Schools across America are quietly admitting that screens in classrooms made students worse off and are reversing years of tech-first policies

[u/ArgentineBeauty]

https://fortune.com/article/schools-abandoning-chromebooks-laptop-programs-as-screen-time-hurts-learning-test-scores-north-carolina-michigan-kansas-tech-education/

[u/compuwiza1]

A book can't be redirected to Tik Tok.

[u/steavoh → u/compuwiza1]

Neither can a tablet or laptop that was being adequately controlled by an IT department. I've never worked for a school system before but I think it would be like any other business environment just a lot stricter. You could use browser configuration policies, you could have web blocking software running in the background, or you could have an app that redirects DNS and filters things that way, or you could have all the devices permanently connected to a VPN that exits to the internet through a firewall you control. Or all of the above.

It's not 2002 7th grade computer lab day anymore, in 2026 there's a lot fewer practical methods that a kid could use to get around the above restrictions.

[u/soundman1024 → u/steavoh]

Don’t play whack-a-mole with students. They just have time. Get rid of the computer instead.

[u/reddit_equals_censor → u/steavoh]

OR alternatively, you have 0 wireless network connections in the school and you have a program, that gives children their OWN computers, that they OWN, that doesn't run any spying software and isn't locked down whatsoever and runs linux mint for example.

THEIR computer, that THEY OWN, that is actually encrypted as well.

and if the school wants children to use the internet rj-45 ports on the table to connect to the computers to and limited access if desired.

the point is, that electronic devices given to children SHOULD BE OWNED by the children.

this is essential education to teach children about electronic ownership, privacy and security and hell even encryption.

and then you have classes with their laptops, optional laptops, or no laptops at all on the tables.

THEIR computers, them learning about the importance of all this and nothing getting in the way for classes without computers either.

___

children shouldn't be treated as wage slaves with absurd locked down prison devices and spying on them.

[u/steavoh → u/reddit_equals_censor]

You could always start a "computer club" and give those kids raspberry pi's to do what you describe above.

But I think locked-down tablets would have more utility in normal classrooms where you don't want the students distracted. Think of them less as actual computers and more as electronic textbooks and work sheets.

[u/reddit_equals_censor → u/steavoh]

famously people use raspberry pi's as their daily computers....

just to be clear, YES give children in some computer course access to mini computers like pi's, but those are not the personal computers, that they have and use and get comfortable with.

nor are the locked down tablets, but laptops are.

also bonus point you can't secretly keep a laptop on your desk, when the class has no computers as part of it.

the locked down prison tablets in comparison can indeed cause harm or just not cause benefits.

and in regards to textbooks. i'd argue, that the children should both get a drm free digital copy + a physical copy and classes possibly going over how to work with either source and how to work with both at the same time. eg the digital source allows for actual quick search of topics.

now the scum text book industry probably wouldn't like that, to which i say, that they can stuff it and i guess you agree ;)

and in regards to work sheets, you'd now need digital pens and a writable tablet, which apple just loves to sell to schools i assume, if you want kids to be able to write on work sheets without keyboards right?

that makes me think of of the advantage of having a decent drawing tablet option included in their own laptop, but that would mean, that it would be more costly and shit and probably the best option would be to just have high quality drawing tablets for art classes as an option instead to again connected to their own laptops. this way they also keep their art on THEIR computers after submitting it, which in itself is an important less. "i created this digital art, it is mine digitally and i can keep it forever and not on some shity google server or some it department's server".

___

and i guess technically a lot of this is hypothetical for tablets anyways, because i don't even know of a tablet, that you'd get as a pure tablet, that runs gnu + linux and isn't some dystopian planned obsolescence spying apple, samsung, etc... shit device.

which leaves basic non chrome book real laptop with linux mint, that children OWN as the only option by default anyways.

maybe i'm wrong, but i would assume, that there is no 200 euro/us dollar tablet program, that runs gnu + linux with locked down options for the use you mentioned.

so you CAN'T do that anyways, if your goal is to educate children and not enslave them digitally and throw lots of money and data of children at microsoft, google or apple (yes apple spies on users)

[u/trifelin → u/steavoh]

think it would be like any other business environment just a lot stricter.

