Google Classroom for Elementary kids

[Anonymous]

Can kids communicate with each other via sharing google doc or something (not in the same class or even not in the same school?)

How likely the kids will "get lost" when google informations that supposed to related to his/her project.

Any where I can find the regulation? - I remember we signed something at the beginning of the school year, but I don't think it is with much details.

[Anonymous]

Yes, my son communicated with a friend and wrote scripts using Google docs thru their MCPS account.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, my son communicated with a friend and wrote scripts using Google docs thru their MCPS account.

A student of mine was using google docs to communicate with his mother during class!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, my son communicated with a friend and wrote scripts using Google docs thru their MCPS account.

A student of mine was using google docs to communicate with his mother during class!

Was the mother logged into the child's account?

[Anonymous]

They can definitely communicate by sharing documents with each other. But teachers can also see it all I believe

[Anonymous]

I have a 4th grader so we are a year or two into this.

Yes, they can share with anyone in the MCPS organization and collaborate and submit documents with ease.

As far as the student communicating with their mother: I don't think that you can email to or from accounts outside of MCPS so it's likely they were logged in at the same time. This happened to us once when DS was logged in on his Chromebook and left his account open on my computer: I typed a message before logging out and it appeared to ghost-write on his screen at school and it FREAKED HIM OUT. Oops.

Chromebook are...a problem. My child goes about his day with, basically, unfettered access within the constraints MCPS allows, which is a wide berth. Just this week he pulled up a "cool" video webpage that allows him to take video with his camera and record it (like the PhotoBooth app on a Mac) - though his content was just a little silly and not objectionable, this is a really bad idea and I was surprised the teacher was unaware - we told him to not open it or let kids record him unless the teacher makes it part of a project requirement.

I've also seen kids comment on document assignments the teacher posts: like a series of "Hey!" "Hi!" "Yo Yo Yo!" nonsense. They are too young to have access like this. It's troubling to me, and I wish there were a better way. Unfortunately, with 25+ kids and one teacher, Chromebooks are 30% useful and 70% a necessary babysitter. And this is in a class with capable, "gifted," kids who are for the most part using their time in a motivated and academically directed way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a 4th grader so we are a year or two into this.

Yes, they can share with anyone in the MCPS organization and collaborate and submit documents with ease.

As far as the student communicating with their mother: I don't think that you can email to or from accounts outside of MCPS so it's likely they were logged in at the same time. This happened to us once when DS was logged in on his Chromebook and left his account open on my computer: I typed a message before logging out and it appeared to ghost-write on his screen at school and it FREAKED HIM OUT. Oops.

Chromebook are...a problem. My child goes about his day with, basically, unfettered access within the constraints MCPS allows, which is a wide berth. Just this week he pulled up a "cool" video webpage that allows him to take video with his camera and record it (like the PhotoBooth app on a Mac) - though his content was just a little silly and not objectionable, this is a really bad idea and I was surprised the teacher was unaware - we told him to not open it or let kids record him unless the teacher makes it part of a project requirement.

I've also seen kids comment on document assignments the teacher posts: like a series of "Hey!" "Hi!" "Yo Yo Yo!" nonsense. They are too young to have access like this. It's troubling to me, and I wish there were a better way. Unfortunately, with 25+ kids and one teacher, Chromebooks are 30% useful and 70% a necessary babysitter. And this is in a class with capable, "gifted," kids who are for the most part using their time in a motivated and academically directed way.

.

I agree the Chromebooks usefulness in classrooms is low, and that they are used for “babysitting” but I strongly disagree that they are necessary babysitters. Growing up classroom sizes were much bigger (36-55) where I lived, and tech wasn’t needed to babysit students. The issue issue is the implementation of tech in the classroom and teacher training on how to manage it. Ditto that in a home setting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a 4th grader so we are a year or two into this.

Yes, they can share with anyone in the MCPS organization and collaborate and submit documents with ease.

As far as the student communicating with their mother: I don't think that you can email to or from accounts outside of MCPS so it's likely they were logged in at the same time. This happened to us once when DS was logged in on his Chromebook and left his account open on my computer: I typed a message before logging out and it appeared to ghost-write on his screen at school and it FREAKED HIM OUT. Oops.

Chromebook are...a problem. My child goes about his day with, basically, unfettered access within the constraints MCPS allows, which is a wide berth. Just this week he pulled up a "cool" video webpage that allows him to take video with his camera and record it (like the PhotoBooth app on a Mac) - though his content was just a little silly and not objectionable, this is a really bad idea and I was surprised the teacher was unaware - we told him to not open it or let kids record him unless the teacher makes it part of a project requirement.

I've also seen kids comment on document assignments the teacher posts: like a series of "Hey!" "Hi!" "Yo Yo Yo!" nonsense. They are too young to have access like this. It's troubling to me, and I wish there were a better way. Unfortunately, with 25+ kids and one teacher, Chromebooks are 30% useful and 70% a necessary babysitter. And this is in a class with capable, "gifted," kids who are for the most part using their time in a motivated and academically directed way.

.

I agree the Chromebooks usefulness in classrooms is low, and that they are used for “babysitting” but I strongly disagree that they are necessary babysitters. Growing up classroom sizes were much bigger (36-55) where I lived, and tech wasn’t needed to babysit students. The issue issue is the implementation of tech in the classroom and teacher training on how to manage it. Ditto that in a home setting.

