A rant: Technology and Vendors in the Schools, anyone else hate it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Well, dinosaur, it's not just for collaboration. I don’t accept anything unless it's a doc. That way I can see the history, the time involved, revisions, and apparent plagiarism. If it is collaborative, I can see who contributed what, and when. Then these docs are saved in files for me and for them.

You just don't understand how to use it.
Kids are hardly illiterate. I work in many schools all over the DMV, and I am not seeing that.

Being a janitor doesn’t count buddy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate computer programs. I want textbooks and homework on paper.

Amen, I don’t know when textbooks were phased out but every year I am disappointed there are none.

Textbook management is a nightmare. Also most of them are poorly written with numerous errors and school systems can't afford to keep replacing them. The reality is it is horrible to depend upon them. The companies don't make enough money to make it worth their while to publish a good product. This is backwards.

Then the school system should publish their own textbooks. This is what many virtual schools do including K12. Also most textbooks for homeschoolers are very well written. At the very least, students should be sent home workbooks for the year.

And the minute an FCPS-sourced text brings up something you even remotely dispute, you’ll be out here screaming about that. And then there’s the costs of periodic revision, replacement, etc. you really might wanna think this idea through a little better.

This has been brought up so many times. Since VA doesn’t follow Common Core they would need 2-3 workbooks for each subject to cover the VA standards. They’ve said it too cost prohibitive and refuse to do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate computer programs. I want textbooks and homework on paper.

Amen, I don’t know when textbooks were phased out but every year I am disappointed there are none.

Textbook management is a nightmare. Also most of them are poorly written with numerous errors and school systems can't afford to keep replacing them. The reality is it is horrible to depend upon them. The companies don't make enough money to make it worth their while to publish a good product. This is backwards.

Then the school system should publish their own textbooks. This is what many virtual schools do including K12. Also most textbooks for homeschoolers are very well written. At the very least, students should be sent home workbooks for the year.

And the minute an FCPS-sourced text brings up something you even remotely dispute, you’ll be out here screaming about that. And then there’s the costs of periodic revision, replacement, etc. you really might wanna think this idea through a little better.

This has been brought up so many times. Since VA doesn’t follow Common Core they would need 2-3 workbooks for each subject to cover the VA standards. They’ve said it too cost prohibitive and refuse to do it.

This is silly - there are VA versions of many/most textbooks already. If there are known problems with those books, then teachers can supplement or skip, this is not a prohibitive problem.

The issue is that teachers don't like them - they prefer the workshop and build-your-own textbook model of cutting-and-pasting-into-notebook and printing out TPT worksheets to using textbooks and workbooks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate computer programs. I want textbooks and homework on paper.

Amen, I don’t know when textbooks were phased out but every year I am disappointed there are none.

Textbook management is a nightmare. Also most of them are poorly written with numerous errors and school systems can't afford to keep replacing them. The reality is it is horrible to depend upon them. The companies don't make enough money to make it worth their while to publish a good product. This is backwards.

Then the school system should publish their own textbooks. This is what many virtual schools do including K12. Also most textbooks for homeschoolers are very well written. At the very least, students should be sent home workbooks for the year.

And the minute an FCPS-sourced text brings up something you even remotely dispute, you’ll be out here screaming about that. And then there’s the costs of periodic revision, replacement, etc. you really might wanna think this idea through a little better.

This has been brought up so many times. Since VA doesn’t follow Common Core they would need 2-3 workbooks for each subject to cover the VA standards. They’ve said it too cost prohibitive and refuse to do it.

This is silly - there are VA versions of many/most textbooks already. If there are known problems with those books, then teachers can supplement or skip, this is not a prohibitive problem.

The issue is that teachers don't like them - they prefer the workshop and build-your-own textbook model of cutting-and-pasting-into-notebook and printing out TPT worksheets to using textbooks and workbooks.

As a teacher, i can tell you this is not true. there are not a lot of VA textbooks available and we don'tprefer to spend our time creating resources from scratch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate computer programs. I want textbooks and homework on paper.

Amen, I don’t know when textbooks were phased out but every year I am disappointed there are none.

