A Review committee has more power than an advisory committee but yes, we don’t think a committee itself is the end all be all. Join us and see all the other things we are trying to put pressure on the Board and Leadership team for change.

Anonymous wrote:Yes! The Board recently voted to form an Educational Technology Review Committee to study device use, edtech programs, and AI policy.

Check out this parents group that pushed for it: FCPS Parents for Intentional Technology. https://www.fcps-intentionaltech.org/home

FCPS is playing you. Do not be fooled by their “committee.” FCPS has pulled this scam on parents before: they will stack the committee with people chosen for the result they want, or delay and delay. If the committee recommends reducing screens, FCPS will find a way to bury the recommendations or just form a new committee.

They do not have any intention of reducing their reliance on screens.

Longing for a science textbook so things can be taught in a logical order with a way to read and re-read information in a straight forward way. No longer watching Amoeba Sister vids and BrainPop vids to try to elicit understanding with no reading material to fall back on. No longer trying to study for a test from scraps of paper from various websites and TPT sites pulled together to jump around to meet the standards and that’s it.

Longing for a simple math textbook with a spiral review. And problems for homework. But no let's just teach math skills out of sequence and logic for the SOL
And never go back to any of it for review.

The constant use of screens has been really harmful for my middle schooler. I don’t know when my kid is doing homework and when my kid is browsing YouTube on the school computer unless I sit right next to my kid the whole time. I noticed a sharp decline in SOL scores from elementary school as well. I can’t imagine what my kid is doing during the school day, but I bet it is a lot of just goofing off on the school, issued laptop. And they know how to get around light speed so that doesn’t tell me much. It’s awful. thanks for sharing the link i’m going to look into this group.

All the movement should be focusing on is getting rid of computer testing. As soon as tests go back to paper and pencil there will be fewer tests, and teachers will not feel the need to teach using computers to prepare students for online testing.

Anonymous wrote:Should bring back text books and pen/pencil and paper.

Amen.

There’s a group of parents who have organized a called FCPS Intentional Tech.

Anonymous wrote:FCPS already did not use many textbooks BEFORE ed tech became so dominant. This was especially frustrating for us when my son was in Algebra 1 in 7th grade. Oh how I wish there had been a textbook.

Textbooks do not need to be expensive.
I taught in Japan and most of the textbooks were soft cover, almost workbook style, cheaply printed, easily replaced if lost or damaged. Even if we went back to hard cover textbooks they would certainly be less expensive than what the district pays for all these devices, apps, tech consultants, etc etc etc.

You make it sound like he was in algebra a decade ago--if that is true, there was absolutely a textbook.

There has always been a basal resource. If your son's teacher didn't use it, that was their choice, but it was available. I was hired in 2011, and there were hundreds of textbooks available for math courses. The following year, we signed a contract for "online textbooks" that were just scans of regular textbooks as pdfs kids could click through (those were the worst). Each school was allocated 30 traditional textbooks they could check out to students for the year if they didn't want to use the electronic one. In 2019 FCPS signed a contract with mathspace. That is the first year we haven't had a traditional textbook. There are instructional resources that go with it, but you have to click through a bit.

FCPS already did not use many textbooks BEFORE ed tech became so dominant. This was especially frustrating for us when my son was in Algebra 1 in 7th grade. Oh how I wish there had been a textbook.

Textbooks do not need to be expensive.
I taught in Japan and most of the textbooks were soft cover, almost workbook style, cheaply printed, easily replaced if lost or damaged. Even if we went back to hard cover textbooks they would certainly be less expensive than what the district pays for all these devices, apps, tech consultants, etc etc etc.

Anonymous wrote:Yes! The Board recently voted to form an Educational Technology Review Committee to study device use, edtech programs, and AI policy.

Check out this parents group that pushed for it: FCPS Parents for Intentional Technology. https://www.fcps-intentionaltech.org/home

Thanks for this link!

Should bring back text books and pen/pencil and paper. Sure term papers/short stories (ah the good old days) could be done on a word processor. Technology should be in the teachers. AI robots with adjustable cattle prods to instill discipline and order. Could work 24/7 and grade assignments on time and consistently.

Never heard of this!

Yes! The Board recently voted to form an Educational Technology Review Committee to study device use, edtech programs, and AI policy.

Check out this parents group that pushed for it: FCPS Parents for Intentional Technology. https://www.fcps-intentionaltech.org/home

Nationally there’s been a lot of movement to decrease edtech in schools and go back to paper and pencil. There has been a lot of harm with the one on one screens provided by FCPS and decreased outcomes. Has there been any movement in our school district? Anyone have any insight? The one on one screens has been really bad for my middle schooler and it hasn’t helped in elementary either.