Even as an individual parent I can’t stand the iOS parental controls. They are a mess and awful to deal with. I don’t think they even offer enterprise-type management that teachers can handle on behalf of 100 kids at once. Apple products are a terrible choice for kids and/or the classroom IMO.
A blacklist isn’t a good approach on its own - you could never predict all the possible apps you might need to block. But it is a perfectly reasonable failsafe for “content rating” and would probably even provide some valuable app-level feedback for the platform to use to check up on apps that are gaming their rating.
A whitelist approach is a reasonable overall approach and to some extent I guess you can implement this by allowing any content rating but requiring approval to install an app. At least I think you could do it this way. Like I said the settings are a bloody mess and hard to use so I’m only ever 80% sure of what’s actually happening.
Well the teachers can’t lock it down. Most they give the teachers is a way to peak on the kids screens via some app, but the kids have figured out all you gotta do is turn off Bluetooth to get around it.
The school on the other hand, I’ve bitched to them and their IT about it. Like Apple HAS good lockdown policies, and it’s not like they can’t just install Jampf or something of the like to really control it.
Yes, that wasn’t a punch on the teachers, but the school and maybe Apple. They could simply sell pre-configured devices and it wouldn’t make much of a difference in their pipeline.
Probably not down to the teachers but to administration. When I was a kid we had computers (PC’s or Macs) in some classrooms, but the caveat is that they specifically blocked most websites so if it wasn’t on an approved list you couldn’t use it. At some point it seems like they gave up trying to stay ahead of kids circumventing the blocks and teachers aren’t spending time outside of class playing IT. They already dedicate a lot of unpaid time to grading papers and other extracurricular activities.
I can at least agree that teachers should confiscate or prevent students from using them if they provide more of a distraction than a help.
Yeah. My kid doesn’t go to a school where they use computers or iPads this way, but I have to assume that lessons are done on device and therein lies the problem. Can’t confiscate the device because then the kid can’t do the lessons. So now teachers have to fund classrooms partially out of their own pocket, spend unpaid time outside school hours to do marking and lesson planning, and play IT. Teachers already have a lot on their plates without adding an extra burden that the administration should be addressing properly.
Basically the district he’s in now issues iPads. All course work is done on them through a mix of Canvas, Google Docs, and some websites. We talked with the school and had a thing where he’d have to leave it there and check it out in the morning cause he couldn’t be trusted with it.
The teachers get frustrated by it too, but can’t do much. I was saying below the most the schools give them is a tool to spy on the kids screens, but the kids know they can just turn off Bluetooth to get around it.
I’m actually having to move school districts this year just to get him into one that isn’t shit like this. The one he was in was pretty low rated. Hoping he does better in a well rated district.
That’s insane! How could any teachers think that’s acceptable?
Even as an individual parent I can’t stand the iOS parental controls. They are a mess and awful to deal with. I don’t think they even offer enterprise-type management that teachers can handle on behalf of 100 kids at once. Apple products are a terrible choice for kids and/or the classroom IMO.
I’m not a developer, so maybe I’m underestimating things, but these tools conceptually don’t seem like a hard thing to make.
Just a whitelist/blacklist of apps and similar for internet usage.
I am a developer and I agree with you.
A blacklist isn’t a good approach on its own - you could never predict all the possible apps you might need to block. But it is a perfectly reasonable failsafe for “content rating” and would probably even provide some valuable app-level feedback for the platform to use to check up on apps that are gaming their rating.
A whitelist approach is a reasonable overall approach and to some extent I guess you can implement this by allowing any content rating but requiring approval to install an app. At least I think you could do it this way. Like I said the settings are a bloody mess and hard to use so I’m only ever 80% sure of what’s actually happening.
I’d guess a mix of don’t care and don’t know
Well the teachers can’t lock it down. Most they give the teachers is a way to peak on the kids screens via some app, but the kids have figured out all you gotta do is turn off Bluetooth to get around it.
The school on the other hand, I’ve bitched to them and their IT about it. Like Apple HAS good lockdown policies, and it’s not like they can’t just install Jampf or something of the like to really control it.
Yes, that wasn’t a punch on the teachers, but the school and maybe Apple. They could simply sell pre-configured devices and it wouldn’t make much of a difference in their pipeline.
Probably not down to the teachers but to administration. When I was a kid we had computers (PC’s or Macs) in some classrooms, but the caveat is that they specifically blocked most websites so if it wasn’t on an approved list you couldn’t use it. At some point it seems like they gave up trying to stay ahead of kids circumventing the blocks and teachers aren’t spending time outside of class playing IT. They already dedicate a lot of unpaid time to grading papers and other extracurricular activities.
I can at least agree that teachers should confiscate or prevent students from using them if they provide more of a distraction than a help.
Man… coolmathgames.com and all the sites that would pop up to get around the school filters.
I also remember playing RuneScape in the lab, and passing around a flash drive with Halo CE on it.
But not like we had access to it all the damn time. You had to actually go to a computer lab or library for that shit.
That site was one of the few we were actually allowed to use. I destroyed everyone in Lemonade Stand
Yeah. My kid doesn’t go to a school where they use computers or iPads this way, but I have to assume that lessons are done on device and therein lies the problem. Can’t confiscate the device because then the kid can’t do the lessons. So now teachers have to fund classrooms partially out of their own pocket, spend unpaid time outside school hours to do marking and lesson planning, and play IT. Teachers already have a lot on their plates without adding an extra burden that the administration should be addressing properly.
Basically the district he’s in now issues iPads. All course work is done on them through a mix of Canvas, Google Docs, and some websites. We talked with the school and had a thing where he’d have to leave it there and check it out in the morning cause he couldn’t be trusted with it.
The teachers get frustrated by it too, but can’t do much. I was saying below the most the schools give them is a tool to spy on the kids screens, but the kids know they can just turn off Bluetooth to get around it.
I’m actually having to move school districts this year just to get him into one that isn’t shit like this. The one he was in was pretty low rated. Hoping he does better in a well rated district.