U.K. Minister Wants to Reduce iPad Use in Schools to Curb Bullying

[amirite]

There might be a good lesson in the fact that Steve Jobs did not let his own children use an iPad when it came out.

"They haven't used it. We limit how much technology our kids use at home," said Jobs, when asked what his kids thought of the iPad.

As his biographer noted:

Every evening Steve made a point of having dinner at the big long table in their kitchen, discussing books and history and a variety of things. They never pulled out a phone or tablet.

While selling millions of Apple devices that have changed society in ways that many abhor, Jobs made sure that none of his own kids became addicted to such devices.

Smart CEO. Smart parent. Dealt electronic drugs but kept them from his own kids.

Irrelevant. This article is about educational use, not home use.

 

[moonjelly]

There will always be bullying. That's how kids grow up. It's part of their learning of social skills, however cruel it can be.

IMHO, the point is that once you let iPads (or any tech-device) be the communication device, it gets much harder for the teacher to react to that bullying.

Give an (lower-than?) average student of early teenage years an iPad in the classroom... of course he will try to find porn sites, send outrageous messages, and play games instead of paying attention to the boring teacher. It's cool to do that, right?

The average teacher has no idea how to stop that unwanted behaviour. He probably goes to the IT department and starts complaining there. And then what? Use Mobile Device Management? Force enrollment (DEP)? Make it the IT department's problem?

I think the usage of such devices at school is generally a good idea (21st century skills etc.), but the way they should be implemented at schools is simply not well thought out, yet.

Mostly agree. Except to add a lot of thought went into this with mainframe design and more recently, corporate virtual desktops. Public education should petition Apple and Microsoft to produce school nanny software. A controlled amount of structured learning with digital devices. You login as part of roll call. Only school approved process may run. There is already good educational software written. Tie the school wireless to login. Teachers can swipe through student desktops to see where they are struggling on assignments, and volunteer anonymous help at the "blackboard" without embarrassing anyone. Or ping them if they are distracted. Lock their screens during non-digital activities. During lecture only allow access to note-taking.
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My daughter's middle school provides all the kids with Chromebooks.

She was bullied on Google chat by boys in her school who threatened to rape and kill her if she didn't become their girlfriend.

This stuff is real. Adults can barely handle chat and social media -- don't expect immature young minds to.

Solution -- lock it to the necessary application in class and don't let them take them home. They just play games and look for trouble online.

That is terrible. Modern education needs to include a controlled amount of structured learning on computers. Adults have an obligation to stop bullying under their observation and to watch for it. Its an educational opportunity to correct it when it arrises. Its part of the example we set. Will bullying still happen? Sure. But this virtual lord of the flies stuff is unacceptable.

Even though we need "reasonable expectation of privacy" laws, not for children on social media. That needs supervision and transparency.