Anonymous wrote:My child has been using school computer. I would like to know do you give your child personal computer if so what are the benefits? My child has been asking for personal computer. Thanks.

The school laptops are heavy and the screens very small. My kids started to bring their own laptops in their Junior year.

Anonymous wrote:The school ones are bad - the ones my DD bring home are falling apart; The touch pad is not responsive. Next year going to buy a Chromebook - they are not too expensive.

Elementary is getting all of the old Microsoft machines, but secondary is currently transitioning. Chromebooks are brand new in many high schools this year.

Not everyone can afford this, but we liked to model keeping work/school devices separate from personal use from an early age. The FCPS laptop is owned by them and we told our kids it should only be used for school. Our kids are in teens, one is almost done with HS so they are online more now for personal reasons.

We saw early on how limited the school laptops were, especially in 2020 with our oldest when schools went virtual. The school laptops were always crashing. From then on our kids had their own devices. They only use the FCPS laptops at school and use their own at home for everything else. Our kids have personal laptops or desktops (their choice).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You cannot use personal computer for FCPS homework and correspondence

This is incorrect. You just have to log into Schoology/Google with your school account. Teachers don't like personal computers because the screens are not visible on Lightspeed (the app where teachers can see what a kid is working online or playing video games). When in testing mode, students can more easily cheat with a personal device as there is no browser lockdown.

My advice is use the school computer at school & get a "good" laptop for home.

The distinction is if use personal than cannot ask FCPS to troubleshoot for you.

Anonymous wrote:My child has been using school computer. I would like to know do you give your child personal computer if so what are the benefits? My child has been asking for personal computer. Thanks.

Yes, a desktop computer because I am not getting him a game console.

My setup is a mini-cube desktop (~$150) and an old monitor/keyboard/mouse that were lying around the house. He plays free online free games (not roblox, not minecraft) and also can use it to attend online classes, scratch coding and practice typing. He's ten year old and start to do his own google research.

Next step to set up a parental filter because it's just matter of time he starts to hear about mature content.

My kids are really, really frustrated with the lockdown on the internet browser. I definitely don't want them accessing bad things (porn/violence) but my DD tries to google pictures of animals for school projects and 3/4 of the animals are blocked out for instance. She also can't access wikipedia.

We charge DCs’ school laptops right after they get home. They use personal laptop for homework from school also personal things. We don’t allow them to use school laptops for non school related work. In rare cases the school work must use school laptops to complete ( certain software only on school laptop).

The school ones are bad - the ones my DD bring home are falling apart; The touch pad is not responsive. Next year going to buy a Chromebook - they are not too expensive.

DS has his own Chrome Book for school work that he uses. You can log on to it and do your homework and send emails for school. We have a family computer that is in the family room that he is allowed to use for video games, discord, and other activities. He has an iPad that is linked to the family account. Most of the programs he likes to run for fun won’t work on his Chrome Book, which is at his desk.

Devices that are used for fun are set up so that we can check them from time to time and see what is happening with a casual glance walking past the area.

Anonymous wrote:You cannot use personal computer for FCPS homework and correspondence

This is incorrect. You just have to log into Schoology/Google with your school account. Teachers don't like personal computers because the screens are not visible on Lightspeed (the app where teachers can see what a kid is working online or playing video games). When in testing mode, students can more easily cheat with a personal device as there is no browser lockdown.

My advice is use the school computer at school & get a "good" laptop for home.

Our son hated the FCPS computer. He used it at school but at home he used his own laptop.

You cannot use personal computer for FCPS homework and correspondence

My child has been using school computer. I would like to know do you give your child personal computer if so what are the benefits? My child has been asking for personal computer. Thanks.