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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

#191

Post by kleiba »

lucumo wrote: post #167
kleiba wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a difference between what theoretically could be achieved with IT - in a perfect world - and what is actually being done in praxis right now. There's no concept in place, as far as I can tell, other than "we need to have tablets in schools".

Oh, that sucks. Is the school any good in other regards? Or just sucky in general? At my kids' school the tech is used mostly like I described, and it really does help to give a bit of needed challenge to them.

I'm not just talking about one specific school - this is basically state policy.

Re: Kids trying to play video games on school laptops

#192

Post by MagicMoonlight »

The best trick we discovered was that powerpoint would run flash games if you embedded them on a slide.

You could turn up to school with a powerpoint full of flash games and play them full screen on any computer. Impossible to block because there’s no web traffic.

Re: Kids trying to play video games on school laptops

#193

Post by watmough »

pdntspa wrote: post #67
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…

> 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!

OMG That's awesome!

Re: Kids trying to play video games on school laptops

#194

Post by Dalewyn »

marssaxman wrote: post #183
Dalewyn wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming the parents are competent, that only happens once .

Well, thank you very much for that helpful bit of advice.

I mean, if the parents care about it it's as simple as pointing a camera at the goods or otherwise devising some mechanism to detect tampering.

And before anyone says "DatS sUrVeIlAnCe!", sod off: Parents have a duty to surveil their kids and discipline their behaviour properly, it's a part of raising a kid.

Re: Kids trying to play video games on school laptops

#195

Post by JenrHywy »

sirspacey wrote: post #174
JenrHywy wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be more sympathetic to this line of thinking if I didn't have a 16yo who's going to be lucky to get through high school because he can't focus in class. I would have been the same at his age, if someone had plopped an internet connected device on my desk and told me to focus on school work.

At this age boys go through a profound neurological change. Check out “The Male Brain” I’ve advised a lot of parents at this stage, the prescription is always the same: Let go of extrinsic motivation (their brains are severely muted against it) Focus on cultivating empty time & space to find intrinsic motivation As a dad myself, even with this knowledge, it was scary to take off expectations and let my boys flounder…

This was my initial approach - we tried letting him flounder for a year - he just got more and more behind and more disconnected from school and family. The existential dread kicked in from time to time, but was never enough to break the immediate gratification of distraction.

The only thing we've found that works is removing technology as much as possible, which, once the immediate habit was interrupted, he's been very grateful for.

Re: Kids trying to play video games on school laptops

#196

Post by mensetmanusman »

JenrHywy wrote: post #122
paxys wrote: post #110

Trying to get through hardware/software locks, content filters, firewalls, spyware etc. at school is usually the first experience kids have with "hacker" culture. For a lot of them (myself included) this eventually leads up to a real career in the tech industry. So godspeed, all you young rebels.

I would be more sympathetic to this line of thinking if I didn't have a 16yo who's going to be lucky to get through high school because he can't focus in class. I would have been the same at his age, if someone had plopped an internet connected device on my desk and told me to focus on school work.

Might not be helpful, but I wonder if going on daily morning walks before school with him could be illuminating. It’s amazing how much better the brain makes connections when the legs are moving.

I’m concerned about the mental impact of a sedentary society.

Re: Kids trying to play video games on school laptops

#197

Post by notRobot »

prepend wrote: post #168
ehutch79 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if it's not ADHD, a professional, and at least tell you that, and then provide coping strategies to help focus. And honestly it doesn't hurt for a teen to have someone who they can talk to who is not their parent/authority figure, and has their shit together.

Yes, this is true. Professional help is useful to teens (and all humans). While true, it’s silly to suggest it in response to a problem occurring due to school laptops. It’s like reminding people that meditation and exercise are valuable. It’s like when I’m menstruating and someone says “honestly it doesn’t hurt for a teen to have someone who they can talk to who is not their parent/authority figure.” Definitely true…

> While true, it’s silly to suggest it in response to a problem occurring due to school laptops.

You don't know if the lack of attention is being caused by the laptop, since I assume there are other kids in the class also with laptops who are able to concentrate?

Re: Kids trying to play video games on school laptops

#198

Post by notRobot »

skupig wrote: post #138
notRobot wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure you know this, but trouble focusing could stem from many issues, the vast majority of which can be treated. ADHD is a big one, but there's others too, some behavioural. If you haven't already seen one, I'd book an appointment with a psychiatrist and/or a psychologist. I wish my parents had done so when I was the student with trouble focusing so I could have received the help I desperately needed but never go…

ADHD is a blessing and a curse. Anything you don't enjoy doing becomes very difficult, and it takes a lot of conscious effort to turn doing those things into habits so they'll stick. However, people often ignore that there is an equal and opposite side to that coin, and people with ADHD can hyperfocus to an absurd degree on tasks they enjoy. An internet connection and a desire to learn something is a powerful combina…

This absolutely holds true for my experiences with ADHD. If I enjoy my work I can hyperfocus and be really good at it, if I don't enjoy it then it's nearly impossible for me to get it done.

Re: Kids trying to play video games on school laptops

#199

Post by guffins »

geraldwhen wrote: post #146
creatonez wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The school eventually figured this out. It's not clear how they avoid the situation however; do you tell teachers never to grant exceptions on student-owned devices? Make it so the firewall exception process on student devices gives a 6 digit code which the instructor enters into a staff-only interface on the instructor's device, so that the process always requires input on both a student and an instructor's comput…

This requires two devices to have working internet, which is often not the case at schools. Teachers are computer illiterate, to boot.

To be fair, TOTP works offline.

Re: Kids trying to play video games on school laptops

#200

Post by spidersenses »

skupig wrote: post #138
notRobot wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure you know this, but trouble focusing could stem from many issues, the vast majority of which can be treated. ADHD is a big one, but there's others too, some behavioural. If you haven't already seen one, I'd book an appointment with a psychiatrist and/or a psychologist. I wish my parents had done so when I was the student with trouble focusing so I could have received the help I desperately needed but never go…

ADHD is a blessing and a curse. Anything you don't enjoy doing becomes very difficult, and it takes a lot of conscious effort to turn doing those things into habits so they'll stick. However, people often ignore that there is an equal and opposite side to that coin, and people with ADHD can hyperfocus to an absurd degree on tasks they enjoy. An internet connection and a desire to learn something is a powerful combina…

>However, people often ignore that there is an equal and opposite side to that coin, and people with ADHD can hyperfocus to an absurd degree on tasks they enjoy. An internet connection and a desire to learn something is a powerful combination for someone who can shut out everything else in the world for several hours at a time.

My personal experience is that I simply can't direct that hyperfocus. While I tend to hyperfocus on things that my brain considers "fun", the object of obsession is changing frequently (today it's some programming language, next week it's something totally unrelated like lets say hypnosis). Never enough time to build a foundation in that field/topic. For me, the ADHD is debilitating, and not some type "superpower", as I've read numerous times.

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