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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here again - my wife and I read through all the comments and had a good laugh - if we hadn't laughed we'd probably be crying. We watched Idiocracy a few months ago, they skip over the gritty minutiae of how society warps from the society the protagonist leaves at "present day", to the dumbed down future. The replies in this thread are probably a better than anything the director could have conjured up to explain how they would get from "present day" to that future.

Handwriting is dead? No one is dysregulated from screens? Textbooks are a relic? Screens screens screen! And all the people that think they're profound by saying THEN DON'T USE YOUR SCREENS HURR HURR HURR, do you not realize that what you're admitting is that we are trapped in this?? Seriously, this is how we get to going to the doctor, and them diagnosing you like this: https://www[.]youtube.com/watch?v=oCIo4MCO-_U

To the teachers having to focus on Lexia and other silliness, my heart goes out to you. To the FCPS teacher retiring this year, you will be missed. Every time a careerist leaves this system, and your memory of how things used to be departs the district, we all lose out.

The teacher saying reading specialists report your Lexia numbers up to admin is depressing to hear. It is so demoralizing seeing what you have to go through as teachers these days - it is a sad state of affairs and you deserve better. Many people here have already stated the issue - the kids are too distracted by the temptations of other websites, other videos, anything else, and the teachers are spread too thin to manage 20+ learners all on different computers. Behavior issues are such a challenge and the teachers have no tools to use, especially with bully parents insisting it's anyone's fault but their children (or especially the parents themselves). It's a losing system.

To the parent with the juvenile Einstein who gets to do Lexia while they are in class because they are too advanced for the lesson at hand or whatever - your poor tortured scholar! I hope they're in AAP, and I'm sure they have a spot waiting for them at TJ. You should be proud.

In July 1969 we sent a bunch of men to the moon in a complex operation unlike any before it, in a rocket designed, built, and tested by other men and women none of whom had ever done Lexia or ST Math.What have we as a society done since having all this screen based enrichment, other than spawning a bunch of cynical companies farming our likes, clicks, views, hypnotizing us into relying on the convenience, the easiness, the quick button clicks, farming algorithms to time markets, or whatever other insipid garbage most of our economy pumps out? What value is actually being created?

Your phone has more computing power than any of the computers they used to send those guys up there, and some of you can't even spell Colombia correctly. You are the problem, trust me.

You wrote a lot and yet changed nothing…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here again - my wife and I read through all the comments and had a good laugh - if we hadn't laughed we'd probably be crying. We watched Idiocracy a few months ago, they skip over the gritty minutiae of how society warps from the society the protagonist leaves at "present day", to the dumbed down future. The replies in this thread are probably a better than anything the director could have conjured up to explain how they would get from "present day" to that future.

Handwriting is dead? No one is dysregulated from screens? Textbooks are a relic? Screens screens screen! And all the people that think they're profound by saying THEN DON'T USE YOUR SCREENS HURR HURR HURR, do you not realize that what you're admitting is that we are trapped in this?? Seriously, this is how we get to going to the doctor, and them diagnosing you like this: https://www[.]youtube.com/watch?v=oCIo4MCO-_U

To the teachers having to focus on Lexia and other silliness, my heart goes out to you. To the FCPS teacher retiring this year, you will be missed. Every time a careerist leaves this system, and your memory of how things used to be departs the district, we all lose out.

The teacher saying reading specialists report your Lexia numbers up to admin is depressing to hear. It is so demoralizing seeing what you have to go through as teachers these days - it is a sad state of affairs and you deserve better. Many people here have already stated the issue - the kids are too distracted by the temptations of other websites, other videos, anything else, and the teachers are spread too thin to manage 20+ learners all on different computers. Behavior issues are such a challenge and the teachers have no tools to use, especially with bully parents insisting it's anyone's fault but their children (or especially the parents themselves). It's a losing system.

To the parent with the juvenile Einstein who gets to do Lexia while they are in class because they are too advanced for the lesson at hand or whatever - your poor tortured scholar! I hope they're in AAP, and I'm sure they have a spot waiting for them at TJ. You should be proud.

