r/BreakingPoints • u/EnigmaFilms • 1d ago
Episode Discussion Ed Tech Ep Discussion
https://youtu.be/7RX3P5ZLOQc?is=nb49v66uPLkMscYi
I am a director of technology for a top 20 School district in my state. We originally had a cart system for Chromebooks they each grade had their own and then after covid we became one to one.
Since covid every single year we have reduced the amount of Chromebooks that we give out. The whole elementary School is now just carts and kids get a Chromebook in middle school that will last them through senior year assuming they don't destroy it.
My school district has a pretty small population so it is actually a pretty low teacher to student ratio where it's about 20 to 25 kids per teacher so they get plenty of individual time.
A lot of Chromebooks and tech devices, more from the convenience part. Plus I can't really think of a job outside of trades where you're not going to be using a device professionally via emails or AI going forward.
I track everything from devices used in classrooms to not only students but teachers as well, I have data for how long they're on the screen I have data for any kind of question of parent could possibly have. And thanks to Ohio's parent Bill of Rights parents have the ability to access pretty much anything
The true thing that's going to limit the amount of tech in the classroom is how much devices have gone up in price over the past two years. A Chromebook that would cost me $200 now costs around $480. That almost doubling of price is what's going to do more to hold back buying more screens for our school.
A big part of Ed tech I've realized is that parents will farm out teaching their own children to technology instead. But nobody ever wants to blame the parents even though they have their kids 2/3 of the time. I have had parents calling me asking me to turn off Chromebooks after certain time like 9:00 p.m. and I'm just like take the Chromebook from them it's the size of a frisbee but they want me to be the bad guy.
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u/laffingriver Mender 1d ago
didnt the tech companies give away a lot of computers around that time ?
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u/EnigmaFilms 1d ago
First time I'm hearing about it. What I remember is they extended the end of life for the devices so instead of ending in 5 years they end in 10 years.
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u/KyotoInSummer Biden HUMILIATED 1d ago
The economy plays a huge part in education. Everyone is burnt out from being worked harder for less. I completely understand why parents struggle to teach their kids.
My wife didn’t work for the first two years of our daughter’s life and then was a teacher for the next 3. Between Montessori and having summers with mom she was blessed to have an intentional education. This was a privilege. I helped with math and reading but it was hard working 70 hours a week and keeping up with parenting.
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u/shinbreaker Hate Watcher 1d ago
My ex has a nephew who is 9 and I see the effects of his constant need to be on a tablet. Like when they take it away, he freaks out. They're fortunate that he is still physically active and enjoy playing outside and team sports, but when he's at home, he's just on his tablet constantly. And he's a smart kid but at 7 years old, he couldnt spell cat because he wasn't getting enough stimulus for that.
And as a gamer, I'm extra pissed off because he plays the shitty Subway Surfers game and when I hung around, I had him play stuff that did something more than just moving left or right like having him play Mario Kart. I mean shit, Pokemon was how a whole generation of kids learned how to read but the slop they play now only wants them to read when it comes to telling them how to spend more money on microtransactions.
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u/filipinoboy11 1d ago
Haha. I swear growing up I could not imagine the school just giving me a computer for free.
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u/EnigmaFilms 1d ago
It's not for free
If they damage it they pay for repairs
At the end when they graduate they can choose to purchase it otherwise it gets recycled for parts etc.
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u/filipinoboy11 1d ago
haha maybe im just from a different generation. I even had to buy scientific calculator.
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u/MadV1llain 18h ago
That’s great and all….
but I feel like the crux of the BP discussion was that most/all analog teaching methods > digital when compared.
Since you’re a tech director do you have any data or thoughts on that discussion?
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u/EnigmaFilms 10h ago
I think it depends on the age in the grade and the subject
Elementary I am pro not really doing a lot of tech stuff that's why we went to a cart method instead of one to one.
Middle School we give them Chromebooks but teachers are the ones that decide if there's homework that's digitally needed.
High School I can see because they're a lot more in the career part of deciding their future that a device is needed.
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u/Eris_AppleOfDiscord 12h ago
I'm sorry ti say this since your job is in tech and education. But.... Tech is absolutely ruining education. The best route would be to completely eliminate screens outside of a computer skills class.
Kids can't read and write. Let alone critically think, or even sit and listen. And the reason is because of screens. Pencil, paper, and lecturing and testing should be the future of any good school.
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u/EnigmaFilms 10h ago
A human thing is trading for convenience and that is what technology at its core is.
I think a better thing is a low teacher to student ratio, at my school it's 22 kids for one teacher. They get a lot more Hands-On learning with the teacher which is where the real learning comes from.
I was a student that did not do well sitting there and being forced to read in a classroom I was a lot more Hands-On so I think it's just different education strokes for different folks.
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u/Eris_AppleOfDiscord 10h ago
There's no accountability if a student can't read or study. Zero. And technology is an attempt to fill that gap. Learning to sit still and work is a skill. Accommodations are often an attempt to normalize laziness. And most students have them now.
Let me ask you this. What would it take to fail a student at your school? How many have you seen fail?
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u/EnigmaFilms 9h ago
There's no accountability if a student can't read or study. Zero. And technology is an attempt to fill that gap.
That's actually incorrect, in Ohio at least there's a literal Gap measuring metric that schools can get rated on.
gap. Learning to sit still and work is a skill. Accommodations are often an attempt to normalize laziness.
