Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I think this forum is just APE members arguing with each other. And like maybe a person or two who sees them for who they are.
iPads are not a big deal. My kid has one, and it has not corrupted him or disadvantaged his education. His teacher uses it in the classroom so that she can focus on small group education for a small percentage of the day.
We can't talk about anything else that's truly wrong with APS because APE takes up all of the air. Just stop listening to them. Done.
This is sort of this TechEd fantasy that hasn't really panned out. Often the rest of the kids are watching youtube. If they are doing Lexia, they can just tap on answers until they get enough right to go to the next level. The behavior problems in schools are pretty bad due to no-fail and inclusion policies (which are good in theory but often poorly implemented), so even kids who do want to work are often distracted by kids who don't. And this doesn't even address the issue of kids over-using devices at home because they tell their parents they need them for homework. Which they often do!
Studies have shown that large group instruction is generally more efficient than small group instruction because kids rarely work independently when the teacher's focus is completely elsewhere. Test scores have consistently gone down in the US, despite billions of dollars spent on tech. And we know that screens have detrimental impacts. There is no evidence that the benefits of individual devices outweigh the costs. I have no strong feelings one way or another about APE but I am dismayed that people don't seem to realize how bad individual devices in schools are.
Signed,
A teacher