In July 1969 we sent a bunch of men to the moon in a complex operation unlike any before it, in a rocket designed, built, and tested by other men and women none of whom had ever done Lexia or ST Math.What have we as a society done since having all this screen based enrichment, other than spawning a bunch of cynical companies farming our likes, clicks, views, hypnotizing us into relying on the convenience, the easiness, the quick button clicks, farming algorithms to time markets, or whatever other insipid garbage most of our economy pumps out? What value is actually being created?

Your phone has more computing power than any of the computers they used to send those guys up there, and some of you can't even spell Colombia correctly. You are the problem, trust me.

You wrote a lot and yet changed nothing…

As if anyone posting here changes anything except for the worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here again - my wife and I read through all the comments and had a good laugh - if we hadn't laughed we'd probably be crying. We watched Idiocracy a few months ago, they skip over the gritty minutiae of how society warps from the society the protagonist leaves at "present day", to the dumbed down future. The replies in this thread are probably a better than anything the director could have conjured up to explain how they would get from "present day" to that future.

Handwriting is dead? No one is dysregulated from screens? Textbooks are a relic? Screens screens screen! And all the people that think they're profound by saying THEN DON'T USE YOUR SCREENS HURR HURR HURR, do you not realize that what you're admitting is that we are trapped in this?? Seriously, this is how we get to going to the doctor, and them diagnosing you like this: https://www[.]youtube.com/watch?v=oCIo4MCO-_U

To the teachers having to focus on Lexia and other silliness, my heart goes out to you. To the FCPS teacher retiring this year, you will be missed. Every time a careerist leaves this system, and your memory of how things used to be departs the district, we all lose out.

The teacher saying reading specialists report your Lexia numbers up to admin is depressing to hear. It is so demoralizing seeing what you have to go through as teachers these days - it is a sad state of affairs and you deserve better. Many people here have already stated the issue - the kids are too distracted by the temptations of other websites, other videos, anything else, and the teachers are spread too thin to manage 20+ learners all on different computers. Behavior issues are such a challenge and the teachers have no tools to use, especially with bully parents insisting it's anyone's fault but their children (or especially the parents themselves). It's a losing system.

To the parent with the juvenile Einstein who gets to do Lexia while they are in class because they are too advanced for the lesson at hand or whatever - your poor tortured scholar! I hope they're in AAP, and I'm sure they have a spot waiting for them at TJ. You should be proud.

In July 1969 we sent a bunch of men to the moon in a complex operation unlike any before it, in a rocket designed, built, and tested by other men and women none of whom had ever done Lexia or ST Math.What have we as a society done since having all this screen based enrichment, other than spawning a bunch of cynical companies farming our likes, clicks, views, hypnotizing us into relying on the convenience, the easiness, the quick button clicks, farming algorithms to time markets, or whatever other insipid garbage most of our economy pumps out? What value is actually being created?

Your phone has more computing power than any of the computers they used to send those guys up there, and some of you can't even spell Colombia correctly. You are the problem, trust me.

You wrote a lot and yet changed nothing…

DP. Communication is not nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Google and Apple and Microsoft have huge nonprofit budgets to push technology in schools. That's where it started.

Ah, no. We buy what we want to do the job. Good grief.

As someone in tech sales that sees how non-profit sales work happens, you are so naively mistaken lol. These vendors are all chomping at the bit for a shot at those FCPS dollars.

And I purchase these platforms, packages, and I wi tell you that you are not the reason I purchase. I know what I'm looking for and why. Maybe it's the product, but nothing you do has influenced my team- or the curriculum. Sorry, sweetie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a middle school teacher (not in DC) and my public school has recently transitioned to a strong tech focus and my students use an online science curriculum (amplify). I hate it. It is one of many reasons I am trying to leave teaching. It is not developmentally appropriate or beneficial for sixth graders to be on tablets most of the school day. Moreover, my admin wants discussion and collaboration-students staring at their screens is not how to get it. I so miss the teaching of five, ten years ago. Our ed system is broken.

Go back to school and learn how and why we use it. You need training.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, everyone, put down your phones right now. No screen use of any kind for a week. Nada..nothing, no phone, no tablets, no desktops, nothing.

Then come back here, OK?

