Ipads and hotspots for elementary kids?

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  • hoosierdoc

    Freed prisoner
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    Apr 27, 2011
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    I am aware of chrome books and ipads in school, but I was not aware kids are being sent home with hot spots also. When did this start???

    A third grade patient of mine was told he'd be using his ipad all day in school and they sent hot spots home with EVERY kid since some don't have internet at home.

    Honestly I see this more as laziness in teaching and grading and harming our children than any benefit. What on earth are we doing?

    Edit: rather than "laziness" I supposed it could be the easy approach to the problem of high classroom size and other administrative hurdles teachers deal with
     

    1911ly

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    Dec 11, 2011
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    My son is suppose to get a laptop from the school for this year. I don't know if he will get a hot spot with it. But we don't need it. Or the laptop for that matter. My sons internet time is and always been regulated. I can say that I'd be happy with a hot spot I can't control. I can and have several times blocked him from internet access.

    I would hope that these things have parental controls. If so I hope parents exercise it.
     

    phylodog

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    What on earth are we doing?

    We've given schools the ability to write their own budgets with no oversight while we throw money at them like it grows on trees. I don't feel that our schools are producing better educated kids than they did when I graduated and we most certainly didn't have the professional athletic equipment & facilities, sprawling campuses with new buildings, computers, iPads, Chromebooks, hotspots or anything else back then. My daughter was in her second day of school for the year when she brought home the first of what will undoubtedly be a never ending barrage of fund raising efforts this year.
     

    awames76

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    our school has hotspots for kids that dont have internet. its used for e learning days aka snow days. the ipads and hot spots go through the school internet filters. so no facebook, porn, and other stuff like that.

    some of the ipad use is to do away with paper use. last year i substitute teacher for a while. im friends with a few teacher [before working in the school] and ive taked to them, setting up the homework and tests on the ipads takes alot of time.
     

    fullmetaljesus

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    Cover the webcam.

    Also I'd like to mention, that when I was probably around 14 is when ee got a real legit computer. I spent hours and hours and hours after school or onbthe weekends on it.

    Playing games, surfing xmen comic forums, building my own websites etc etc...

    Now I'm a Linux admin for a state agency and make pretty good money doing it.

    Screen time isn't the bad word like y'all throw it around.
     

    jamil

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    Am I the only one older than 50 who doesn’t think it’s bad. One caveat though. The schools install all kinds of spyware and stuff to monitor and lock them down. Encourage your kids only to use them for school.

    Oh. And be careful what you say around them. :tinfoil:
     

    hoosierdoc

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    Cover the webcam.

    Also I'd like to mention, that when I was probably around 14 is when ee got a real legit computer. I spent hours and hours and hours after school or onbthe weekends on it.

    Playing games, surfing xmen comic forums, building my own websites etc etc...

    Now I'm a Linux admin for a state agency and make pretty good money doing it.

    Screen time isn't the bad word like y'all throw it around.

    Sitting in front of a computer is way different than holding an iPad or chrome book in every part of your house. Kids are not really learning to type. They are just learning how to click links and menus and play games.

    paper is fantastic. How do you show your work on an iPad? They start guessing. I’ve seen it with my kids. I spent a ton of time on a computer when I was young and I regret it
     

    KLB

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    Sep 12, 2011
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    We've given schools the ability to write their own budgets with no oversight while we throw money at them like it grows on trees. I don't feel that our schools are producing better educated kids than they did when I graduated and we most certainly didn't have the professional athletic equipment & facilities, sprawling campuses with new buildings, computers, iPads, Chromebooks, hotspots or anything else back then. My daughter was in her second day of school for the year when she brought home the first of what will undoubtedly be a never ending barrage of fund raising efforts this year.
    What do you mean aren't producing? Just look at the improvements in test scores since 1970!
    Cato-tot-cost-scores-Coulson-Sept-2012-sm.gif
     

    hoosierdoc

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    Apr 27, 2011
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    Galt's Gulch
    our school has hotspots for kids that dont have internet. its used for e learning days aka snow days. the ipads and hot spots go through the school internet filters. so no facebook, porn, and other stuff like that.

    some of the ipad use is to do away with paper use. last year i substitute teacher for a while. im friends with a few teacher [before working in the school] and ive taked to them, setting up the homework and tests on the ipads takes alot of time.

    i am behind on tech, but it seems like the hotspot would use its own data connection via cellular carrier. They could force the device to VPN through the school filters but not the hot spot. Any other device could likely use the spot. Am I wrong?

    edit: apparently I am. I ran it by my brother. devices exist that use SIM cards and automatically start the VPN tunnel to whatever network you set. Some products have built-in DNS settings that cannot be changed
     
    Last edited:

    fullmetaljesus

    Probably smoking a cigar.
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    Jan 12, 2012
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    Indy
    i am behind on tech, but it seems like the hotspot would use its own data connection via cellular carrier. They could force the device to VPN through the school filters but not the hot spot. Any other device could likely use the spot. Am I wrong?

    edit: apparently I am. I ran it by my brother. devices exist that use SIM cards and automatically start the VPN tunnel to whatever network you set. Some products have built-in DNS settings that cannot be changed

    Your brother is 100% spot on. It's pretty straight forward to get the hotspot service provider to set up a vpn tunnel back to your network. Believe it or not, a lot of police stations use these hotspot vpns in thier cruisers for their laptops.
     

    HoughMade

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    Oct 24, 2012
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    Valparaiso
    Say goodbye to snow days...or in Indy, ice days.

    It's easy to learn to use computers and the internet to access information. Some exposure to it makes sense for students, but constant dependence does not.

    It's much harder to know how to do these things without it. I grew up without the internet, obviously, and am proficient at using it, not just for fun, but for work as it is necessary for what I do. As the internet got started after my formal education I learned to use it, wait for it, through SELF-STUDY which cost not a single taxpayer a cent.

