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Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more

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Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more

#111

Post by [deleted] »

WalterBright wrote: post #107
xoa wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I stand by my assertion. How many times in your 12 years in school was instant 24/7 communication for everyone in the school been of significant benefit, or would have been if they had it? It's zero in my case. Yeah, there were no school shootings in my state in the 90s either. But since Columbine objective fact is there have been over 400 affecting almost 400k students [0], and the trend doesn't seem to be going d…

Why does a health monitor need to be in constant connection with the internet? If there's a problem, it can just beep at you. Yes, school shootings are a problem. But why does there need to be 30 cell phones in the classroom? The landline on the teacher's desk can be enough. Or even a button to turn off the jammer. For wildfire, call the principal who then hits the fire button. We had tornado drills in elementary sch…

[deleted]

Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more

#112

Post by WalterBright »

filoleg wrote: post #105
WalterBright wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But watches provide some pretty useful health and emergency benefits For kids? How ever did anyone survive before 1990.

I mean, people have been surviving for far longer before electricity was discovered compared to after. What does that have to do with anything at all?

I guess we'll find out when cellphones are banned from class.

Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more

#114

Post by zifpanachr23 »

haswell wrote: post #21

I forget who originally suggested this so I can’t take credit. But what if device manufacturers worked with schools to implement some kind of “School Mode” on these devices? Students could retain their access in exchange for schools setting policies on what’s allowed, e.g. you can keep wearing your watch, but it’s effectively in collection-only mode during the school day. Nothing intrusive to the students; more like…

I...don't really understand what the purpose of any of this would be? How are wearables "integrated with daily life" for most people right now? And to the extent that they are for a particular subset of adults...why is this something that we should allow, expect and not even try to stop children from doing?

I get the impression that the logic you are following here could be more accurately described as "we should never ban any tech ever for anyone because it MIGHT in the future became important for most people's daily lives...assuming we didn't ban it". It seems like a circular argument to me and doesn't make any argument whatsoever about whether or not said devices SHOULD become part of children's (and adults) daily lives.

Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more

#115

Post by [deleted] »

haswell wrote: post #82
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what if device manufacturers worked with schools to implement some kind of “School Mode” on these devices? How would you enforce this? > as our devices become increasingly wearable and integrated with daily life, it seems like a ban is only a temporarily viable solution I’m a strong proponent of these technologies. But the truth is we mandate, and as a result do, zero testing on how it affects kids before deploying…

Enforcement is definitely one of the sticking points, but seems solvable. The simplest option would be a geofence on school grounds, but I realize this comes with issues and kids will figure out how to bypass it. Another approach is to have some kind of scan-in/scan-out system where you’re allowed to maintain physical access by scanning some device upon entering the school which has been programmed to safely enable t…

[deleted]

Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more

#116

Post by [deleted] »

troyvit wrote: post #50

My daughter's school gives all the kids ipads and she got a new one this year. The IT guy gave it to her before locking it down so she installed all the dumb apps she wanted on it before handing it back over. The point, aside from how proud I am of my daughter, is that kids are going to find a way to get what they want. This is an arms race. It'll be interesting to watch.

[deleted]

Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more

#117

Post by dheera »

nytesky wrote: post #60
sweeter wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's all good until that thing that happens at American schools, happens... That is my one hang up here. It would be idealistic to believe that the Police would protect kids, but in reality there are far too many cases of them being grossly negligent in this exact circumstance... in many of those cases, having a phone played a pivotal role in security. I don't want to get too far into details on HN for the sake of ke…

Between teachers phones, intercoms, cameras, and hardline phones there should be plenty of communication equipment available for a crisis. If anything having a phone could put someone in jeopardy by making noise and giving away position or distracting owner. What is the scenario that it has helped? Have police coordinated response based upon students phoned in reports and telemetry?

I was in an American school when 9/11 happened and the school was trying to punish students for calling their parents who worked in the towers to see if they were still alive.

Fucking dictatorship we are in. Let people use technology, especially in an emergency.

Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more

#118

Post by yawaramin »

xoa wrote: post #96
WalterBright wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But watches provide some pretty useful health and emergency benefits For kids? How ever did anyone survive before 1990.

> How ever did anyone survive before I really, really hate this mindless, lazy line of argument in general. It gets tossed out with absolutely everything, from the internet to vaccines to modern farming. The simple answer in many cases to "how did anyone survive before X" is "well, often they didn't". Life expectancies were in fact lower in the past. More people died, or were maimed, with no hope of treatment. Or som…

> The simple answer in many cases to "how did anyone survive before X" is "well, often they didn't"

I would recommend rethinking the assertion that most kids in schools are going to die without a cellphone.

Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more

#119

Post by vsuperpower2021 »

sweeter wrote: post #52
chrisamiller wrote: post #49

Our middle school has banned phones during school hours, and it's been great. Even though most kids own phones and have them in their backpacks, they aren't seen. There are less problems during classes and kids have to talk to each other during lunch instead of going head down in their phones. Parental pushback has been really minimal - most parents love it, and it's good for the kids. Making no phones a blanket poli…

it's all good until that thing that happens at American schools, happens... That is my one hang up here. It would be idealistic to believe that the Police would protect kids, but in reality there are far too many cases of them being grossly negligent in this exact circumstance... in many of those cases, having a phone played a pivotal role in security. I don't want to get too far into details on HN for the sake of ke…

More realistically the phone would be good for calling for advice after you get molested by a teacher. a million times more likely than getting shot. If it's so bad, why not just homeschool?

Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more

#120

Post by FabHK »

Good idea. If individual parents prohibit their kid from using a cellphone in school, it would be standing out in a weird way, thus creating a classical collective-action problem, tragedy of the commons etc.

The school taking the step to ban the devices fixes it.

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