Parents opt kids out of school computers, insisting on pen-and-paper instead
www.nbcnews.com
A loose network of parents are teaching one another how to get their kids off of school-issued Chromebooks and iPads.

The middle schooler had been begging to opt out, citing headaches from the Chromebook screen and a dislike of the AI chatbot recently integrated into it.

Parents across the country are taking steps to stop their children from using school-issued Chromebooks and iPads, citing concerns about distractions and access to inappropriate content that they fear hampers their kids’ education.

  • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
    100·
    19 hours ago

    I’ve opted out of the school Chromebooks for my kids because they have computers running real GNU at home. We should all be outraged that schools are pushing a locked-down surveillance/content consumption-only platform, as opposed to something like a Raspberry Pi that actually empowers kids to have real computer literacy.

    • Prox@lemmy.worldEnglish
      40·
      17 hours ago

      This - like most problems we’ve created in the US - comes down to money. Google will often donate/grant Chromebooks to schools in order to create future addicts customers. It would cost schools a lot more to do what’s right (or at least better) for their students, so they don’t do that thing.

      • sorghum@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        13·
        15 hours ago

        yup, it’s the same playbook Apple had in the 80’s and 90’s. Get them into schools and get everyone used to their ecosystem so they would buy their products after graduating. Bill Gates did the same thing in the 90’s to outfit computer labs in schools with a bunch of Dell computers.

    • modus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      23·
      16 hours ago

      I’m curious to know if anyone here has ever approached the school IT department to ask what steps they take to mitigate or eliminate surveillance and tracking in these devices. I know it’s inherent in Google products to begin with, but do they even try? Or pretend to try? Or admit they don’t care?

      • Übercomplicated@lemmy.mlEnglish
        6·
        4 hours ago

        I did! The IT department literally laughed at me. I also tried to get them to let teachers install uBlock Origin, because they apparently will watch educational YouTube videos in class sometimes, and then get random ads for everyone to suffer under. But uBlock Origin doesn’t have their support… Ironically, they only support Windows computers and iPhones on the school network. Android, MacOS, and Linux are all officially unsupported.

      • Kupi@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        6·
        7 hours ago

        I’ve asked about this a few times and I was told by our administration that every company we work with signs a data privacy agreement stating that they will not sell or compromise any sensitive student data. But I was also told that our administration team doesn’t usually follow up with these companies to make sure they’re following the rules. Therefore it’s an unfortunate situation of, “above my pay grade.” Also, when opting out of a Chromebook, you’re only making sure your kid doesn’t go home with one. Most, if not all, teachers don’t shy away from Google Classroom…

      • bestboyfriendintheworld@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        7 hours ago

        The school IT department is often the math teacher’s side hustle or a badly paid gamer dude with Microsoft certifications.

        Surveillance and tracking is the least of their concerns.

      • Newsteinleo@infosec.pubEnglish
        27·
        16 hours ago

        The IT Department knows about all the problems it’s the administration that does not care and won’t let the IT people do anything. Also, you don’t want to know how bad the procurement process is with most school systems.

        • modus@lemmy.worldEnglish
          9·
          16 hours ago

          Good point. I’ve never worked in education. I neglected the fact that they’re just fulfilling orders. I believe you it’s probably a shitshow with privacy and preemptive security procedures almost non-existent.

          • chillpanzee@lemmy.mlEnglish
            5·
            15 hours ago

            It’s sorta the opposite. It’s not that privacy and security are afterthoughts, it’s that oversight and monitoring are baked into everything. They lean into lockdown browsers, mandatory on cameras for assessments, and a whole bunch of anti-cheat tech. Privacy and security are on the mind, they just want none of it.

            Worse than that though, it’s a carefully crafted economy where vendors knowingly supply incomplete and broken systems so that they have a continuous need to also sell professional services, training, and technical support. It’s just like textbooks and curricula; crooked AF because they know that nobody is paying attention, and the entire system operates with an expectation of profound inefficiency.

          • Bazoogle@lemmy.worldEnglish
            5·
            15 hours ago

            I don’t work for a school, but I apply default policies to stop tracking/telemetry on all the company computers. I wasn’t asked to, nor do my coworkers seem to care nearly as much. So the answer is probably that it will entirely depend on the IT admin they hired and how much they care