    Are we to assume that there is no merit to learning how to access information without the internet? Google makes people lazy and I am convinced that research skills I learned the old way make my internet use much, much more effective and efficient.
     
    Last edited:

    churchmouse

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    Say goodbye to snow days...or in Indy, ice days.

    It's easy to learn to use computers and the internet to access information. Some exposure to it makes sense for students, but constant dependence does not.

    It's much harder to know how to do these things without it. I grew up without the internet, obviously, and am proficient at using it, not just for fun, but for work as it is necessary for what I do. As the internet got started after my formal education I learned to use it, wait for it, through SELF-STUDY which cost not a single taxpayer a cent.

    Are we to assume that there is no merit to learning how to access information without the internet? Google makes people lazy and I am convinced that research skills I learned the old way make my internet use much, much more effective and efficient.

    Winner.
     

    Trigger Time

    Air guitar master
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    Aug 26, 2011
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    SOUTH of Zombie city
    Say goodbye to snow days...or in Indy, ice days.

    It's easy to learn to use computers and the internet to access information. Some exposure to it makes sense for students, but constant dependence does not.

    It's much harder to know how to do these things without it. I grew up without the internet, obviously, and am proficient at using it, not just for fun, but for work as it is necessary for what I do. As the internet got started after my formal education I learned to use it, wait for it, through SELF-STUDY which cost not a single taxpayer a cent.

    Are we to assume that there is no merit to learning how to access information without the internet? Google makes people lazy and I am convinced that research skills I learned the old way make my internet use much, much more effective and efficient.
    Yep.
    I can see them having kids take class from home. We already have kids and young adults who have never been taught how to properly socially interact. It will continue to decline it looks like.
     

    jamil

    code ho
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    Jul 17, 2011
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    Gtown-ish
    Say goodbye to snow days...or in Indy, ice days.

    It's easy to learn to use computers and the internet to access information. Some exposure to it makes sense for students, but constant dependence does not.

    It's much harder to know how to do these things without it. I grew up without the internet, obviously, and am proficient at using it, not just for fun, but for work as it is necessary for what I do. As the internet got started after my formal education I learned to use it, wait for it, through SELF-STUDY which cost not a single taxpayer a cent.

    Are we to assume that there is no merit to learning how to access information without the internet? Google makes people lazy and I am convinced that research skills I learned the old way make my internet use much, much more effective and efficient.

    I don't see a problem using technology as a tool for learning. The point of the ipads should not be to teach students how to use ipads, or the internet. It should be to replace or augment books as instructional tools.

    The advantages of learning subjects using technology is that the learning materials can be interactive. Instead of just printed text, maybe some illustrations in a book, learning can make use of interactive multi-media. It is inevitable that technology will change education. So far, I don't see the schools using ipads to anywhere near their potential, but I think that's largely because interactive educational materials for k-12 is not as mainstream as it will be in a few years.

    Many schools already make use of online resources like IXL, Kahn Academy, and others. Just because it's not how you learned it, doesn't mean how kids are learning it now makes what they're learning inferior to what you learned. The days of 1000+ page textbooks are coming to an end, and the faster more interactive content is available to replace textbooks, the better.
     

    HoughMade

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    Oct 24, 2012
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    Valparaiso
    I don't see a problem using technology as a tool for learning. The point of the ipads should not be to teach students how to use ipads, or the internet. It should be to replace or augment books as instructional tools.

    The advantages of learning subjects using technology is that the learning materials can be interactive. Instead of just printed text, maybe some illustrations in a book, learning can make use of interactive multi-media. It is inevitable that technology will change education. So far, I don't see the schools using ipads to anywhere near their potential, but I think that's largely because interactive educational materials for k-12 is not as mainstream as it will be in a few years.

    Many schools already make use of online resources like IXL, Kahn Academy, and others. Just because it's not how you learned it, doesn't mean how kids are learning it now makes what they're learning inferior to what you learned. The days of 1000+ page textbooks are coming to an end, and the faster more interactive content is available to replace textbooks, the better.

    I agree in theory that newer and different doesn't mean inferior, but I fear in this case, it does.

    I don't have a lot of exposure at the elementary and high-school level, but I taught at the undergrad level for about 8 years and at the graduate level for about 10 years. Research and writing are atrocious. The inability to think critically, differentiate credible sources from incredible sources, write persuasively from fact rather than pure opinion- all skills that are between lacking and lost.

    I also believe that "interactive" does not equal superior. One thing students need to learn how to do, at every age, is to power through boredom and study and learn regardless of how entertaining it is.

    Work is seldom entertaining, yet jobs need to get done. It's never too early to learn that. Placating the student isn't a value. Completing the work is. No, every lesson need not be a tortuous slog, but neither should they all be fun and games. There's certainly a balance and the balance should skew towards more demanding work as the level of education increases, but it's never too soon to start.

    I can see them having kids take class from home. We already have kids and young adults who have never been taught how to properly socially interact. It will continue to decline it looks like.


    As a parent of home-schooled kids, I'm not all that interested in "socializing". I would note that kids need to be taught to interact with and be adults, not how to interact with and be kids- that come naturally....assuming a stable family.
     
    Last edited:

    jamil

    code ho
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    Jul 17, 2011
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    Yep.
    I can see them having kids take class from home. We already have kids and young adults who have never been taught how to properly socially interact. It will continue to decline it looks like.

    The social interaction is a problem. It's possible for distance learning to replace physical classrooms. The technology is here now. There are many online high schools out there, for example. But there's just no equal replacement for classrooms and face to face interaction with teachers and peers. I like to see schools make use of technology to give students more individualized learning, but I don't think it's good to isolate kids either.
     
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