Update: My school does now allow gogaudian or any form of digital monitoring of the chromebooks. I will limit chromebook use all together and make them put it away when not using them academically. Thanks, everyone, for the comments!
First full year teaching high school seniors (started last December after a year of student teaching). Why are we giving iPad kids/cell phone addicted kids basically an iPad. 90% of them cannot focus on anything due to having unlimited access to YouTube. Its so frustrating to literally spoon feed them the information, but they don’t even listen due to chromebooks and then fail their assessments. I feel like I’m literally wasting my time and breath trying to teach them when they just stare at youtube all day. Then they complain at any type of lab or group work. I just feel like I can’t win and why am I even here.
I agree. I switched back to pencil and paper for the majority of things post Covid.
Kids don’t like doing the work on the computer. They learn better with paper and pencil. So why are we playing this game? Let’s bring back computer labs to give the proper work place they need in order to work on the computer. Make it an event to learn how to use excel and to go there.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/jan/17/kids-reading-better-paper-vs-screen
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/dec/15/reading-print-improves-comprehension-far-more-than-looking-at-digital-text-say-researchers
Those are two of about a thousand other articles saying the same thing. We’ve screwed up the education of ~5-10 years worth of students. I honestly think that in one or two more Chromebook cycles (ie: 3 year cycles of use), we’ll see them being phased out.
Tech is still crucial in the world, and will remain crucial for certain things in school. However, the use of Chromebooks or tablets to GET INFORMATION INTO THE BRAINS OF KIDS (which is the entire main point of general childhood education) will be phased out. In aggregate, it’s bad for students’ retention.
I cannot wait until computers are relegated to test-taking, tech-labs, coding classes and the like. And not for general learning of math, social studies, science, etc.
This is it exactly. Google flooded schools with Chromebooks to gain Marketshare from Windows. Enough kids using Chromebooks through school, and needing them for school (completely locked into the google ecosystem) and you’ll take a substantial marketshare from Microsoft. Thats the only reason why we have them. There was no study showing how effective they may be, they just hyped everyone up about computers for students and then left us with the problem.
Now that we have been working through this for a couple years, we are seeing how incredibly INEFFECTIVE chromebooks are for learning, and how frankly destructive they are to the learning environment.
For some context, I came into teaching from IT because i was just done with the vast amount of BS that IT has. Its not more bs than teaching, but at least with teaching i get to feel like im doing something important. As a former Network Engineer with my CCNP (R&S) with 8 years in IT (4 of which as an engineer), there is definitively no way any form of software moderation tools can fix the issue of 30 odd kids all trying to circumvent a black or white list, ESPECIALLY with how Google Classroom works.
The work alone to upkeep even a decent content moderation for Students is multiple full time jobs, and since funding is so low in public schools that work is regulated to teachers, with the failure to moderate also being the teachers fault (even though there is literally 0 fucking training and, Suprise Suprise, most teachers are not Network Engineers).
At this point, as a math teacher, the only time my students are on a computer are to do the stupid 4 diagnostic tests a quarter, and to show some progress in the ridiculously inadequate “skill based” learning tools that DO wants to see student progress in. If its is not mandated, I print out my worksheets and make students work with paper and pencil. Its just easier to keep them on task and engaged with the lesson.
While i am only on my 3rd year of teaching, I have yet to see a coworker use google classroom in a way that is actually better than just pencil and paper, with the single exception of our SPED ELA class who uses voice to text liberally for typing paragraphs and papers. In that instance, google classroom was just used as a way for the teacher to view submissions on only these kinds of assignments, and honestly that is a pretty good usecase for it.
Because every district is competing with each other to be the most tech forward district. The easiest way to do that is 1 to 1 devices.
The easiest way to combat your problem as a teacher is not to use them. Unless ordered by your supervisor, principal, or superintendent, you are under no obligation to use the device. I’m strictly pen and paper unless we have to type an essay.
First time: You guys can go ahead and put your laptops away, you won’t need them today.
