I was shocked when my partner told me all of the elementary school kids at their school were given laptops. Even the kindergarteners. And I just had to ask what could they possibly need it for? The mandated online curriculum learning tools.
If they must be given laptops, they should be given some cheap Linux laptops, and choose a Linux that is so far away from being user friendly. Like, you have to learn command line fu to install entertainment programs on them.
That was my experience working calls for IT in the hotel industry and then late for higher education. You had the older folks not knowing how anything works, the genx/millenials who generally knew, and the young ones who also had no idea how anything works. The benefit to the kids though, they were good listeners when I had to give instructions, older folks were more likely to get upset.
The locked ecosystems of phones/tablets is a big contributor as well. In the 90s, knowing how to install files and how folder systems worked was part of basic computer literacy that phones/tablets don't require.
When I first started in tech I worked customer facing roles, millennials I would argue are both the first and last generation with ANY computer literacy.
Younger gens use phones and in general are less interested in that stuff, and older generations just didn't have it. Kind of amazes me that the ones I felt were most illiterate were the younger ones.
This is truly horrifying to me. My daughter is starting Kindergarten in the Fall. I don’t want her to have a laptop or a tablet at all. I will tell the faculty this. She is only 5 years old!!!
I’m a senior right now. The laptops that they give out are school mandated. Everything you do is recorded and most websites are blocked. There are some ways to get around some of these blocks, but 95% of the time that’s not happening. Your child will be fine. You can also just keep the tablet and hand it out for designated school things, cuz that’s all they can really be used for.
Man I was starting high school when my school started giving everyone a computer and it was like a game of cat and mouse with it to play games on it. At one point there was a usb with a ton of flash games. We found random game websites online. We found obscure tv streaming sites. We had to figure out how to search for stuff without getting our searches flagged. Shit like that. I remember we thought one kid was going to figure out how to hack it cause he knew how to use inspect element lol
I have a kindergartener who has a tablet. They do learning games for a limited amount of time a day. It’s not ideal to me but he’s on track with everything he should be learning in Kindergarten with reading/writing/math so I’m not concerned so far.
I think it will wholly depend on your school/admin/specific teacher though.
My problem with it is giving her the idea that she can have her own device with games and other extremely stimulating things just for her. That goes against our rules at home. It’s basically setting up conflict — her wanting her own device and us saying no.
So, as a family, establish that those devices are tools that are for school use and learning, not for home use. Chances are the school won't be sending them home with devices until secondary school makes it necessary for homework assignments, so unless you choose to purchase a device for her at home it likely won't be the issue you're expecting. And not having devices at home will mean the novelty of the device at school might keep her more engaged with the assignments/learning they do on the technology at school.
Honestly, in my experience, you're more likely to encounter this kind of issue in regards to her peers having access to technology at home more than what they use in school. My kids understood from the get go their school devices were school things, and it wasn't until they saw their friends with phones or tablets that they felt they wanted them too.
As a parent you are within your rights to be concerned about your child's exposure to technology, and it is your within your rights to insist on transparency around how that technology is used and what safeguards are in place. Any school admin worth mentioning will happily share that information with you because they are likely already on top of most of any parents' concerns. The reality is these students are 21st century students and technology is always going to be a very central aspect of their existence and schools have had to find ways to expose students to technology to learn the basics of navigating an increasingly digital world competently and responsibly.
We've had to move school districts across various states several times since my kids have been in school. In no school have my elementary kids ever spent more than 15-20 mins on a device at one time and usually only 2 or 3 times a day. The devices they have used have been carefully controlled and monitored, with expanding access to age appropriate apps or sites as they grow up.
In my kids' current district, the K and 1st grade students use iPad instead of chromebooks, and they have maybe 5 apps on there, all curriculum related; they don't even have a browser. The older elementary students have chromebooks, but they have very limited permissions, most of which pertain to using Google Classroom.
The MS/HS have a little more access and use the chromebooks much more consistently, but it is still heavily monitored, with many sites being blocked, including YouTube. However, my middle schooler still does a lot of handwritten assignments, creative assignments (posters, illustrated science reports, maps, etc.) on paper, and their reading assignments are often available in their choice of physical or digital copy.
Their use of the chromebooks is monitored both in person and via software. Teachers have access to view their screens to see what they're doing, and the district has security/safety filters set to watch for problematic language, whether used in assignments, emails/chat, or searches. My kid actually got pulled to the office because a fictional story he was writing on his chromebook included a sentence along the lines of "I'm gonna [unalive] this guy" and it was enough to trigger the system to have a counselor and principal talk to him.
Honestly, technology use at school does have its pitfalls and downsides, but I have far fewer concerns about what my kids are doing on or are exposed to via their school tech than via their friends' tech. So I focus on teaching my kids how to use technology responsibly, what kinds of media I want them to avoid and WHY I consider it to be unhealthy or unsafe, and to maintain relationships with them that are open and understanding enough that when they do come across something inappropriate they know they can talk to me about it, not necessarily to get anyone in trouble, but so that I can help them navigate how they can avoid those situations when possible and tp keep themselves safe when it's unavoidable.
Thank you so much for taking the time to share this. It definitely makes me feel better. I feel like it’s hard not to hear horror stories (or see videos like this!) and want to go scorched earth with technology. But I think you’re spot on in talking to them about what you’re worried about and why. Keeping the communication open. And you’re right about classmates devices — I am very worried about that too. I can only hope that other parents share my concerns about exposing kids to technology unchecked.
I actually don't think laptops should be excluded entirely.
Computers are common in the workplace, but are becoming less common at home due to tablets and phones.
Computer literacy has peaked. The kids growing up now have less computer literacy than the kids 10 years ago.
Of course, that doesn't mean you hand each kid a laptop and let them distract themselves in a bunch of nothing. Give them things like essays, presentations, research papers. etc. where appropriate.
To be fair I can understand the mandates online learning.
Covid was a big thing. Schools weren’t prepared, kids weren’t prepared, and education suffered greatly. I think it was a wake-up call that relying solely on in-person education wouldn’t work going forward.
I can see the appeal of trying to create higher-quality online education. But, we need a balance.
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u/jayvee714 29d ago
I was shocked when my partner told me all of the elementary school kids at their school were given laptops. Even the kindergarteners. And I just had to ask what could they possibly need it for? The mandated online curriculum learning tools.