We've been talking a lot about this in my house.

While I agree that things were very different when I grew up, times have also changed. In our experience, teachers are pretty young (5 years all sub-35) and haven't really had a chance to develop a truly rich and sage approach yet, and they are required to adhere to a curriculum with rules and obligations that my teachers just didn't have to deal with. To complicate things, the cost of living (here in the DC area, and now in terms of the economy) is so so high that teachers are bogged down with more complicated lives, and feel too stressed (emotionally or financially) to actually stay, or stay happily, in the profession.

I'd love to find a magic district with manageable class sizes, and experienced and relaxed teachers who can comfortably afford to live close to their workplace with time and energy to really be present and enrich their repertoire (this is not a criticism of teachers today...rather, it's a criticism of their constraints and the overall culture of public schools).

[Anonymous]

My 3rd grade kid spends waaaaay too much time on the computer and looking at videos at school. They even spend their "computer" block just doing more test-prep instead of learning coding or something. And recently, his teacher has been sending home online assignments, which we're ignoring. Enough already.

We have a particularly checked-out teacher clearly daydreaming about retirement this year, and all this tech is just making it easier for her to do less and less lesson planning.

[Anonymous]

Our CES student is on the computer way too much. It’s disappointing and disheartening.

[Anonymous]

I understand people's concerns, and share some of them, but as for "too young" - fourth and fifth grade is when you have the MOST influence over your kids. I feel like it might be better to dip a toe into social media and internet use at this age when they are easier to supervise and more likely to listen to your safety rules and internalize them. If you wait until they are teens they are developmentally programmed to think you don't know what you're talking about. For us, I feel like google classroom is a good way to begin to realize that we need to be paying attention to these platforms and to begin to work through online rules and safety practices with our kid. Fourth and Fifth grade is the perfect time to do that. Before peer influence drowns us out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I understand people's concerns, and share some of them, but as for "too young" - fourth and fifth grade is when you have the MOST influence over your kids. I feel like it might be better to dip a toe into social media and internet use at this age when they are easier to supervise and more likely to listen to your safety rules and internalize them. If you wait until they are teens they are developmentally programmed to think you don't know what you're talking about. For us, I feel like google classroom is a good way to begin to realize that we need to be paying attention to these platforms and to begin to work through online rules and safety practices with our kid. Fourth and Fifth grade is the perfect time to do that. Before peer influence drowns us out.

DP

That is a valid point, but keep in mind that there is VERY little oversight at school. In theory, it’s great if the student is doing something inappropriate and gets called out for it at school. But that is very unlikely.

My 4th grader has 28 kids in her class and it is really impossible for a teacher to monitor all of their internet usage, and teach! Kids are constantly playing games, watching videos or finding memes. With nobody telling them what is and what is not appropriate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I understand people's concerns, and share some of them, but as for "too young" - fourth and fifth grade is when you have the MOST influence over your kids. I feel like it might be better to dip a toe into social media and internet use at this age when they are easier to supervise and more likely to listen to your safety rules and internalize them. If you wait until they are teens they are developmentally programmed to think you don't know what you're talking about. For us, I feel like google classroom is a good way to begin to realize that we need to be paying attention to these platforms and to begin to work through online rules and safety practices with our kid. Fourth and Fifth grade is the perfect time to do that. Before peer influence drowns us out.

I’m the PP

I also meant to say that if you’re concerned about ‘peer I fouence’ than you’d also like to limit the Chromebook use at school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I understand people's concerns, and share some of them, but as for "too young" - fourth and fifth grade is when you have the MOST influence over your kids. I feel like it might be better to dip a toe into social media and internet use at this age when they are easier to supervise and more likely to listen to your safety rules and internalize them. If you wait until they are teens they are developmentally programmed to think you don't know what you're talking about. For us, I feel like google classroom is a good way to begin to realize that we need to be paying attention to these platforms and to begin to work through online rules and safety practices with our kid. Fourth and Fifth grade is the perfect time to do that. Before peer influence drowns us out.

I get what you're saying, but the issue is that it's not just Google Classroom. Many of these classrooms allow kids to explore basically the entire internet for 3+ hours daily at school. There is no dipping a toe, and parents don't have control over it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I understand people's concerns, and share some of them, but as for "too young" - fourth and fifth grade is when you have the MOST influence over your kids. I feel like it might be better to dip a toe into social media and internet use at this age when they are easier to supervise and more likely to listen to your safety rules and internalize them. If you wait until they are teens they are developmentally programmed to think you don't know what you're talking about. For us, I feel like google classroom is a good way to begin to realize that we need to be paying attention to these platforms and to begin to work through online rules and safety practices with our kid. Fourth and Fifth grade is the perfect time to do that. Before peer influence drowns us out.

I’m the PP

I also meant to say that if you’re concerned about ‘peer I fouence’ than you’d also like to limit the Chromebook use at school.

You mean like tell the teacher "no Chromebook for my child?" I guess. But it's not like opting out of testing, or swimming in PE, or a book that addresses a touchy topic. It's like saying "My kid can't look at the Smartboard." Literally, 80% of the work is obtained on, researched on, done on, submitted on, the Chromebook. It's the single most used tool in upper elementary in MCPS, and opting out would create a real issue for the teacher, AND the student. It's a double-edged sword.