Opt Out of Computer Use

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are my options if I don’t want my child to use computers in an elementary classroom? I am hearing about “AI” use in 4th grade and as someone who works with AI regularly and is a privacy SME I do not want my child to use computers in class.

Why? Are you a complete and total dumbass? Do you understand the role computers play in society today?

If you want to go back to slate and chalk, homeschool.

[Anonymous]

Just put a note in their file that says No computer use. Tell your kid to refuse all assignments on a computer. We did that it was fine.

[Anonymous]

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I think you're doing your children a disservice. They will be using technology in college and when they start working - no matter what their field of work is - so it's best to get them comfortable with tech early. My 4th grader is learning how to type because my 7th grader has been complaining how hard it is to do schoolwork when she's such a slow typist.

I work in AI, and tech I didn’t have a personal computer until college. There is no net benefit to having a computer in K, and as someone who now manages “digital natives” they are very bad at computers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[.

I think you're doing your children a disservice. They will be using technology in college and when they start working - no matter what their field of work is - so it's best to get them comfortable with tech early. My 4th grader is learning how to type because my 7th grader has been complaining how hard it is to do schoolwork when she's such a slow typist.

I work in AI, and tech I didn’t have a personal computer until college. There is no net benefit to having a computer in K, and as someone who now manages “digital natives” they are very bad at computers.

My kids didn’t use computers at all until middle school, and then only to learn typing and for writing papers or presentations. Computer use has increased a bit in high school but still more limited than their peers. They both got accepted to top 50 colleges this year. I’m very thankful we waited because they learned to use other methods of learning rather than relying on computers and I think they’re better off because of it. Your children will not die from underuse of computers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just put a note in their file that says No computer use. Tell your kid to refuse all assignments on a computer. We did that it was fine.

Ha, good luck with that. I'm sure your child will love being the only kid in the class who can't have a computer. Who has to do something different every time they assign some activity or watch some educational YouTube video.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just put a note in their file that says No computer use. Tell your kid to refuse all assignments on a computer. We did that it was fine.

Ha, good luck with that. I'm sure your child will love being the only kid in the class who can't have a computer. Who has to do something different every time they assign some activity or watch some educational YouTube video.

They prefer it, more 1:1 time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are my options if I don’t want my child to use computers in an elementary classroom? I am hearing about “AI” use in 4th grade and as someone who works with AI regularly and is a privacy SME I do not want my child to use computers in class.

Talk to your child, and teacher/s, as others have mentioned.

Generally speaking, classes should be a "computers away till told to get them out" situation in Elementary School. From monitoring my two kids late in ES, but 3 years so far of MS and 1 year of HS I think ES had the absolute least amount of valid in class Internet use. I'm talking a few times a week, not a day. That's my personal view of the data I have, and my interpretation of it.

Students can simply Google anything and get the Gemini assisted (LLM, not AI) responses. Which sucks. They can also use Grammarly. Combine those two and you can quickly get answers written for most questions (albeit possibly riddled with errors).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just put a note in their file that says No computer use. Tell your kid to refuse all assignments on a computer. We did that it was fine.

Ha, good luck with that. I'm sure your child will love being the only kid in the class who can't have a computer. Who has to do something different every time they assign some activity or watch some educational YouTube video.

imo is similar to the argument that your kid will suffer because they are the only one who doesn’t have a cell phone when they are in X grade. The tide has slowly turned against giving younger kids cell phones and definitely against letting kids be on them during school hours. At what point will the education world wake up and see that chromebooks have the same potential for damage that cell phones do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's really hard (maybe impossible) to find a school, public or private, that truly has zero computer use. They all do little presentations or type their essays. Standardized tests are almost all on computers now, no more scantron. But that doesn't mean they are using AI.

There are a couple that are virtually zero computer use. Our parochial school uses the classical model and in elementary school only uses the computers for the standardized testing they're required to do. Middle school is almost entirely paper-based, although I believe they do type their essays and do a very limited amount of research using internet databases. I'm very anti-EdTech, but I appreciate the use of the computers for standardized testing because unfortunately the SAT is computer-based now and my kids will have to get used to taking exams like that.

You probably can't find an ideologically middle-of-the-road school that has zero EdTech, so whether you go this route depends on how comfortable you are with religiously conservative schools or Waldorf.

I think you're doing your children a disservice. They will be using technology in college and when they start working - no matter what their field of work is - so it's best to get them comfortable with tech early. My 4th grader is learning how to type because my 7th grader has been complaining how hard it is to do schoolwork when she's such a slow typist.

