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Kids trying to play video games on school laptops

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Re: Kids trying to play video games on school laptops

#61

Post by ihatepython »

adriand wrote: post #52
_nalply wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you. This confirms my suspicion: Just take the hardware away. I am lucky that my children accept the limits I impose on them. I think because they are not stupid and they sense that they need limits. It's not a struggle to take the hardware away. I even apologize to them when it's time to let the laptop go.

We do take the devices at bedtime, in fact, I have a reminder on my phone that goes off at 9:30 pm every night (which I started after discovering the problem). But it’s not just about the late night usage, which is mostly curtailed but not perfectly given I’m not a perfect authoritarian. It’s more generally what he’s doing with it. I don’t want him going down YouTube rabbit holes, developing a body image complex via…

What if he is watching videos about quantum physics, and he might have been the next Einstein, if his parents didn't restrict his access to the information superhighway?

Re: Kids trying to play video games on school laptops

#62

Post by 1letterunixname »

dlevine wrote: post #58

I've been teaching my nephew how to code using Scratch. He told me that they blocked Scratch at school because some of the kids were using it to play games during school. Kind of a shame, because it is a great way for kids to learn how to code.

"The culture of no" demands obedience and forbids anything remotely fun.

Lazy pencil pushers kill kids' curiosity before it begins, footgunning their entire purpose for being.

Re: Kids trying to play video games on school laptops

#63

Post by perryizgr8 »

adriand wrote: post #5

This relates to something that has been bugging me lately, which is as a parent I have zero parental control over the devices that our school board issues to my children. My kids have iPhones and iPads, which are part of my Apple family account, and I can both monitor what they are doing and also set limits on screen time including hours of usage and for particular apps. However, I recently became aware that my son w…

> devices that our school board issues to my children

Why is the school issuing anything to students? It should be your prerogative to outfit your child with whatever they need. School can ask for minimums (a pen, a notebook, certain textbooks, etc.) but they should not be issuing anything themselves.

Re: Kids trying to play video games on school laptops

#64

Post by 1letterunixname »

jonhohle wrote: post #55
adriand wrote: post #5

This relates to something that has been bugging me lately, which is as a parent I have zero parental control over the devices that our school board issues to my children. My kids have iPhones and iPads, which are part of my Apple family account, and I can both monitor what they are doing and also set limits on screen time including hours of usage and for particular apps. However, I recently became aware that my son w…

Coincidentally, I just emailed our school board about this. Our district claims to support BYOD, but has no documentation. As parents, we should be able to determine what our kids have access to based on our own family values. No two families will be the same. The idea that elementary or middle school children can handle having unrestricted (or minimally restricted) devices is absurd.

BYOD is partially a terrible idea. They shouldn't be sending kids home with devices. What about parents who object to technology screen time?

Could we not invent a religion, say Reformed Mennonites, that objects to children using screen devices? How could they argue with that?

Re: Kids trying to play video games on school laptops

#65

Post by 1letterunixname »

ihatepython wrote: post #61
adriand wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do take the devices at bedtime, in fact, I have a reminder on my phone that goes off at 9:30 pm every night (which I started after discovering the problem). But it’s not just about the late night usage, which is mostly curtailed but not perfectly given I’m not a perfect authoritarian. It’s more generally what he’s doing with it. I don’t want him going down YouTube rabbit holes, developing a body image complex via…

What if he is watching videos about quantum physics, and he might have been the next Einstein, if his parents didn't restrict his access to the information superhighway?

1 in 5000 views. You can bet 20% are TidePod challenges and blowing up swimming pools with dry ice.

Re: Kids trying to play video games on school laptops

#66

Post by 1letterunixname »

madcaptenor wrote: post #54
runnerup wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Idk I feel doing this a lot as a child may have solidified terrible sleep hygiene for myself.

Yeah, I see what you mean, but I also want them to love reading.

Ah, then the paradoxical key is to ban books. What you want more of: reject, what you want less of: become the boyfriend's new best pal. No so much reverse psychology as manipulating oppositional tendencies.

Re: Kids trying to play video games on school laptops

#67

Post by pdntspa »

sharkweek wrote: post #7

As with many here I'm sure, during "computer lab" I was often done with assignments quite quickly all through school. The teachers rarely had any extra work to assign me so they pretty much gave me carte blanche to use my time however I wanted as long as it was on the computer. Great memories of trying to skirt school "blockers" in order to get to gaming websites in high school (this would have been in the early 00s)…

oh man I remember the days of converting gamespy.com's IP to octal to get around the school's firewall block thing

Hell I even made a counter-strike map of the campus and surrounding suburban downtown where the terrorists bomb the school's proxy server so the students can have unrestricted internet!

Man that would have gone over so well nowadays...

edit: or the time I got around their EXE blocking by changing a bunch of strings in UnrealTournament.exe to look like Norton Anti-virus. Got a couple weeks' suspension for that!

The network admin (a friend of mine) told me he gauged his skill as an admin by how quickly I was able to break past whatever blocks he had in place.

Re: Kids trying to play video games on school laptops

#68

Post by steve_adams_86 »

madcaptenor wrote: post #41
WalterBright wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, the old days when I'd read a book with a flashlight under the covers.

My kids are 4 and 2. When they get to where they can read independently I intend to make sure they have flashlights, and if I have my shit together I'll make sure they always have batteries.

Years ago I thought the same thing, but one of my kids will stay up reading until well past midnight and absolutely obliterate his health over it.

Re: shit togetherness and batteries, a great (maybe too great) solution is a dimmable headlamp with rechargeable batteries which charge from a USB port or something similar. They tend to get excellent life on a charge, and being able to dim them is nice so you don't have the flood light on white pages effect before they're going to sleep.

All of my kids have one and I've never needed to swap batteries or remind them to charge them. They take them camping, too. They're a great thing to have handy.

Re: Kids trying to play video games on school laptops

#69

Post by dusted »

Back in my day, we had a room filled with 386 and 486 machines running windows 3.11, we'd bring floppies from home and boot them to dos to play, it was great and teachers encouraged it. I guess things have changed.. For one.. Kids no longer get to experience the joy of "going to the computer room".. Or later, the thrills of networked delta-force matches during lunch at the library.
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