You're a sucker who's living to feed the beast.

About time.

Went from a book every 2 days to a kid on crack playing iPad games. Thanks school!

Spot-on! Thanks for posting this.

I disagree.

First, blaming the Ipad for a kid's lack of concentration is like blaming a gun or a video game for violence.

My kids are high-ability middle-schoolers and they utilize similar technology very well at their school. I'm considering getting my daughter her own tablet because frankly, it's a good tool. The teachers have their assignment calendars online (ie google calendar). Why not allow the kids to access that and add notes, just as we would do, rather than carry around a thick paper calendar that may not suit their personal organization system as well? By making notes and putting calendars on an electronic device, you can also access your information from home, a friend's computer etc.... just as many of us do in our working lives.

I doubt a good teacher is having the kids "do science experiments" on the Ipad. They are more likely using it to organize research, as is my son's 8th grade science class.

Yes, I've had to take my kids technology away from them at home when they are playing games instead of doing homework. If this mom is getting in a physical fight with her kid or he thinks he can go looking for it when it's been removed from him, the Ipad isn't the problem. It's the parent, the kid, or some combination thereof. (Similarly, this mom apparently can't handle controlling her kid who chooses to violate the school policy on jailbreaking his Ipad. I see a parenting problem, not a technology problem.)

She will also find that schools can charge you hundreds of dollars for textbooks, if your kids aren't capable of keeping track of those.

Her ideas are ludicrous: teach a kid how to use technology but then don't let him get efficiency from it.


Edit: We're buying Androids, not Ipads, just to be clear. But either way we are choosing them over phones or laptops. Phones are currently restricted at school, but I agree with our administrator who said the same classrooms who have problems with kids texting are the same type of classrooms where we had problems with kids passing notes decades ago: overcrowded classrooms or disinterested teachers.

We are considering tablets because phones aren't big enough to take notes on easily, and because laptops are cumbersome in terms of opening them quickly to add something on a schedule or look up info.

I will add that I don't think a kid should be FORCED to use an Ipad (if the woman in the video is really being truthful, for example, that she was told he couldn't go to school there if he can't use it). I know of schools who have taken devices (laptops or Ipads) away from kids who break the rules, and those kids then have to do things the long way around.

Turn off the internet at home.

I strongly agree.

This fall, we went through an experience with out 15-year-old who, upon losing his "electronic devices" privileges for 5 days, brandished a lighter, lit it, and threatened to burn down our barn with him inside it. According to him, he had no life anymore without them.

There's a time and place and appropriate use for these devices. We are creating a whole society of young people (and adults, too) who simply can not live without the instant-gratification-intense-positive-reinforcement which these devices bring, who are functionally and socially illiterate, and who have the attention span and focus of a flea. Perfect grist for the lock-step and hypnotized mill.

You can take Smart Boards and throw them in the landfill as well.

Edit: Oh, and by the way. My daughter won her school's Spelling Bee tonight. All it took to do this was a list of words (on paper), a pencil, some college-ruled paper, and some time and focus. Yes, she bitched and complained, but my job was to keep her on track. She's not looking forward to going to school tomorrow because she knows that her "friends" will be calling her a nerd. **** them.

Oh, and there were no physical rewards for this accomplishment for the 10 finalists, who will go on to the county Spelling Bee. Not a trophy, not a medal, not a certificate, not anything. And yet "everyone gets a trophy" in sports-related activities? How screwed up are we?

"Been fighting all year to get the Ipad away from him..."

Learn some parenting skills...

You feed the beast either way. Textbooks are extremely overpriced. The ability to choose your own device, or something more restrictive like a kindle seems much more appropriate than forcing an ipad though.

That said, she comes across as well-focused in the beginning then devolves into a dinosaur ranting against technology. I went to college 13 years ago and no classes even accepted a hand-written paper, and some even required we submit the electronic form, yet she rants about her college students using a computer.

At one time papyrus was new technology too. Maybe we should go back to 100% verbal communication.

I think tablets, PCs, consoles etc are terribly damaging for teen boys in particular. Males are easily stimulated visually. The impact to girls is not as bad. It's like crack for the boys though.

F*cking ridiculous! Time to move out of California. WTF? And it might be time for her to STOP FUNDRAISING FOR THE SCHOOL!

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"Been fighting all year to get the Ipad away from him..."

Learn some parenting skills...

For some reason, with some kids, all the "right" parenting still doesn't work.

I know a family that had 9 kids and only kid #7 was screwed up. Other kids turned out great, including the siblings born only one year before & after the messed up kid. Couldn't have asked for better parents. But OMG was kid #7 screwed up.

I know another family with 6 kids and only kid #2 was messed up. Other 5 turned out to be pillars of the community.

So, yes, could be parenting issues, but it's not necessarily as simple as that.

I could see kids playing video games in class with each other or broadcasting other disruptive content to kids.

In other countries like China and India their taught to use their brain instead of relying in the iPad or calculator for the hard sciences. We used to do that here when we were the science leader. I have spoken with temps here from India and they me that they don't want their kids to go to elementary or middle school here because their kids would get academically lazy here.

Yep.

Our local school considers a graphic trig calculator PART OF THE REQUIREMENTS for Geometry class.

WHAT THE ****?

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So, yes, could be parenting issues, but it's not necessarily as simple as that.

