Computer usage at DCPS and DCPCS middle schools

[Anonymous]

Can we use this thread to share computer usage -- both during school and for homework -- of DC middle schools?


I have a feeling it varies widely.

Our experience is with BASIS 5th grade, where all schoolwork and homework has been handwritten, with the exception of essays, when they get computer time at school to type.

I think in future grades there may be some computer time during math class.


What do other schools look like?

[Anonymous]

https://www.washingtonian.com/2025/03/25/schools-are-banning-phones-what-about-laptops/

[Anonymous]

At a lot of schools it is teacher by teacher. So different students in the same school can have very different experiences. At Deal one year I was thrilled to see most work was handwritten with only a few math tech assignments like iready. This year it is almost all online with one teacher even making pdfs of worksheets writable so students are completing work using a mouse to draw letters, which is not great. Luck of the draw.

[Anonymous]

Our kid was at Hardy MS and it was basically 100 percent on laptops, except for English homework which was repetitive handwritten and he got dinged for trying to type it.

[Anonymous]

Trend I notice is that more teachers are doing paper homework/assignments as it is harder to ChatGPT it. For middle school/high school age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Trend I notice is that more teachers are doing paper homework/assignments as it is harder to ChatGPT it. For middle school/high school age.

This is smart and would give me a lot of faith in those teachers. It kills two birds with one stone -- you reduce the odds that a kid will cheat (it's still possible -- they can use ChatGPT and then write out the response, but it's at least less likely) plus studies show that hand writing homework assignments helps kids actually remember and integrate what they are learning. I'd love to see more of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trend I notice is that more teachers are doing paper homework/assignments as it is harder to ChatGPT it. For middle school/high school age.

This is smart and would give me a lot of faith in those teachers. It kills two birds with one stone -- you reduce the odds that a kid will cheat (it's still possible -- they can use ChatGPT and then write out the response, but it's at least less likely) plus studies show that hand writing homework assignments helps kids actually remember and integrate what they are learning. I'd love to see more of this.

of course, they've avoided teaching kids handwriting and a decent number of kids have some form of dysgraphia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trend I notice is that more teachers are doing paper homework/assignments as it is harder to ChatGPT it. For middle school/high school age.

This is smart and would give me a lot of faith in those teachers. It kills two birds with one stone -- you reduce the odds that a kid will cheat (it's still possible -- they can use ChatGPT and then write out the response, but it's at least less likely) plus studies show that hand writing homework assignments helps kids actually remember and integrate what they are learning. I'd love to see more of this.

of course, they've avoided teaching kids handwriting and a decent number of kids have some form of dysgraphia.

This is not true. Dysgraphia is rare. Many kids haven’t learned how to form letters properly. Once kids are 7 or 8 it is hard to remediate poor handwriting. You need to focus on proper spacing and size versus letter formation. Also, teaching cursive helps.

[Anonymous]

The digital assignments need to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trend I notice is that more teachers are doing paper homework/assignments as it is harder to ChatGPT it. For middle school/high school age.

This is smart and would give me a lot of faith in those teachers. It kills two birds with one stone -- you reduce the odds that a kid will cheat (it's still possible -- they can use ChatGPT and then write out the response, but it's at least less likely) plus studies show that hand writing homework assignments helps kids actually remember and integrate what they are learning. I'd love to see more of this.

of course, they've avoided teaching kids handwriting and a decent number of kids have some form of dysgraphia.

This is not true. Dysgraphia is rare. Many kids haven’t learned how to form letters properly. Once kids are 7 or 8 it is hard to remediate poor handwriting. You need to focus on proper spacing and size versus letter formation. Also, teaching cursive helps.

Well I have it and so does my kid, so there’s that.

And I’m surprised at how many people I meet who have had some form of it come back in their kids testing.

Point is, writing can be a lot more of a struggle for some people and typing is easier for almost everybody… it’s one of the few upsides to computers in the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The digital assignments need to go.

Yes please!!! Talk to the ADCA to prioritize this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our kid was at Hardy MS and it was basically 100 percent on laptops, except for English homework which was repetitive handwritten and he got dinged for trying to type it.

Don’t know when you are talking about, but my DC is a current Hardy 7th grader and does lots of stuff on paper for ELA, History, Spanish, Science and Health. Math is mostly online

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our kid was at Hardy MS and it was basically 100 percent on laptops, except for English homework which was repetitive handwritten and he got dinged for trying to type it.

Don’t know when you are talking about, but my DC is a current Hardy 7th grader and does lots of stuff on paper for ELA, History, Spanish, Science and Health. Math is mostly online

This is just based on classroom observation, but when peering into Hardy classrooms, I didn't see any students using a device during classtime. Contrasting this to observing John Francis, where in every classroom except Math, the students were using a tablet.