Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you can't respond, what's the problem?
Wouldn't it still be an unnecessary distraction for the student?
As opposed to all the other bullshit going on in schools? Wouldn’t even register.
Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more
121–130 of 242 posts
Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more
#122Earlier 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…
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?
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Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more
#123I went to high school when cell phones were common and most students had them. But, at least at my school, if you had one out during class it was instantly confiscated and returned by the front office after school. I assumed this was the norm, so articles about "cell phone bans" as a new policy are surprising to me. I assumed it always was this way.
When did schools start allowing cell phone use during class? Do teachers no longer have the power to confiscate devices that are used at inappropriate times?
Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you can't respond, what's the problem?
Wouldn't it still be an unnecessary distraction for the student?
One way, inbound sms is like 1 out of 100 in distractions, whereas having a phone with internet, social media, bidirectional messaging is 100 out of 100.
Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more
#125Earlier 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…
A 300-word answer isn't 20x more intelligent than a 15-word one. I think Walter said all that needs to be said, and more economically than you did.
Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more
#126Our school district is implementing identical thing, very similar, justifying this with health and emotional wellness and anti-cyber-bullying. They are checking in the phones into Yondr pouches.
I wish them luck on the implementation... I think there have a steep challenge ahead of them. One thing my boys told me is that they have QR codes for homework/assignments/worksheets that everyone used phones to scan and do work on there with GSuite - and the school provided laptops won't be able to do this. The that everyone in K-8 everyone has can do QRs okay though.
Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more
#127Our school district is implementing identical thing, very similar, justifying this with health and emotional wellness and anti-cyber-bullying. They are checking in the phones into Yondr pouches. I wish them luck on the implementation... I think there have a steep challenge ahead of them. One thing my boys told me is that they have QR codes for homework/assignments/worksheets that everyone used phones to scan and do w…
What ever happened to blackboard and the like?
Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more
#128I 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…
> 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…
If we are assuming manufacturer cooperation in designing and implementing "School Mode" for their devices maybe make is so as part of parental controls the parents can enroll a device with their kid's school.
A device that has been so enrolled would detect when it is at school, maybe by looking for a particular Bluetooth beacon that the school deploys. When the device determines that it is at school, it would connect to the school's wifi network authenticated and secured with a certificate generated for the device when it was enrolled. It could then use a provisioning server on that network to find out what usage is allowed or not allowed while at school.
Such a system could allow for pretty fine grained control. For example the article mentions that one thing kids use their phones for is taking photos of notes on the board. With a School Mode that works as describe above they could make it so the teacher can use their phone or tablet near the end of class to grant temporary camera permission to all the enrolled phones in that classroom.
Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
> more effective to just install a cell phone jammer in the schools It would be very difficult to engineer this to not jam cell phones just beyond school property. (You’d also need federal approval. Banning is easier.)
Here in Germany, most stores have effective zero cell reception immediately once you enter in the store and everything is normal once you are near the exit. In stores where people can order online, they offer free wifi(sometimes). I can see a similar approach in schools.
This is a highly questionable statement without any proof.
Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more
#130Having used a Palm Pilot to genuine benefit in highschool in the 90s, and having finally just gotten a smart watch in part specifically to reduce smartphone usage, I have mixed feelings about broad restrictions. Networked smart phones absolutely have major addictive and disruptive effects, and are hard to police in practice. But watches provide some pretty useful health and emergency benefits, while IME have lived up…
> But watches provide some pretty useful health and emergency benefits For kids? How ever did anyone survive before 1990.
Sometimes people just died, or whatever.