Research does not support this. Students can still learn technology skills later in their educational careers, and tech use in school should be very intentional and safe to enhance learning. Students can also learn typing by practicing lessons each day, and not being on a computer all day at school.

I am a high school teacher and I am consistently amazed by how bad my current crop of students are with technology (compared to students 10-15 years ago) despite being raised by tablets and educated through chromebooks. They can navigate to Youtube, but technology that might actually be helpful for their future -- digital citizenship/media literacy, Microsoft Suite or even Google platforms (creating and organizing folders, moving files, basic Excel/Sheets skills, formatting, etc.), creating aesthetically appropriate presentations, keyboarding (dear GOD the slow/unwieldy typing drives me nuts)...they suck at it.

Today's kids are learning how to be *consumers* of technology and that's about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[.

I think you're doing your children a disservice. They will be using technology in college and when they start working - no matter what their field of work is - so it's best to get them comfortable with tech early. My 4th grader is learning how to type because my 7th grader has been complaining how hard it is to do schoolwork when she's such a slow typist.

I work in AI, and tech I didn’t have a personal computer until college. There is no net benefit to having a computer in K, and as someone who now manages “digital natives” they are very bad at computers.

My kids didn’t use computers at all until middle school, and then only to learn typing and for writing papers or presentations. Computer use has increased a bit in high school but still more limited than their peers. They both got accepted to top 50 colleges this year. I’m very thankful we waited because they learned to use other methods of learning rather than relying on computers and I think they’re better off because of it. Your children will not die from underuse of computers.
Yes! I think the young people that are coming into the workforce (the so called Gen Z "digital natives) might be worse than the Boomers that they are replacing in terms of adeptness in using technology in the workplace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just put a note in their file that says No computer use. Tell your kid to refuse all assignments on a computer. We did that it was fine.

So they did nothing all day? Seriously, what did they do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's really hard (maybe impossible) to find a school, public or private, that truly has zero computer use. They all do little presentations or type their essays. Standardized tests are almost all on computers now, no more scantron. But that doesn't mean they are using AI.

There are a couple that are virtually zero computer use. Our parochial school uses the classical model and in elementary school only uses the computers for the standardized testing they're required to do. Middle school is almost entirely paper-based, although I believe they do type their essays and do a very limited amount of research using internet databases. I'm very anti-EdTech, but I appreciate the use of the computers for standardized testing because unfortunately the SAT is computer-based now and my kids will have to get used to taking exams like that.

You probably can't find an ideologically middle-of-the-road school that has zero EdTech, so whether you go this route depends on how comfortable you are with religiously conservative schools or Waldorf.

I think you're doing your children a disservice. They will be using technology in college and when they start working - no matter what their field of work is - so it's best to get them comfortable with tech early. My 4th grader is learning how to type because my 7th grader has been complaining how hard it is to do schoolwork when she's such a slow typist.

Research does not support this. Students can still learn technology skills later in their educational careers, and tech use in school should be very intentional and safe to enhance learning. Students can also learn typing by practicing lessons each day, and not being on a computer all day at school.

I am a high school teacher and I am consistently amazed by how bad my current crop of students are with technology (compared to students 10-15 years ago) despite being raised by tablets and educated through chromebooks. They can navigate to Youtube, but technology that might actually be helpful for their future -- digital citizenship/media literacy, Microsoft Suite or even Google platforms (creating and organizing folders, moving files, basic Excel/Sheets skills, formatting, etc.), creating aesthetically appropriate presentations, keyboarding (dear GOD the slow/unwieldy typing drives me nuts)...they suck at it.

Today's kids are learning how to be *consumers* of technology and that's about it.

I'm a middle school teacher and see the same thing. 99.9% of my students can download and use apps really well but most can barely type and definitely can't make an Excel spreadsheet or insert a text box into a Google slide without 1:1 support. Apps have made it so that they don't have to navigate anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for raising this issue. You are absolutely right to be concerned about AI access on school devices and the weak technology controls in FCPS. Students absolutely know how to use proxies and workarounds (to access social media, streaming services, and AI chatbots, and the current filters are not strong enough. On top of that, laptops are out almost the entire school day, and many kids are spending far more time on screens than is healthy or academically productive. Students also bully and send harmful unsafe photos in school gmails and google drives.

