Most schools do not expect being banned by cellphones, watches and more.
Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more
181–190 of 242 posts
Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more
#182Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more
#183I’m wondering what the distraction potential of a Fitbit is? Do they have more features now?
First, they straddle the line between smart and not smart, complicating rule enforcement. They do have touch screens.
Second, they're capable of texting (they connect to your phone via Bluetooth)
Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more
#184Our 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…
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Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more
#185Earlier 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…
if you really want to optimize for a very-low-probability event, just don't live in a school district with cellphone bans you'll trade for a near-guarantee that your kid will have some social anxiety or attention issues...but if you really want to make sure they have a phone available in the low-probability event of a school shooting, this is the tradeoff you will make
What exactly is the kid's phone going to do in the case of a school shooting? Does it unfold into a bullet-proof vest, or a gun, or something?
Speaking of bulletproof vests, wouldn't ensuring that Junior is wearing one be way more useful than a cellphone for seeing him home alive?
Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more
#186Our 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?
Blackboard is part of the problem
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Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Walter's comment could be applied exactly as well to an argument that there shouldn't be electricity in schools (after all, kids survived without electricity just fine for decades).
If 99.9% of what electricity was used for in a class for was a distraction, this might be a reasonable argument.
It's not, though. But I'd wager that 99.9% of cellphone use during class is.
Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more
#188Having 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.
Public payphones? Going into a bakery or a post office or any shop and politely asking to place a call from their landline to mom&pop's, having their number memorised, possibly placing a reverse charged call? "you are here" public maps/carrying a paper map? Learning how to use a compass+map or just sun and stars? Eating home-cooked meals and walking/biking around a lot to go from A to B?
For better or worse, the world is both more of the same and very different from what it used to be. Direct comparisons are not really useful, and quips like "how did people drive without a gas gauge / survive without seatbelts" are missing a ton of context.
Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more
#189my kid has a phone that is so boring to use (only snake, texting and calling) that he has it in the bottom of his backpack and only takes it out when he needs to call me its truly amazing and i hope to keep it this way forever. meanwhile the rest of his class mates have smartphones and stare at it from the moment they leave their home ... and i assume till it runs out of battery. they dont even watch where they're go…
If you can, buy them a camera so they can still take snaps of their moments. Used Sony NEX-5 with a kit pancake lens will do and is very small.
Re: Greenwich schools to ban most cellphones, Apple Watches, Fitbits and more
#190Our son’s high school (Shropshire) requires a phone - homework is set via app (no website option), sometimes homework requires an app to do it, all comms is via app (so parent also need an app) They are sometimes told to get their phones out in class to perform work. In theory phones are banned outside these hours, but unless a teacher is in the room that’s not enforced.
How can a UK school require a mobile as an educational tool? I thought primary and secondary education was supposed to be free in the UK.
Can't speak on behalf of GP, but I suspect when they said "require," it's more loose than that. I've experienced UK schools that have a shared pool of iPads for students who haven't got a compatible device (for a multitude of reasons). So in that sense, students "require" a device from the perspective of learning, but don't "require" to own one outright (so it's not a barrier to education).