honestly a few years ago I didn't agree with it, but now things are enshittifying so much that it really seems to be the better option now. it'll unfortunately bar even those from using their phones who would use it for other things than mindless scrolling, using ai chatbots and playing microtransaction and ad filled games, but for the whole class and the whole generation it would be better in the end.

Outright banning them from schools is wrong imo, but if I had to put my phone in a locked box every class, I would've lived. I just think banning them outright is bad for needing to contact parents, especially for kids like me who had after school activities often.

My only issue I had with HS teachers were the ones who bitched about people having headphones/earbuds in during class. Obviously I don't have them in during instruction or group work as that would be disrespectful, but if you're not at the front of the room talking and we're doing individual work, I want to have my earbuds in. I had a study block teacher who was so fucking anal about phones and earbuds, when it is literally a fucking break class to do whatever the fuck you want/need to do.

I just really like having music or background noise while doing work.

I worked in a school in Asia that actually banned students from bringing their phones to school. One year there was an earthquake in the morning that caused all the trains to stop for half a day while they checked the rails. We were all on our way to the school, got stranded, and some had to walk for hours to get back home. The school got a few calls from parents and the policy was changed the very next week. Now students can bring their phones, but they need to be turned in at the front office when they arrive.

One girl forgot to do it once, so she put her phone her locker. Another earthquake set off the warning alarm system and her phone went off in the hallway. Later that day I saw her getting lectured hard by the staff and the poor thing was in tears. She was actually a good student, so it was weird seeing her in that scenario.

Anyway, I wouldn’t mind the idea of students handing in phones at the front desk, but I was allowed to pack a cd player, a Nokia, and a variety of other devices around my school as a kid. I don’t really see smartphones as being much different, so I don’t mind them being around just so long as students are using them in their own time.

I mean, I was in high school when the cell phones were largely flip phones and that one nokia brick that could probably survive being run over by a tank and at that point the rule was "nobody gives a shit if it's in your pocket/in your bag and on silent, but if I see it or if it's making loud disruptive noises from wherever you've got it it's going in my desk until the bell rings". That still seems a reasonable middle ground in my opinion. That way, it's still accessible enough in the event of an actual emergency but not usable otherwise.

Plenty of schools do that

The “evan at home” part is 100% more important than the school part. Making sure your kid gets educated at school is a parent’s job.

Well it's not like you had a choice in the matter and that's why they don't care how interested you are. You and the rest of your batch just need to sit still for an hour and a half until you get a break walking to the next boredom session.

I find it quite incredible that I spent 14 years of 40 hours weeks listening to people talk about stuff I did not care about under the assumption that if I didn't I'd end up homeless so they never tried to make me care.

Fortunately we had a computer at home to learn about the stuff I actually cared about.

I find it crushing that they're still making students sit and listen about this boring useless shit when they can just ask their phones about whatever they'd be trying to do if they weren't listening to a course plan from the 1800s about completely obsolete and irrelevant things.

How can this incredibly important phase of life be so hopelessly poisoned by school for absolutely no reasons at all.

(after all, it said “for educational purposes only”)

The FCC hates this one simple trick

Violating federal laws is awesome, everyone should do it.

Fuck YES (says a middle school teacher)

This gives me flashbacks. I had to take Java exams with pen and paper. They took 6+ hours. The reason? Not enough computers for everyone and our teacher wasn't willing to make 2 different exams, like every other fucking teacher does.

It’s possible, but it takes time and effort to prepare, and I’m not getting paid at home, so I’m reluctant to do it.

You could offer the students a choice: no AI and a 5 slide presentation, or allow AI but with a 15 slide presentation, then let them decide. AI makes work more efficient for us, so if we can be 3x more productive, I should expect 3x more product.

I taught an ESL group once. One of the girls, around 15-17, plastered a bunch of ChatGPT text on the slide and sat the whole period on her phone. When it was her group’s turn, she quickly realized the position she put herself in as she was now in at the front of the class trying to sound out a wall of high-level English words she’d never heard before. I gave her the standard score because, even though she failed the task, she tried really hard to read out all those difficult words and I thought that was probably more work than anyone else had done.

• Require students to cite their sources

• Require students to show their working

• Ask students questions related to the process of a given task during class

• For things like media analysis, require them to do it with a pencil and paper without the use of computers where possible

• Treat the use of LLMs as an act of academic plagiarism

All of these are things that schools should already be doing holy shit

Holy fuck, we are so cooked.

This is such a concavebrained take. The point of exercises handed out in schools isn't the accomplishment of the set tasks; it's that students internalise the processes necessary to do the task themselves and thereby learn those skills.

Thus, giving away a task to a LLM is only "using their imagination on how to constructively solve [the] problem, utilising a tool in their imaginary bag" in the same way that bullying a nerd into doing the work for them used to be.

I think it's changing the traditional paradigm. Maybe for the better, maybe not. Time will tell. I think ChatGPT is a tool in its infancy. It's changing the way minds think fundamentally like for isntance critical thinking skills decline by relying on "AI" but it frees up the mind to grow in other ways to adjust to the new paradigm.

This is so obviously for the worse. Losing the ability to think critically isn't "freeing up the mind to grow in other ways:" basic critical thought is a foundational prerequisite to fully developing as a person capable of participating in society in the current age in much the same way as basic literacy is. It's limiting the mind from growing in any meaningful way.

And don't get it twisted, you're just saying this shit to be contrarian. I doubt you actually believe this development could be a good thing. Like come the fuck on, let's say in ten years' time you get into some kinda accident and need surgery. There is no way you'd would want your surgeon to be someone who 'did' most of their assessments in med school with a fucking chatbot. Who are you kidding???

You’re not wrong, but the difference is that they came up with a creative solution to avoid the task, not a creative solution to engage the task. If I ask them follow up questions to explain their thoughts and reasoning behind their own work, I get deer in the headlights.

Now, I think the tide is rising with AI and it’s sink or swim if you’re a teacher, so it’s better to just learn what AI is and how to leverage it no matter what people think of it, or if I’m even getting paid for my effort.

A different approach I’m considering is embracing AI for teenage groups and changing the format of the course entirely so there’s more interaction (incorporating AI) than production. I’ll be the first at my school to do it, but I’m also the only person there who could tell you what the fediverse is.