Some private schools are starting to limit tech use or implement much stronger controls, and FCPS families should be asking for the same. Parents can opt out of specific platforms (like YouTube) or certain programs through the FCPS parent digital consent page. If more parents push for more intentional and safe technology use, FCPS may make healthy changes to tech use.

I would encourage everyone concerned about this to email your principal, your school board members, and the superintendent. Research continues to show that more technology in classrooms is not improving learning. In fact, academic outcomes for this generation are lower than in the past, and they are the first generation not outperforming their parents academically. We’re also seeing a significant youth mental-health crisis, and the research increasingly connects excessive technology use—and especially unmonitored AI chat tools and use of social media—to higher rates of anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicide.

A lot of the push for more tech in schools comes from EdTech companies- and well intentioned, naive parents just are not fully aware of the serious dangers and risks. But more information is available now, and the school systems need to adjust to protect our kids. If this concerns you, I highly recommend reading The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt and following his work. The “Scrolling to Death” podcast and social media account is also an excellent resource.

The light speed monitoring is well intentioned but useless. Students can sign in on another Google account and you won’t be able to see what size they’re on. They also know how to use proxies and how to disable light speed. FCPS could prioritize better tech controls and they do not.

What are the methods they are using to get around Lightspeed or other proxy servers?

One thing to monitor as a parent is if your Lightspeed report is incredibly light on usage, that means your child is most likely (but not definitely) circumventing the rules. You can also see some of the URLs being accessed to try and shut down Lightspeed. Tell your child if you see thse types of things there will be ______ consequence.

You shouldn't be able to log onto a FCPS Chromebook with a non-FCPS email, that shouldn't be hard to implement.

Students can login to their Chromebook with their FCPS login. Then they can switch Google users to avoid lightspeed. I don’t know how they use proxies or how they disable lightspeed, but I know they do. My child knows how and has done it, so have tons of their friends. The teachers don’t notice at all and they don’t get caught. They get on social media and streaming sites. The computers are out way too much and used for way too many things. They have block scheduling in MS/HS and get their work done early and then just get on the computers- not studying or doing work. I would love to see computers put away during teacher lessons, have students read real books instead of online books, and elementary shouldn’t need them out for much at all. Technology use in the school should be very intentional and enhance learning. It shouldn’t be there for all learning and teaching. The research clearly supports this and hopefully schools will catch up with the research and not be so influenced by Ed tech.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's really hard (maybe impossible) to find a school, public or private, that truly has zero computer use. They all do little presentations or type their essays. Standardized tests are almost all on computers now, no more scantron. But that doesn't mean they are using AI.

There are a couple that are virtually zero computer use. Our parochial school uses the classical model and in elementary school only uses the computers for the standardized testing they're required to do. Middle school is almost entirely paper-based, although I believe they do type their essays and do a very limited amount of research using internet databases. I'm very anti-EdTech, but I appreciate the use of the computers for standardized testing because unfortunately the SAT is computer-based now and my kids will have to get used to taking exams like that.

You probably can't find an ideologically middle-of-the-road school that has zero EdTech, so whether you go this route depends on how comfortable you are with religiously conservative schools or Waldorf.

I think you're doing your children a disservice. They will be using technology in college and when they start working - no matter what their field of work is - so it's best to get them comfortable with tech early. My 4th grader is learning how to type because my 7th grader has been complaining how hard it is to do schoolwork when she's such a slow typist.

PP here. What kinds of jobs are your kids going to be doing? I’m pretty sure there aren’t a lot of jobs where they sit around and use apps designed for children all day. And the apps they use at school don’t teach them how to program a computer, run a spreadsheet, or do serious word processing (involving redlining, citations, etc.).

Furthermore, it used to be that we made sure that kids had a solid foundational understanding before they used technology to complete a task. That’s why they teach math using pencil and paper before they allow students to use calculators. I’m definitely not holding them back from becoming accountants someday by forcing them to do math on paper.

Btw, I have nothing against Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, learning how to code, or using Skype or other programs to practice speaking a foreign language with native speakers. Those things can easily be done at home, and the classical curriculum doesn’t prevent me from supplementing. They’re also going to do plenty of word processing in high school.

Come back in 12-14 years and let’s compare college admissions results. Just know that my kids have a three-generation legacy at one very elite university and a one generation legacy at another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are my options if I don’t want my child to use computers in an elementary classroom? I am hearing about “AI” use in 4th grade and as someone who works with AI regularly and is a privacy SME I do not want my child to use computers in class.

homeschool if you are able to find the 2-3 hours a day. public education, and even most private schools, are toxic af now.