I agree that there could be other issues and the parenting may not be simple with this kid. But it's also not as simple as technology.

Our son went through a rough phase just before age 14: as far as I can tell, it was his first experience with combining anger with teenage hormones. The results were ugly, but only for a few weeks. We took it seriously, and we resolved the issues.

Yes, he fought for his technology. But we didn't blame the technology.

Anyone who pretends that getting rid of the technology would solve the problems of a defiant teen, is also oversimplifying and denying reality.

How about just teaching the fundamentals...reading, writing, math.....leave all the other greeny / progressive / touchy / feely / no one comes in last place / one world / all religions are equal bull**** at home.

Pump the ******ned IPAD full of reading, writing, math and I'm OK with it.

everything else....go suck a bag of dicks.

But of course we all know what comes loaded on an Ipad. We all know who contributes to the core curriculum there.....right? So all you "Ipads are innocent" dick wads go **** off. They do not come "blank".

Last year, a teacher caught one of her students using an iPhone in class. She asked the student to step outside and asked her to turn it over.

The student then started spreading the rumor that the teacher had reached down into her shirt and bra to get the iPhone.

My daughter heard this rumor, knew the teacher's integrity and therefore had not possibly have done it, told the teacher, who then went to the administration.

It was only after 2 hours of "discussion" that the student admitted to starting and spreading the rumor.

My daughter was subsequently marginalized by her peers for having told the teacher. No one would sit with her at lunch, etc. (you know the routine).

Thank goodness she's also a jock and tough-as-nails.

So ... what did the administration do?

This year, iPhones, iPads, cellphones, iPods, etc. are allowed in the classroom. What a can of worms that opens!

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In other countries like China and India their taught to use their brain instead of relying in the iPad or calculator for the hard sciences. We used to do that here when we were the science leader. I have spoken with temps here from India and they me that they don't want their kids to go to elementary or middle school here because their kids would get academically lazy here.

I disagree again. My kids private gifted middle school is largely composed of Asians of very high academic performance. Yes, in general, the Asian kids are more competitive. But they aren't anti-technology. They use graphing calculators to good purpose by 6th grade, and most of the kids use technology all day and own their own laptops (mine don't yet, but only because it's not in our budget).

Technology does not prevent learning.

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So all you "Ipads are innocent" dick wads go **** off. They do not come "blank".

I see. If you use bad words you win? Do you teach that to your middle schoolers?

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Last year, a teacher caught one of her students using an iPhone in class. She asked the student to step outside and asked her to turn it over.

The student then started spreading the rumor that the teacher had reached down into her shirt and bra to get the iPhone.

when I was in 5th grade, I got caught receiving a note from my "boyfriend"

I sure was embarrassed when the teacher had me bring it up, so he could read it.

If he had taken me in the hallway and I tried lying about the teacher....
I'm sure we would be discussing the evil piece of paper he reached for down my shirt....

or not....

My kids' high school uses iPads. They're proud of it. I think it's stupid and unnecessary. "Turn off the Internet at home" doesn't work once they've implemented the iPad strategy, since all of the their assignments and schedules etc are online. And with a household of six people, someone almost always has a legitimate need for the Internet. They can get online with a Wii. They can probably check Facebook using the toaster.

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My kids' high school uses iPads. They're proud of it. I think it's stupid and unnecessary. "Turn off the Internet at home" doesn't work once they've implemented the iPad strategy, since all of the their assignments and schedules etc are online. And with a household of six people, someone almost always has a legitimate need for the Internet. They can get online with a Wii. They can probably check Facebook using the toaster.

Unnecessary? maybe
Stupid? a matter of opinion

I think online assignments and electronic assignment submissions are efficient, for the same reason I use them in work communication.

But kids DO need to learn how to conquer the distraction of technology. If they can't easily do it themselves, one option is to set your wifi signal to password, or to go off at midnight, etc.

We prefer to give our kids full access, as does our school. The school can "see" everything pretty well. We use monitoring software (such as Spectre) so we follow a "trust but verify" and our kids lose their technology if they are doing things that violate our rules. Our 14-yr old could now easily figure this out if he bothered to think about it, but he's now tired of any ideas of going outside the rules for the most part, and uses the technology rather appropriately. I'm sure he'll go off on tangents again someday, but then he'll also be off at college someday, so he'll have to make some of these decisions on his own.

Dusty, you are entitled to handle this anyway you want. But I won't be doing what you are.

Of course technology does not prevent learning. It's just a tool, and like most tools, it can be used in good and bad ways. Tablets can promotes education. But they also can promote a lot of other stuff, a lot of it bad.

In my opinion, we've got another round of technology where "Just because you could doesn't mean you should"

I've got a Fortune 5 technology background. My kids will learn tech.

But not until they are much more mature and know a lot more of the fundamentals, personal communication skills, street smarts, etc.

I predict Dale Carnegie training will be HUGE once these younger generations learn that the only way they know to communicate is via text.

GoForBroke said it best - there is a time and place for these device. But it's certainly not grade school.

Alright Tiger Mama, you win. Best Parent In The World. We mere mortals, however, with imperfect kids don't appreciate the schools cramming more distractions down the kids' throats, particularly when they're not necessary. NO need to reply, though, since I already conceded that you are 100% perfect. I'll assume you have about 4% body fat, too.