strengths and weaknesses. That's a lot more difficult to do with a pen-and-paper assessment. But beyond a few, specialized tasks, technology needs to be reduced in classrooms.

Technology improve speed of something but it doesn't know if it is correct or not. You need the knowledge to make sure what you use technology for is correct.

I installed a white board on the wall in our home office. Any math homework done by my daughter on computer must also be done on the whiteboard as well. I believe you have to write something out to truly learn it.

I also stopped stressing about this and social media. It's a competitive advantage now to let the masses go down these paths while you show your own kid the alternative, better path.

Rapier108 said:

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In school, computers should be used when teaching computer skills and writing papers.

Kids did just fine for hundreds of years using actual books.

But it isn't going to stop. School districts purchase laptops/Chromebooks/tablets by the bazillions.

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This is how I feel about kids writing/researching essay topics. You used to have to go a library, use a card catalog, pull books, take notes, etc. The journey was the learning process.

Now kids get exactly what they need/want in seconds without actually really learning anything.

Education for the most part has just become another check-the-box function of society.

Need a struggle when learning to grow. For whatever reason, we haven't figured out a way to make the digital struggle the same as the analog one.

CDUB98 said:

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CheeseSndwch said:

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Rapier108 said:

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In school, computers should be used when teaching computer skills and writing papers.

Kids did just fine for hundreds of years using actual books.

But it isn't going to stop. School districts purchase laptops/Chromebooks/tablets by the bazillions.

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This is how I feel about kids writing/researching essay topics. You used to have to go a library, use a card catalog, pull books, take notes, etc. The journey was the learning process.

Now kids get exactly what they need/want in seconds without actually really learning anything.

Education for the most part has just become another check-the-box function of society.

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Never forgot, a dumb populace is easier to control.

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I can't tell if a dumb populace is a goal, or an inevitable result of how society progresses.

It seems like every society goes through similar phases from creation to decay/destruction, and nobody has figured out how to solve that problem.

Rapier108 said:

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In school, computers should be used when teaching computer skills and writing papers.

Kids did just fine for hundreds of years using actual books.

But it isn't going to stop. School districts purchase laptops/Chromebooks/tablets by the bazillions.

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And one just needs to follow the tech bro money to see why.

Technology keeps affecting our society worse and worse the more it keeps improving.

If that isn't irony meeting Pandora's box, I don't know what is.

A good number of kids today and an increasing number of adults don't have an attention span suitable for reading out of a book. The decline has been measured at 30% of 2020 averages.

YouTube has evolved to a business model focused on Shorts because the average viewer doesn't have the stamina for a 10 minute video. I don't think the problem is correctable.

When you have the knowledge of the world a click away on your phone you don't need anything in your head. Almost every Zoomer I've had any conversation of depth with on almost any subject (science, history, politics, civics, etc) leaves me shaking my head wondering what did they learn in school.

The answer is nothing. Most learned nothing. They are ignorant of basic facts and timelines because it's all knowledge that is spoon fed to them on a computer.

Total ignorance of geography, perhaps because they've literally never seen a paper map or atlas.

Total ignorance of history and the context for historical events. The level of history ignorance is shocking, just try to talk to a zoomer about history.

Turns out that having knowledge at kids' fingertips means having knowledge in kids' heads is beyond their grasp.

It never made sense to me that these school boards run these bond packages out every November for technology. They're borrowing money to pay for notebooks and tablets that will be obsolete before the bonds are even paid off

the bigger reason for the educational downfall is lack of parental involvement in the children's life. Over half of the kids in schools these days are in a single family home and the parent is non existent.

One issue is that parents used to be content with reviewing a progress report every 6 weeks or so. Now they want to know scores and review what questions got marked wrong the same day if possible so they can give the teacher their feedback (also via computer of course). Have to do everything on computer so you can get everything processed ASAP.

Honest question...how does this compare with the dark ages where some learning was lost and the western world devolved?