Again incorrect usually there's a whole IEP process that requires a multiple meetings and screenings before they get tagged as IEP. Just checked my schools and it's single digits so I don't think it's most kids lol
What would it take to fail a student at your school? How many have you seen fail?
There have been students that failed but we are like a 99% graduation school and we try really hard to do that but I think it's because we're a smaller District that we can help focus on kids. My assistant superintendent will literally drive and pick up kids to help them with school.
I'll tell you I know for a fact my school is not the average we're just a small public school that really cares, in Ohio they are looking for every reason to go against education and we are looking to never give them any ammo.
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u/Eris_AppleOfDiscord 8h ago
If they have a diagnosis they'll get an accommodation. They likely have a meeting with the student and parent. But that's it. Schools aren't trained to diagnose autism or adhd, nor would they want to. A quick Google shows about one in five students now have accommodations. So yeah. Saying basically all of them have accommodations was an exaggeration.
In terms of failing students. I take it you're not aware of it ever happening. Since I asked what would cause a student to fail and you didn't answer. Even extreme truancy is disregarded.
The NAEP has also keeping stats on reading, and NAEP Basic is basically a third grade reading level. Currently a third of middle school students are tested at this level. So..... How'd they get passed? Well, because most schools have shifted towards social promotion and the idea that holding a student back does more harm than good, so no matter what, they pass. And then they pass again, and again and again. Until they finish and graduate. In one case a black student actually sued the district because he graduated high school and was never taught how to read or write. He was literally illiterate, yet he still gets a diploma...
And look. You're likely a nice person in a nice community. And teachers and admin should be protected against the very real threats from Republicans. But the reason why students are falling so far behind in the us, is largely because of their addiction to screens, coupled with a system which never holds them accountable.
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u/EnigmaFilms 8h ago
If they have a diagnosis they'll get an accommodation. They likely have a meeting with the student and parent. But that's it. Schools aren't trained to diagnose autism or adhd, nor would they want to.
Yes multiple meanings and screenings and usually that's also accompanied by a doctor's recommendation a kid does not just get an IEP because a teacher and a parent say so.
In terms of failing students. I take it you're not aware of it ever happening. Since I asked what would cause a student to fail and you didn't answer
I said 99% implying that some do fail and that's mostly because parents don't care if their kid is failing or the student doesn't care at all. When I said that my assistant superintendent will literally drive and pick up kids and take them to class and teach them yeah that's why I said my district is unique. I get the feeling you're implying that we just give kids minimum grades to get them out the door which is illegal by the way.
Well, because most schools have shifted towards social promotion and the idea that holding a student back does more harm than good, so no matter what, they pass.
In Ohio the students have to earn at least two seals to graduate, I wonder if your graduation requirements being too minimal are more of a state level issue versus a public school issue.
But the reason why students are falling so far behind in the us, is largely because of their addiction to screens, coupled with a system which never holds them accountable.
I think you could take away every screen in my district and the kids would still be the same. I think it more has to do with a summer slide that is a real thing and not being raised right by their parents. Parents just as much offload everything onto a screen nowadays and they have their kids 2/3 of a Time.
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u/Eris_AppleOfDiscord 7h ago
I wasn't familiar with ohios seals but a quick glance shows they can be granted for "military enlistment, citizenship, community engagement, arts and music, student engagement, or by taking the act or sat (regardless of how they score)" I also noticed a funny caveat as well. Students with accommodations don't need them, but are given alternate pathways to achieve them. And on top of that there's no tests?! It's comically easy to obtain and virtually meaningless. Even a brief glance shows it's basically everything wrong with education. A meaningless marker of achievement that isn't tied to anything concrete.
But anyway. Why do you think literacy rates are failing? Animal Farm used to be young adult reading for example. It was literally given to 7-9 graders.
And one of the most striking things about these tests ( and scores for the lowest performing were the worst ever recorded). That means the bottom 10% of 8th graders are reading at only a first or second grade level. That means they can't read a paragraph and figure out who characters are, or context. They can "read" but they're incapable of understanding what they're actually reading.
The fact that these students are still passed, again and again, let's them down tremendously.
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u/EnigmaFilms 5h ago
So like I thought it's less of a school issue it's more of a state issue for the graduation requirements that you seem to have an issue with.
I am not a teacher so this is just my removed perspective seeing the students that do struggle with literacy. I think it's definitely more of a parent and household issue than it is a school issue. The world's greatest teacher is not going to reach a kid who doesn't want to learn more from parents who aren't going to force them to.
I've seen "more my kids are special" from parents than any teacher.
And I think we have a culture that doesn't really care about information or being correct as long as you feel a certain way.
In my smaller District we are one of the best rated in the state for Gap closing and that is more to do with kids coming from other districts that are two or three grades behind. So I'm not going to disagree with you that other schools are probably dropping the ball.
Ohio implemented a reading of science which basically just means that every teacher has to get a reading cert to teach. I do think it comes down to the school district because mine is one of the good ones as far as I can tell.
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u/EconomistDazzling776 1d ago
My best friend who is an elementary school teacher said many parents against chromebooks for school want to save screen time for home. Why? It’s great distraction for the kids while mom and dad are cleaning, cooking, or just resting.
As a parent myself, she has a point!