Second time: you can close your laptop, you don’t need it right now.
Third time: (Move 2 feet away from student) Put your laptop away.
Fourth time: Referral.
But you are correct, they can’t stop touching screens.
The only thing I use my chromebooks for is teaching typing and mousing/trackpad skills, and some practice test-taking skills that match what they’ll need to do for state testing.
I don’t let them take them home unless the parents insist. My first graders come in not even knowing what the trackpad is for, haha.
Do other districts not give teachers the means to blacklist sites? I actually whitelist the site I want them on and they can’t go anywhere else. Maybe high schoolers figure out ways around this, though.
The latest craze we are dealing with is “teaching the kids how to use AI.” We just had a big PD about “effectively using AI in the classroom.”
Look, I get it. AI will be helpful in the future and is definitely a life skill everyone will use. But for fuck sake, these kids don’t know how to read or write properly yet. Stop putting the cart before the horse.
I don’t give a shit that Johnny can ask AI the same prompt I am giving them. I am looking for Johnny’s ideas. Johnny’s writing. Johnny’s mistakes. It’s part of the learning process. Fuck your AI.
My school has online classes on their Chromebooks. They don’t pay attention to the videos at all. They just goof off with the video on mute, complain if the video is longer than 2 minutes, and then just copy paste the questions into Google and copy the first result without reading it. Complete waste of time
I think chromebooks can be a really good tool, but the kids don’t have the self discipline to use them for the intended purpose.
You’re there to babysit them while they stare at their Chromebooks like zombies, so both parents can work jobs to pay rent and buy groceries and such.
Yup…just had a kid playing another game in between kahoot answers.
Elementary students don’t need to be doing all their assignments on a Chromebook. I’m pro-paper for young kids.
High school kids, I kinda get. Lotta essays to write. Need to learn how to use all the online stuff.
Middle school is a weird grey area. I think tech for some assignments is fine, but having a computer to take with them everywhere is a bad idea. Homework should still be mostly paper.
Kids handwriting is awful nowadays because they don’t have writing assignments anymore.
I teach writing and technology. I love 1:1 Chromebooks (most of the time) but I have to set very clear expectations. I also have to plan my lessons so that once Chromebooks are out, they are out. For example, my LA class is doing an informational writing thing. Chromebooks start away and stay away for the warm up and direct instruction (today we had a mini lesson about using direct quotes). Once it’s time to work, they can open the Chromebooks, but I’ll be walking around and checking up on them.
I like having kids annotate and outline on paper, but once we start drafting, CB are the best.
I’m not a teacher, I’m just a student, but I have to say I agree. Not necessarily because of the reasons you listed, although the epidemic of students losing more and more of their attention spans is very real, but more because of how incredibly limited they are. Google’s greed has resulted in the decline of both the concentration and the tech literacy of nearly every student, and it absolutely infuriates me.
Thanks for all you do. I can’t imagine competing with a magic screen that contains and displays information about everything is very easy!
Won’t lie, this is a perk to a private school. No cellphones allowed, no iPads unless checked out for research/project… everything is pencil and paper
Our district blocked YouTube and any other time-wasting website the kids might try to get on. I used my chromebooks for assessments (grade instantly as soon as they send) and virtual labs/simulations, and use them with pear deck. If your school does its job, it’s easier for you to do yours with them.
GO AHEAD and PRRRRREEEEEAAAAAAACHHH!!! Chromebooks and phones need to go! These kids are so far behind in everything from academics to their own growth and maturity. Administration sits around “analyzing data” - it’s pretty clear- these kids are not very bright. It’s like working with robot zombies. I have 20 years in and I can’t wait to retire in 15 more years. Holy hell.
I miss the days when we did everything on paper
I’m constantly on GoGuardian to monitor their website usage in my class and it’s always YouTube! They get so irritated when I block them from using it and complain that they have to do work that they’re “not gonna use in real life anyway”.
Some students have like a VPN or whatever to bypass the block so there’s that 