Agreed, but they don't want the feedback so they can learn from it. They want the feedback so they can finagle an A. Grade inflation is real, and its destruction is greatly underappreciated.

AustinCountyAg said:

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the bigger reason for the educational downfall is lack of parental involvement in the children's life. Over half of the kids in schools these days are in a single family home and the parent is non existent.

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Those are factors that can affect a child's education, but this story is showing that even kids in homes with both parents and of all walks of socioeconomic lives are being affected.

That's what makes this so concerning, because even kids with all the positives in their lives (middle class, strong family, etc.) are still doing worse.

As an educator, I don't even know how we need to move forward. I do not think technology is the answer but I also don't know how to avoid it. Every single assignment I present to a student is going to be done by AI or some other form of cheating, if I don't make it due the same period it is assigned. The law eliminating phones has certainly helped to a degree but there is nothing that can be done once they leave the school. Critical thinking is non-existent and regurgitation is at an all time high.

My ultimate beef with the system is in regards to the "special" programs. We have labeled so many students with some sort of "special need" that everyone uses it as a crutch and teachers are not going to fail a kid with some sort of label. If roughly 25% of the students are "special" then we need to drastically rethink the program.

Rubicante said:

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One issue is that parents used to be content with reviewing a progress report every 6 weeks or so. Now they want to know scores and review what questions got marked wrong the same day if possible so they can give the teacher their feedback (also via computer of course). Have to do everything on computer so you can get everything processed ASAP.

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I will say though...this is a result of school reliance on technology.

Before laptops in school, we had papers to bring home. And if the student did poorly, they usually had to get it signed by the parents.

If I did poorly on something, or had an assignment missing, my parents knew right away. They could help me with something if I was struggling, or make sure I was on top of things better.

But now, nothing comes home. And after 6 weeks, when the grades go in, it's way too late to go back and help my kid who was struggling in a class, or had a missing/incomplete assignment.

So the only way to know if you're kid needs your help, is to log on and check every day/week.

Pizza said:

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My general opinion is: You need to be able to do it in Analog before Digital.

Because I have had exposure to a variety of subjects that required me to put pen/pencil to paper, I have a framework of knowledge that allows me to interact with technology and enhance my ability in a given area that I have had classic/'old-school' exposure to.

How that gets implemented...IDK

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There is a reason why Calculus needs to be shown on board and homework assigned before we turn engineers loose with CAD and let them design airplanes and bridges.

AgBQ-00 said:

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School should be analog. Excepting courses to get acquainted with tech, all learning should be analog. It builds mental stamina to have to read and write physical material. It helps math to have to show your work.

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To a certain extent I agree.

But the fact of the matter is that the world is a digital world in almost every professional sector and to think that teaching kids in analog but not digital and expecting them to be able to make the jump to digital seamlessly is a fool's errand.

Like everything else, there is a happy medium to be found between the two.

I don't believe for most people that it is possible to truly learn math, chemistry, physics and engineering without putting pencil to paper. You have to be able to work problems systematically and keep track as you go.

Additionally is it is exceedingly hard to make sure that kids are actually doing homework on the computer unless they are right down there in the Middle with you which is not how most houses are set up.

There is a fair amount of scientific study that supports analog learning, especially longhand note-taking as being more beneficial to learning outcomes.

I saw this happen in real time when one of my music history profs for my undergrad implemented a no-tech policy in his classroom and started with an experiment between two sections of the same class.

• One section was normal, students could use tablets, laptops, etc.
• One section was no-tech. Students were required to take longhand written notes on the reading assignment and turn them in at the beginning of the next class to prove they did it. They also had to take any in-class notes longhand and turn in the in-class notes before each exam.

The net result of the experiment was the class who took longhand notes performed on average a full letter grade higher than the class where tech was allowed, so he banned devices in all of his sections going forward. Student initially hated it, but realized they were performing better on exams and came to embrace the practice.