So funny how everyone on a screen today decries the use of screens.

You think it's the same as talking about kids 6-15 years old using screens all day?

I wish I used screens less frequently. But as a teacher, while I do use tech, I also regularly engage with my colleagues and students. Comparing our needs to young students' education is apples and oranges.

No it is not. We are moving ftom stagnant to dynamic. It has little to do with a "screen" and everything to do with interaction with content.

[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.

I’d say it was mostly in the mid to late 90s. We had a social studies text when I taught 4th grade (I think they still do). I remember a math text through most of the 90s. Other than those I don’t remember textbooks during my teaching career that started 30 years ago.

Do we need to discuss why textbooks are not relevant? Really? Do you think schools could use a set of encyclopedias?

PP here.
I didn’t say textbooks are needed. How did you get that? I only shared when I remember last having them. I answered the OP’s question, so stop with the eye rolls.

I really don’t understand the follow-up eye roll.

Not surprised!

[Anonymous]

I hope you are not also expecting your doctors, veterinarians, designers, builders, engineers, PTs, audiologists, librarians, energy professionals, sales, realtors, journalists, pharmacists, manufacturers, dentists, military, plumbers, geologists, farmers, auto technicians....everyone to give in to your Luddite mandates. Everything you use, everywhere you go, everything that exists, and all work is now digital. We are expecting kids to be adults in a technological world. Not a third world.

[Anonymous]

Maybe you want to return to the days of slate and chalk for the learning?

Jesus, lady. Screens are a huge part of modern life. Get over it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope you are not also expecting your doctors, veterinarians, designers, builders, engineers, PTs, audiologists, librarians, energy professionals, sales, realtors, journalists, pharmacists, manufacturers, dentists, military, plumbers, geologists, farmers, auto technicians....everyone to give in to your Luddite mandates. Everything you use, everywhere you go, everything that exists, and all work is now digital. We are expecting kids to be adults in a technological world. Not a third world.

DP. Pretty much all of those people learned from books as children and learned to use technology in their teens and twenties.

I realize you can't see the difference but the rest of us can.

[Anonymous]

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

Do you want the kids to get off your lawn too? Do you also yell at the clouds?

Get with the times, Grandma.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, everyone, put down your phones right now. No screen use of any kind for a week. Nada..nothing, no phone, no tablets, no desktops, nothing.

Then come back here, OK?

So funny how everyone on a screen today decries the use of screens.

You think it's the same as talking about kids 6-15 years old using screens all day?

I wish I used screens less frequently. But as a teacher, while I do use tech, I also regularly engage with my colleagues and students. Comparing our needs to young students' education is apples and oranges.

No it is not. We are moving ftom stagnant to dynamic. It has little to do with a "screen" and everything to do with interaction with content.

DP. This statement sounds like the statement from a teacher who started teaching phonics to children - she had initially resisted because she didn't want to recreate a horrific classroom from the 1950s when children just sat and listened. But it's okay! They can still interact and engage when learning phonics!

From stagnant to dynamic? Can you hear yourself?

[Anonymous]

Teacher here. I am more frustrated that ES are obsessed with video games and have phones. Part of the issue with tech is kids are becoming addicted to it at home which plays into class. Literally all of my students I catch on other sites have phones with no parental control and spend their weekends playing video games. While tech should be balanced and used in moderation in schools, parents are also not helping keeping their kids glued to screens. Before you say, my kid has screen limits… many don’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, everyone, put down your phones right now. No screen use of any kind for a week. Nada..nothing, no phone, no tablets, no desktops, nothing.

Then come back here, OK?

So funny how everyone on a screen today decries the use of screens.

You think it's the same as talking about kids 6-15 years old using screens all day?

I wish I used screens less frequently. But as a teacher, while I do use tech, I also regularly engage with my colleagues and students. Comparing our needs to young students' education is apples and oranges.

No it is not. We are moving ftom stagnant to dynamic. It has little to do with a "screen" and everything to do with interaction with content.

Written by someone who has never seen their child playing ST math

[Anonymous]

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

Sounds like someone doesn't speak a foreign language, or wants to deal with the way to counteract ai homework submissions.