Textbook management is a nightmare. Also most of them are poorly written with numerous errors and school systems can't afford to keep replacing them. The reality is it is horrible to depend upon them. The companies don't make enough money to make it worth their while to publish a good product. This is backwards.

Then the school system should publish their own textbooks. This is what many virtual schools do including K12. Also most textbooks for homeschoolers are very well written. At the very least, students should be sent home workbooks for the year.

And the minute an FCPS-sourced text brings up something you even remotely dispute, you’ll be out here screaming about that. And then there’s the costs of periodic revision, replacement, etc. you really might wanna think this idea through a little better.

This has been brought up so many times. Since VA doesn’t follow Common Core they would need 2-3 workbooks for each subject to cover the VA standards. They’ve said it too cost prohibitive and refuse to do it.

This is silly - there are VA versions of many/most textbooks already. If there are known problems with those books, then teachers can supplement or skip, this is not a prohibitive problem.

The issue is that teachers don't like them - they prefer the workshop and build-your-own textbook model of cutting-and-pasting-into-notebook and printing out TPT worksheets to using textbooks and workbooks.

As a teacher, i can tell you this is not true. there are not a lot of VA textbooks available and we don'tprefer to spend our time creating resources from scratch.

The online Pearson one is crappy. But of course we had to spend oodles of money on a terrible resource because it was Pearson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate computer programs. I want textbooks and homework on paper.

Amen, I don’t know when textbooks were phased out but every year I am disappointed there are none.

Textbook management is a nightmare. Also most of them are poorly written with numerous errors and school systems can't afford to keep replacing them. The reality is it is horrible to depend upon them. The companies don't make enough money to make it worth their while to publish a good product. This is backwards.

Then the school system should publish their own textbooks. This is what many virtual schools do including K12. Also most textbooks for homeschoolers are very well written. At the very least, students should be sent home workbooks for the year.

And the minute an FCPS-sourced text brings up something you even remotely dispute, you’ll be out here screaming about that. And then there’s the costs of periodic revision, replacement, etc. you really might wanna think this idea through a little better.

This has been brought up so many times. Since VA doesn’t follow Common Core they would need 2-3 workbooks for each subject to cover the VA standards. They’ve said it too cost prohibitive and refuse to do it.

This is silly - there are VA versions of many/most textbooks already. If there are known problems with those books, then teachers can supplement or skip, this is not a prohibitive problem.

The issue is that teachers don't like them - they prefer the workshop and build-your-own textbook model of cutting-and-pasting-into-notebook and printing out TPT worksheets to using textbooks and workbooks.

+1 to the first point - a textbook and workbook does not need to be 100% of what's needed if it's 80% of what's needed.

I'm not so sure about the 2nd. I think FCPS does not want to spend money on this. I really cannot fathom how teachers like the million times more work that goes into building lesson plans and materials without textbooks and workbooks to draw from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate computer programs. I want textbooks and homework on paper.

Amen, I don’t know when textbooks were phased out but every year I am disappointed there are none.

Textbook management is a nightmare. Also most of them are poorly written with numerous errors and school systems can't afford to keep replacing them. The reality is it is horrible to depend upon them. The companies don't make enough money to make it worth their while to publish a good product. This is backwards.

Then the school system should publish their own textbooks. This is what many virtual schools do including K12. Also most textbooks for homeschoolers are very well written. At the very least, students should be sent home workbooks for the year.

And the minute an FCPS-sourced text brings up something you even remotely dispute, you’ll be out here screaming about that. And then there’s the costs of periodic revision, replacement, etc. you really might wanna think this idea through a little better.

This has been brought up so many times. Since VA doesn’t follow Common Core they would need 2-3 workbooks for each subject to cover the VA standards. They’ve said it too cost prohibitive and refuse to do it.

This is silly - there are VA versions of many/most textbooks already. If there are known problems with those books, then teachers can supplement or skip, this is not a prohibitive problem.

The issue is that teachers don't like them - they prefer the workshop and build-your-own textbook model of cutting-and-pasting-into-notebook and printing out TPT worksheets to using textbooks and workbooks.

