With Liberty and iPads For All

vanity | 8-20-14 | vanity

[yldstrk]

All textbooks on iPad at my child's high school, computers for all from K-12 in the school district where I live. This even though most kids already have one and some have more than one computer of their own, the schools private and public have purchased from Apple zillions of MacBook Airs and iPad Airs to bestow upon their students. Students are to use a program called Noteability to write on the screens with the stylus that came with the "device" and use Google connect to send in to their teachers. Did anyone ask the parents for input on any of this? No. Not from the concept to the multimillion dollar purchase contracts using our tuition dollars and our tax dollars. And the big question is why? What is going on here? Regular text books are not good enough? Or it's easier to teach your own manufactured uncriticized or unedited "material"? And how will little kids learn to write? I don't understand it.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The big-government/big-corporate crony-fascist complex has decreed that the taxpayers purchase iPads from Apple for all students.

That's all you need to know, peasant.

[jurroppi1]

I’d be more concerned about my WiFi and network being hacked by the GOV’t hacked iPads and my inability to hide my SSID because mac crap won’t connect when you do that.

[jsanders2001]

Is it a wonder our children are indoctrinated to embrace homosexuality, atheism, and political correctness without understanding why they are embracing them (in error). Of course not. There’s no need for critical thinkers in NWO New America. It’s the reason you won’t find real history or Thomas Paine unless he’s mentioned Atheism 101...

[yldstrk]

well that is a damn good point. I know we all have taped over our cameras on our various “devices”

[metmom]

ANOTHER REASON TO HOMESCHOOL

This ping list is for the “other” articles of interest to homeschoolers about education and public school. This can occasionally be a fairly high volume list. Articles pinged to the Another Reason to Homeschool List will be given the keyword of ARTH. (If I remember. If I forget, please feel free to add it yourself)

The main Homeschool Ping List handles the homeschool-specific articles. I hold both the Homeschool Ping List and the Another Reason to Homeschool Ping list. Please freepmail me to let me know if you would like to be added to or removed from either list, or both.

[WayneS]

Just a little crony capitalism from your fiends school system and our fiends at Apple...

[Bill93]

If you’re having trouble getting a Mac or iPad to connect to a hidden SSID, you’re probably doing something wrong, or there’s something wrong with your router because I and several other people I know connect to them all the time. Heck, my brother in law has a hidden wifi network at his home and he doesn’t connect have any non-Apple devices to connect to it.

[WayneS]

Sorry. Should have been:

Just a little crony capitalism from your local school system and our fiends at Apple...

[TADSLOS]

Welcome to the brave new world. My wife went through this in her last year of teaching three years ago. Total chaos. No plan to integrate the new technology. No training for teachers and staff. No control. Kids playing games, taking pics and videos and worse. A total goat screw. Her school had approx a 30% population of illegals at that time. Guess where their ipads ended up?

[yldstrk]

thank you, I have been wondering what ARTH meant

[Maudeen]

It IS called indoctrination. How many parents will be able to check homework, know what information has been downloaded to the child as well as what data will be collected through that ipad on student and families via student surveys and questions? And just think about the sex ed curriculum! And then there is always the hack that can occur.

This site has a couple of trailers. A must watch for parents especially. Indoctination! You can watch two trailers on this site . . . http://superstore.wnd.com/video/Education_2/IndoctriNation-Public-Schools-and-the-Decline-of-Christianity-in-America-DVD

[CharlesOConnell]

A lot of this confusion can be laid at the feet of the indubitable Al Gore, Nobel Peace Prize winner. As Vice-President, he had enormous influence promoting the idea that the mere possession of computers automatically confers educational excellence.

TODDLERS BECOMING SO ADDICTED TO IPADS THEY REQUIRE THERAPY

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10008707/Toddlers-becoming-so-addicted-to-iPads-they-require-therapy.html

Children as young as four are becoming so addicted to smartphones and iPads that they require psychological treatment.

INFANTS ‘UNABLE TO USE TOY BUILDING BLOCKS’ DUE TO IPAD ADDICTION

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10767878/Infants-unable-to-use-toy-building-blocks-due-to-iPad-addiction.html

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers warn that rising numbers of children are unable to perform simple tasks such as using building blocks because of overexposure to iPads.

SLEEP PROBLEMS PLAGUE DEVICE DEPENDENT CHILDREN

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2014/03/03/Sleep-Problems-Plague-Device-Dependent-Children

Cellphones and other devices emit the “blue light” that works against the sleep process by interfering with melatonin, the chemical in our bodies that promotes sleepiness.

Anecdote: When I was in the 10th grade in 1970, I shared a science-fiction short story I had read with my friends: Like the kids in Hunger Games, rural, disadvantaged kids lacking access to specialized calculating equipment were able to beat elite urban kids in math competition by using traditional paper-based cyphering techniques.

Life imitates art, as a recent news article shows: “FINNS BEAT U.S. WITH LOW-TECH TAKE ON SCHOOL”, Politico 5/27/14

http://tinyurl.com/lz8w69k .

“At the start of morning assembly in the state-of-the-art Viikki School in Helsinki, students’ smartphones disappear. In math class, the teacher shuts off the Smartboard and begins drafting perfect circles on a chalkboard. The students — some of the highest-achieving in the world — cut up graphing paper while solving equations using their clunky plastic calculators.” (Read More… http://tinyurl.com/lz8w69k )

[yldstrk]

all of us consumers are just people to prey on from the marketers vantage point

[Maudeen]

Not to mention the health hazards of ipads and other electronic devices!!!!!!

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/12/19/cell-phone-use.aspx

[ctdonath2]

Easier to carry a tablet around than 3 cubic feet of books.
Easier to update a tablet than buy/ship/distribute paper books.
Cheaper to buy e-books than paper.
E-books can be more dynamic (videos/music/etc where appropriate) than inert paper.

I’m going paperless. No problem with giving the kids tablets IF they will be responsible enough to care for them and use them wisely; break it? here’s your paper copy of the text, carry that around kid.

[yldstrk]

and if the cloud goes down? the electricity is off? Real lawyers are upping their paper docs because of this. This has made us archivists and record keepers

[jurroppi1]

I have read up on it. Unless they changed something in the newer iPads what I originally stated was not just my experience. The older iPads at least were either totally incapable of connecting to a wireless network that didn’t broadcast its’ SSID, or were so maddeningly intermittent that it simply was not worth the effort and they (earlier iPads) would never remember network settings that were manually entered.

I tried several times to get the thing to connect and I read several forums that all stated the exact same thing at the time - that it just wasn’t possible to connect to a network that didn’t broadcast the SSID - even manually.

Maybe things have changed in the apple world since, but I just don’t like all the restrictions of apple products to begin with.

[ctdonath2]

Never mind the health hazards of making kids carry all their books everywhere in poorly-designed backpacks. Many schools have done away with lockers, requiring kids to literally carry all their books as they go about their school day, with most kids having badly-designed backpacks which they carry incorrectly, resulting in skeletal deformations as they grow.

[ctdonath2]

Paper backups are fine.
I have multiple generators and local backups.
If “the cloud goes down” the rest of the economy will go down with it (no credit card processing, no electronic funds transfers, etc) and the discussion transitions from school textbooks to survivalism (see _One_Second_After_).