NYC phone ban reveals some students can't read clocks
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Re: NYC phone ban reveals some students can't read clocks
#2I remember in 3rd or 4th grade I felt sure I knew how to read a clock (then usually analog) until the teacher started a formal classroom unit to teach us. I realized that I had only understood how to read the hour hand but not the minute or second hands. Illusion of competence or illusion of depth or something.
Re: NYC phone ban reveals some students can't read clocks
#3It may just be me, but it seems like digital clocks have been replacing analog clocks long before smartphones.
That being said, I’ve enjoyed wearing my analog watch the last few years to tell time instead of having to pull out my phone all the time. Imagine if we used our Steam decks and Switches the same way…
Re: NYC phone ban reveals some students can't read clocks
#4It may just be me, but it seems like digital clocks have been replacing analog clocks long before smartphones. That being said, I’ve enjoyed wearing my analog watch the last few years to tell time instead of having to pull out my phone all the time. Imagine if we used our Steam decks and Switches the same way…
> it seems like digital clocks have been replacing analog clocks long before smartphones
Have been but haven’t and likely never will given analog clocks are beautiful.
Reading clocks is simple. Creating a class and educational divide around it is silly. Doing so unintentionally is insane.
(And I assume there are more analog clocks lurking in the shadows.)
Re: NYC phone ban reveals some students can't read clocks
#5It may just be me, but it seems like digital clocks have been replacing analog clocks long before smartphones. That being said, I’ve enjoyed wearing my analog watch the last few years to tell time instead of having to pull out my phone all the time. Imagine if we used our Steam decks and Switches the same way…
> Imagine if we used our Steam decks and Switches the same way…
How so? Like, using them as clocks? If a Switch fit in my pocket and showed me the time when I pulled it out without even having to press the power button or interact with it, I guess I can't see why I wouldn't do that?
Re: NYC phone ban reveals some students can't read clocks
#6The discussion about this on the teachers subreddit repeated the claim of 'Of course they can't read a clock, NY teachers are only allowed to teach things that are explicitly specified on any of the syllabi or tests and reading a clock isn't on the list.'. The other internet fora for teachers have exactly as much cynicism as you'd expect too, but there is an implied grain of truth:
Teachers don't have the time to meaningfully teach anything except the test contents, because truancy has exploded. RAND estimated K-12 unexplained absences reached 21% in 2023 and early estimates for the last year suggest that strong attention to fixing it has brought it down to 13%, which is an improvement but is still way too high.
Re: NYC phone ban reveals some students can't read clocks
#7One thing that's tricky about analog clocks if you're not used to them - the hour hand sweeps unnecessarily over the course of an hour so you have to find the hour hand then go backwards. We have the technology to make clocks where the hour hand actually points to the hour that it is. I don't understand why the jump hour feature isn't more common.
Re: NYC phone ban reveals some students can't read clocks
#8One thing that's tricky about analog clocks if you're not used to them - the hour hand sweeps unnecessarily over the course of an hour so you have to find the hour hand then go backwards. We have the technology to make clocks where the hour hand actually points to the hour that it is. I don't understand why the jump hour feature isn't more common.
That would make it discontinuous, which means there's no information beyond the integer.
I think, though I don't know how I'd prove, that anyone truly used to an analogue wristwatch probably only looks at the hour hand when casually checking.
Many watches don't even have face markings.
Re: NYC phone ban reveals some students can't read clocks
#9One thing that's tricky about analog clocks if you're not used to them - the hour hand sweeps unnecessarily over the course of an hour so you have to find the hour hand then go backwards. We have the technology to make clocks where the hour hand actually points to the hour that it is. I don't understand why the jump hour feature isn't more common.
Wouldn't 4:58 with jump hour look too much like 4:00?
Re: NYC phone ban reveals some students can't read clocks
#10This makes me wonder what methods of transferring information we may have lost historically that we don't even recognize?
Will there be analog clocks in 30 years? It seems somewhat doubtful, particularly if this generation can't read them.
What benefit is there to keep this antiquated method around, aside from just as an historical reference?
I'm in my 50s, so I can read an analog clock, and I have analog watches. But I don't feel the need to force this method of time on future generations.
Digital clocks are not subject to the drift that analog clocks are, they don't require the user to learn to read them, and if they are broken, it is fairly obvious at first glance.
What benefit does an analog clock have, aside from that it can work without power? And even then, it's only those that are purely mechanical, which I think is also dying out.