Say what now? Searching for resources in a ton of different places eats up a lot of my time. I don’t have my third graders cutting and gluing much into notebooks, but I don’t know anyone who prefers all the time we spend gathering resources.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Well, dinosaur, it's not just for collaboration. I don’t accept anything unless it's a doc. That way I can see the history, the time involved, revisions, and apparent plagiarism. If it is collaborative, I can see who contributed what, and when. Then these docs are saved in files for me and for them.

You just don't understand how to use it.
Kids are hardly illiterate. I work in many schools all over the DMV, and I am not seeing that.

Being a janitor doesn’t count buddy.

Reading and Literacy Specialist, K-12, Adult Ed, Post Secondary
Graduate Professor in Education, Special Education

I think I have a handle on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP lost me at handwriting. Seriously? Next you are going to complain they don't teach kids how to darn their socks.

We want them to be comfortable with technology because technology is the future. Handwriting is dead. I am glad for enrichment activities that the school provides out of the common core whether it's trips, or art or STEM.

You want Handwriting? Geeze

Handwriting helps to imprint a feel for language - particularly cursive instruction. If you want Junior to grow up to be a SysAdmin, then by all means send them to a large DMV public school. (Former disgruntled MCPS parent who could say ditto to all of the critiques about FCPS. Our schools are targets for corporate sales. I saw leadership at Discovery Communications salivate over top 15 school budgets - hence the launch of Discovery Education twenty years ago.

Here’s the piece on cursive

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/202010/why-cursive-handwriting-is-good-your-brain

I work as a sysadmin and plan to steer my kids into the field and spend all of my egregious sysadmin salary on a private ES which is one step from Amish in terms of the electronics available.

What school do you mind sharing?

Dominion Christian. Generally the Classical Christian schools tend to be low tech, especially at the ES level. Waldorf and Montessori are also good bets, if your child would better fit in with one of those pedagogies.

Hell yeah, let’s all go to schools where the Bible is the textbook! It’s time kids learned Jesus rode a dinosaur to church every day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Well, dinosaur, it's not just for collaboration. I don’t accept anything unless it's a doc. That way I can see the history, the time involved, revisions, and apparent plagiarism. If it is collaborative, I can see who contributed what, and when. Then these docs are saved in files for me and for them.

You just don't understand how to use it.
Kids are hardly illiterate. I work in many schools all over the DMV, and I am not seeing that.

Being a janitor doesn’t count buddy.

Reading and Literacy Specialist, K-12, Adult Ed, Post Secondary
Graduate Professor in Education, Special Education

I think I have a handle on it.

DP. Multiple teacher posters have said that "collaboration" on a doc is not working to teach children what they should know. Multiple parents have also said that, from their perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Well, dinosaur, it's not just for collaboration. I don’t accept anything unless it's a doc. That way I can see the history, the time involved, revisions, and apparent plagiarism. If it is collaborative, I can see who contributed what, and when. Then these docs are saved in files for me and for them.

You just don't understand how to use it.
Kids are hardly illiterate. I work in many schools all over the DMV, and I am not seeing that.

Being a janitor doesn’t count buddy.

Reading and Literacy Specialist, K-12, Adult Ed, Post Secondary
Graduate Professor in Education, Special Education

I think I have a handle on it.

DP. Multiple teacher posters have said that "collaboration" on a doc is not working to teach children what they should know. Multiple parents have also said that, from their perspective.

It just hides the weaknesses of the individual students, and means those kids who need more re-inforcement don't get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Well, dinosaur, it's not just for collaboration. I don’t accept anything unless it's a doc. That way I can see the history, the time involved, revisions, and apparent plagiarism. If it is collaborative, I can see who contributed what, and when. Then these docs are saved in files for me and for them.

You just don't understand how to use it.
Kids are hardly illiterate. I work in many schools all over the DMV, and I am not seeing that.

Being a janitor doesn’t count buddy.

Reading and Literacy Specialist, K-12, Adult Ed, Post Secondary
Graduate Professor in Education, Special Education

I think I have a handle on it.

DP. Multiple teacher posters have said that "collaboration" on a doc is not working to teach children what they should know. Multiple parents have also said that, from their perspective.

