Parents say school-issued iPads are causing chaos with their kids

[Coventina]

LOS ANGELES — Lila Byock’s son had always been good at math. But when he started sixth grade last year, he began to bring home D’s and F’s. It crushed his self-esteem. His teachers told Byock that he clearly understood the material, she said, but he just couldn’t stay on task on his school-issued Apple iPad.

Her son’s school, like many in the Los Angeles Unified School District and across the country, provided an iPad to each student for use throughout the school day, even during band and gym class. The iPad program, which ramped up during the Covid pandemic, was meant to give kids a technological leg up and help track students who are falling behind. But Byock said her son revealed that he used the iPad during school to watch YouTube and participate in Fortnite video game battles.

***snip***

One mother described how her 6-year-old son had repeatedly wet himself in class when he got fixated on activities with his tablet, and another said her teenage son had gotten sucked into communicating with strangers online via popular websites and forums and at one point ran away from home with the school-issued iPad.

***snip***

The discontent in Los Angeles Unified, the second-largest school district in the country, reflects a growing unease nationally about the amount of time children spend learning through screens in classrooms. While a majority of states prohibit children from using cellphones in class, 88% of schools provide students with personal devices, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, often Chromebook laptops or iPads.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/la-parents-kids-school-issued-ipad-chromebook-los-angeles-rcna245624

**********************************************************************************************************************

But the epidemic of loneliness?
It's a gol' durn mystery it is.

[Irish_Dem]

1. Good God. Sounds like a disaster.

Take away the damn iPads.

[DBoon]

2. Apple must have done a great job selling these

A locked down Linux tablet with instructional material pre-loaded would be a good alternative. Cheaper, little resale if stolen and less chance of distracting from education.

Printed textbooks aren't cheap, and think of the costs of storing and distributing them

[dalton99a]

6. +1

[snot]

3. The internet, video games, & etc. are

as addictive as crack. (Look at how much time we spend here.)

Australia's outlawed social media for persons under 16 years old; seems like a good start on the problem.

[gulliver]

4. "even during band and gym class"

This is basically technologized neglect. I'm glad the district banned personal devices like phones and smart watches. That's something.

We really need to get our act together with these screens, but they're just a symptom, imo. The mother in this article is probably not alone in thinking, "we're just letting this happen." We just let a lot of things happen. Education needs a kind of rebirth, imo.

[indigovalley]

5. School districts have to have management measures in place to help minimize these issues

In my district iPads are kept on carts and only given to students when needed for classwork or a project. At high school level all Chromebooks are monitored and internet access is restricted by software. Teachers have software on their computer that lets them monitor each students computer activity in their classroom in real time plus they can block any website a student is accessing. There are ways to appropriately use technology so its a useful tool for learning and not a major distraction.

Cell phones however, are a real challenge because their use can't be easily controlled. In my 30 years of teaching they are the most disruptive technology I've experienced.

[BigmanPigman]

7. San Diego Unified did that in 2012.

At the time I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it.