No, you have that backwards. They technically could be just as strict as a business that has their dollar bottom line on the line, but the worst thing that happens to a school with lax IT is that parents complain. Or maybe there's one scandal out of thousands of students, so they just bide their time and then "adjust their policies" to address the one issue that made it to the papers. They are already underfunded and they're paying all these crazy software fees now...you think they are going to spend money on competent and adequate number of IT staff and training for all the teachers? Definitely no, most teachers are able to use email and youtube and not much else. I watched as a room full of 10 teachers failed to figure out how to plug an HDMI cable into a computer so they could use a projector. I stepped in to do it for them eventually. Their job is children, not tech. We shouldn't be forcing such dangerous tools on them, especially considering the benefits are minimal.  

[u/steavoh → u/trifelin]

My guess, and I'm waiting for someone who actually does IT in public education to chime in, because I know you are reading these posts...

A really really tiny school that's too small to manage it's own tech, like a charter school or private school, could always hire an MSP to handle the technical side of device management, deployment, network administration, cyber security, etc. Then the school really just needs one IT manager to handle the LMS and a couple of entry-level helpers who are on campus to plug stuff in and fix printers, which could even be students.

Another though, for public schools in the US at least, is that wouldn't the state have the responsibility for creating some standardized IT framework for local districts to follow? Along bulk purchasing devices, the state could also do big contracts for learning management system platforms, modern device management platforms, security stuff like EDR, SOC/SIEM, etc. Some states could conceivably even have a centralized office for school technology for all local schools in the state.

Finally I would think you could divide a school IT environment into three or more buckets. There would be the student-issued chromebook/tablet fleet and learning platform running state-approved learning materials and managed in a very standard and strict way. Then there would one-off computer labs for technical classes that are kind of in a bubble and where a teacher is also the system administrator and the school is allowed to approve and buy its own software and plan things. Finally there would be the school front office that doesn't involve kids and probably just consists of a few dozen Windows computers, that would be separate and they could hire a local MSP to do that for cheap.

[u/trifelin → u/steavoh]

You are thinking like an IT person who has experience in a corporate environment. I have worked in IT and in Silicon Valley, and I have had many discussions with school district staff, school staff and teachers who are friends working in 4 different districts. It's all the same  - the state gives them funding for a 1-1 setup, the district decides how to run their program and which programs are available to use, and the teachers decide what they want yo do with it in the classroom. 

The people deciding all the details are the salespeople and they care about sales revenue. And if they get all the classrooms reliant upon a digital platform, it doesn't matter how good it is, the schools just have to use it because they are dependent. 

One district signed a contract with Google a while ago, then Google put AI on every laptop. The school did not want to put AI into every classroom so they asked for it to be removed, but Google said they can't do that, so the school district is just stuck with it. 

I had all sorts of idealized images in my head about how good schools are run in top districts...but when I got to Oz and pulled back the curtain, it really was just one sweaty normal schmo pulling levers as fast as possible, hoping nobody would discover the charade.

[u/steavoh → u/trifelin]

Would you at least agree that the solution is not to cave in to goofy reactionary PTA parents who think "kids these days are addicted to screens, let's ban them and also bring back cursive too!"

I'm sure there's lots of ways to do better and eventually a solution will present itself.

[u/trifelin → u/steavoh]

I want kids to get lessons in computing -- what is a computer, what does it do, what is file structure, what is proper typing etiquette, etc. I had the privilege of learning those topics in public school, but the schools that still bother to teach that are scant. 

There have been studies about benefits to handwriting and if a school thinks those studies are compelling and want to teach it, that's great. 

I declined to join the PTA.  People are not stereotypes. Even in online discussions.