It just hides the weaknesses of the individual students, and means those kids who need more re-inforcement don't get it.

It hides nothing. In fact, I can see who wrote what, and when, and how it was entered ( disclosing original work or not) all revisions. It actually highlights all the things you say it does not.

And you haven't discussed what kind of assignment either. It's not a worksheet.
I accept nothing except a Google doc, and they aren't even collaborative for all those reasons. Docs aren't just for collaboration. Sometimes, mostly, I am the collaborator (!), not other students. I teach how to research with docs.

Your problem now is AI, not anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Well, dinosaur, it's not just for collaboration. I don’t accept anything unless it's a doc. That way I can see the history, the time involved, revisions, and apparent plagiarism. If it is collaborative, I can see who contributed what, and when. Then these docs are saved in files for me and for them.

You just don't understand how to use it.
Kids are hardly illiterate. I work in many schools all over the DMV, and I am not seeing that.

Being a janitor doesn’t count buddy.

Reading and Literacy Specialist, K-12, Adult Ed, Post Secondary
Graduate Professor in Education, Special Education

I think I have a handle on it.

DP. Multiple teacher posters have said that "collaboration" on a doc is not working to teach children what they should know. Multiple parents have also said that, from their perspective.

It just hides the weaknesses of the individual students, and means those kids who need more re-inforcement don't get it.

Literally, IT EXPOSES the weakness of others, not hide it. People here don't understand collaborative documents.

Why even post if you don't know what you are talking about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Well, dinosaur, it's not just for collaboration. I don’t accept anything unless it's a doc. That way I can see the history, the time involved, revisions, and apparent plagiarism. If it is collaborative, I can see who contributed what, and when. Then these docs are saved in files for me and for them.

You just don't understand how to use it.
Kids are hardly illiterate. I work in many schools all over the DMV, and I am not seeing that.

Being a janitor doesn’t count buddy.

Reading and Literacy Specialist, K-12, Adult Ed, Post Secondary
Graduate Professor in Education, Special Education

I think I have a handle on it.

DP. Multiple teacher posters have said that "collaboration" on a doc is not working to teach children what they should know. Multiple parents have also said that, from their perspective.

It just hides the weaknesses of the individual students, and means those kids who need more re-inforcement don't get it.

It hides nothing. In fact, I can see who wrote what, and when, and how it was entered ( disclosing original work or not) all revisions. It actually highlights all the things you say it does not.

And you haven't discussed what kind of assignment either. It's not a worksheet.
I accept nothing except a Google doc, and they aren't even collaborative for all those reasons. Docs aren't just for collaboration. Sometimes, mostly, I am the collaborator (!), not other students. I teach how to research with docs.

Your problem now is AI, not anything else.

My kid prefers to type in word and then paste into google docs. The only revisions you'll see are formatting. Nothing in FCPS policy bars this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Well, dinosaur, it's not just for collaboration. I don’t accept anything unless it's a doc. That way I can see the history, the time involved, revisions, and apparent plagiarism. If it is collaborative, I can see who contributed what, and when. Then these docs are saved in files for me and for them.

You just don't understand how to use it.
Kids are hardly illiterate. I work in many schools all over the DMV, and I am not seeing that.

Being a janitor doesn’t count buddy.

Reading and Literacy Specialist, K-12, Adult Ed, Post Secondary
Graduate Professor in Education, Special Education

I think I have a handle on it.

DP. Multiple teacher posters have said that "collaboration" on a doc is not working to teach children what they should know. Multiple parents have also said that, from their perspective.

It just hides the weaknesses of the individual students, and means those kids who need more re-inforcement don't get it.

It hides nothing. In fact, I can see who wrote what, and when, and how it was entered ( disclosing original work or not) all revisions. It actually highlights all the things you say it does not.

And you haven't discussed what kind of assignment either. It's not a worksheet.
I accept nothing except a Google doc, and they aren't even collaborative for all those reasons. Docs aren't just for collaboration. Sometimes, mostly, I am the collaborator (!), not other students. I teach how to research with docs.

Your problem now is AI, not anything else.

This is just clueless. The problem is that kids aren't learning. Cheating is a separate issue.