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Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'

portlandtribune.com

121–130 of 242 posts

Re: Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'

#121
post #3

I agree with the cell phone bans (I would extend it to all electronic devices, schools should be pen and paper). But we just got our phones taken away in highschool.

Surely an electronic wrist watch is fine, and maybe an mp3 player. Also graphing calculators.

This was some 20 years ago, but

- iPods? Taken away

- didn't have fancy smart watches, so those were fine. But I'm sure a modern smart watch wouldn't fly

- graphing calculators were fine. Just don't make it too obvious you were playing Pokemon Red on it.

Re: Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'

#122

My son, who recently graduated high school, went to a school that banned phones but insisted on laptops (providing them for the kids who couldn't afford one). He said it was ridiculous, as none of the kids had any problem using their laptop for anything they would have used the phone, which was mostly texting, scrolling social media, watching videos, and playing games. Even when the school tried to lock down services…

It should be more simple devices with only helpful apps like books reader and learning videos player, not general access devices

Re: Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'

#123
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably a similar problem to AI. Using AI for the sake of AI in an engineering workflow probably wastes time right now. Using technology in the classroom for the sake of using technology is probably similar. Is it really creating access, opportunity, saving time. All that? I am skeptical. I have had similar experiences with my children over time. There was a layer of technology that made sense for education. Probabl…

Well saving time it does not. My daughter got a 0/20 for a test that she sat and did. Now she's not a complete idiot so this was suspicious. I asked about it and they said that it was likely that she didn't get any questions right. I asked for them to provide me with a copy of the exam paper so I could independently verify that. Magically she got a 17/20 grade updated but no paper appeared. I pushed it further and wa…

My partner is currently in an online college program for computer science. The platform and way they have structured it feels like actual computing hell. There is so much friction compared to what I know a more seamless learning experience online should be like.

Re: Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'

#124

I think this more about it coming from a higher authority than the school itself. Many schools have similar bans but they don’t get support from many of the pupils or their parents as both groups have members that just believe it is the school choosing to overstep their authority. Now it is a diktat from above it makes the school’s job in enforcing it much easier. They can just point to the relevant legislation/dikta…

That is exactly why this is a success.

Re: Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'

#125

My son, who recently graduated high school, went to a school that banned phones but insisted on laptops (providing them for the kids who couldn't afford one). He said it was ridiculous, as none of the kids had any problem using their laptop for anything they would have used the phone, which was mostly texting, scrolling social media, watching videos, and playing games. Even when the school tried to lock down services…

It’s hard to imagine a slow, overworked, somewhat inept, bureaucratic school board, with a thousand other things it wants to care about, managing to stay ahead of thousands of crafty and highly motivated teens.

Re: Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'

#126
post #43

> In crafting its policy, Estacada incorporated feedback from parents. That led to some key decisions around the cell phone ban. Rather than use pouches or lockers, students are allowed to keep their phones safely stored in their backpacks. That was for two reasons — it allows students to contact loved ones during emergencies, and many parents use phone trackers to keep tabs on their kids. I'm glad to hear this. They…

>Students can be trusted to obey a simple "no phones in class" rule.

I'm honestly not educated on the topic right now since I haven't been in school for 15 years and have some time left before my daughter starts, but is this rule really not in place in most schools? How could any school justify not having this rule at the very least, regardless of how well-enforced it is?

I always assumed it was a lack of enforcement due to understaffing that was the problem

Re: Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'

#127
post #85
post #62

I would love it if my laptop had a "study mode" for when I am trying to debug something or learn something new using my laptop. Some of us have less than stellar self-control, so a study mode which requires a multi-step rigamarole to shut off might prevent me from casually checking my email or a news website when I am supposed to be learning a new data structure or figuring out a data corruption bug. I have no idea h…

Create a separate Mac / Windows non-admin account just for coding? I’m sure there are parental control measures for either platform. As time goes you can update the deny list of web sites. Another thing that helps is recording your screen for the whole day. Once you start doing review in the evening it will create back-pressure on the monkey brain that jumps to distractions. Yet another thing is to setup a separate c…

>Create a separate Mac / Windows non-admin account just for coding?

Yes, I got as far as creating a separate account on my MBP a few years ago and I do programming and open source stuff with that account. And it has helped quite a bit! Although it's not perfect (case in point, I am here on HN right now).

Re: Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'

#128
post #30

UK here. My kid's school is insane. They think they are so progressive because they banned personal phones entirely, which is fair enough. But they forced us to buy marked up Yondr pouches, which is not fair. However this isn't the only problem. They also force us to pay monthly for iPads with wonky ass Logitech cases to be issued on which they do everything on Google classroom. Google Classroom is an abhorrently bad…

Man. Offloading all tbose costs to parents is stupid. But that aside: why is it always that edTech seems to have such shoddy software?

Re: Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'

#129
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you need a music player in school?

I gave my 16yo ADHD kid an mp3 player with hours of “ADHD focus” music on it. It’s proven very useful a few times where a few ND-unaware teachers have confiscated phones that the ND kids use to help them focus. They don’t get it to use it whenever they want but there are some situations where they are allowed to use it and where having a phone is tricky given the lack of trust some teachers have. Old school technolog…

Having all been in high school, I think we can all agree that lack of trust is warranted. Not for every kid, but for enough of them that blanket rules make sense. We also don’t allow students to use the calculator app on their phone for tests, and instead make them buy the “old school technology fallback” version.

An MP3 player seems like a good compromise, and far cheaper than the phone they’re replacing.

Re: Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'

#130
post #69

'Engaged Students, Joyful Teachers' ... but sad Zuck ! As soon as this becomes popular and Zuck's engagement numbers tank, prepare for a propaganda campaign of nuclear proportions - maybe they even pull the OG Sheryl Sandberg back to steer the PR ship. And with the current crop of cronies in office, don’t be surprised if a new ID bill will be introduced that requires "social connectivity" as requirement for ID verifi…

Saw this the other day: https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/5726492-social-media-... Writer’s org’s founders include Meta, among many others: https://itif.org/our-supporters/ I’m no expert here, so leaving this as a datapoint

Social Media Bans are never the answer says unbiased author Zark Muckerburg
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