Apple Distinguished Schools & Office 365

[manpaint]

Today I wanted to discuss a subject that I have personally witnessed but have literally seen zero discussion about it on the internet: Apple Distinguished Schools and Office 365 in schools.*.

Back in 2017-2018, I did an internship at a "school computer recycling factory". Said factory was below a school. Although I technically did not attend said school as a student, I was allowed to be with the other students as I was a student at the time. Now this was mostly during recess, but on one occasion I got a glimpse of a classroom due to some event.

So basically, the classroom were mostly if not totally devoid of paper. Every students had a iPad lended by the school. Everything was done on tablets and the school took great pride in it. The Apple logo was on many walls. I think the only non-technological Apple thing in the entire classroom were probably the SmartBoard and the teenagers' personal phones.

At the school I was actually studying at, everything was increasingly done via Office 365. Now Microsoft being in the school room is obviously nothing new, but before it was mostly limited to their operating system and their office suite. Even before COVID, the online service was heavily being pushed. It should be noted that every students had a school account automatically made. If my memory serve me correctly, they even gave you a liscence to install the tools on 2 or 3 different computers - thus incentivizing home usage.

I am not going to ask if you gus think this is bad because I think the answer will be obviously absolute disagreement by most Agorians. I am however curious about what effects do you think it will have on the students in the long term.


*IIRC they are called "Apple Certified School" where I live, but I think its still the same thing.

 

[№56]

A friend of mine who has two kids who go to public elementary schools told me that they do all their schoolwork through Google Classroom. The actual material is still designed by the teachers and approved by the school board, but the fact that it's all dependent on big tech to function is a little unsettling.
My gut reaction is to say that putting kids in front of screens all day at school is a bad thing that's going to stunt their development, but the old-fashioned way of making them fill out paper worksheets in classrooms where they're forced to sit still and remain silent isn't any better.

 

[manpaint]

My gut reaction is to say that putting kids in front of screens all day at school is a bad thing that's going to stunt their development (...)

Yeah, in the past, classroom would at least as a sort of mendated break from technology. Not so much anymore.

 

[how to drain your dragon]

Apple has been heavily in schools for donkey's years at this point, I'm pretty sure if the Newton hadn't been a huge fart of a device that you would have seen exactly something like that Distinguished School program back in the 90s.

 

[nakadashi]

Today I wanted to discuss a subject that I have personally witnessed but have literally seen zero discussion about it on the internet: Apple Distinguished Schools and Office 365 in schools.*.

Back in 2017-2018, I did an internship at a "school computer recycling factory". Said factory was below a school. Although I technically did not attend said school as a student, I was allowed to be with the other students as I was a student at the time. Now this was mostly during recess, but on one occasion I got a glimpse of a classroom due to some event.

So basically, the classroom were mostly if not totally devoid of paper. Every students had a iPad lended by the school. Everything was done on tablets and the school took great pride in it. The Apple logo was on many walls. I think the only non-technological Apple thing in the entire classroom were probably the SmartBoard and the teenagers' personal phones.

At the school I was actually studying at, everything was increasingly done via Office 365. Now Microsoft being in the school room is obviously nothing new, but before it was mostly limited to their operating system and their office suite. Even before COVID, the online service was heavily being pushed. It should be noted that every students had a school account automatically made. If my memory serve me correctly, they even gave you a liscence to install the tools on 2 or 3 different computers - thus incentivizing home usage.

I am not going to ask if you gus think this is bad because I think the answer will be obviously absolute disagreement by most Agorians. I am however curious about what effects do you think it will have on the students in the long term.


*IIRC they are called "Apple Certified School" where I live, but I think its still the same thing.

I think it's neat. The school system is a failed model anyway in most of the west side of the Atlantic imo, so if I was a child and they forced me to attend some shitty classes and give me the option to use pen and paper or an iPad, guess which one I'd be choosing.
There is some interesting debate about data collection from kids, but I think you just gave the best counter argument, these kids already have phones they carry everywhere. Is not like big tech doesn't already know everything of them.
Finally I would add that I would rather use pen and paper than anything Microsoft lel.

 

[manpaint]

I think it's neat. The school system is a failed model anyway in most of the western side of the Atlantic imo, so if I was a child and they forced me to attend some shitty classes and give me the option to use pen and paper or an iPad, guess which one I'd be choosing.
There is some interesting debate about data collection from kids, but I think you just gave the best counter argument, these kids already have phones they carry everywhere. Is not like big tech doesn't already know everything of them.
Finally I would add that I would rather use pen and paper than anything Microsoft lel.

I mean, regardless of whatever a pen or a iPad is used, I don't think this changes the core issue with the school system IMO.

 

[4d1]

I am however curious about what effects do you think it will have on the students in the long term

i think its advantageous cause in the workplace you gotta know how to use stuff - although zoomers are supposed to be "internet residents" the majority of them dont actually know how to use anything that isnt baby-made instagram/tiktok/dopamine bs. they need to know how to use work apps and devices that arent a phone for actual productive tasks

its a bit iffy cause big tech has this in their hands logging kids stuff and from a "screen bad eyes hurt" perspective, but its also good from a productive perspective; no one uses paper any more besides in official instances where you need printed copies/signatures. its more efficient to get them digitally working for a digital age

 

[4d1]

I mean, regardless of whatever a pen or a iPad is used, I don't think this changes the core issue with the school system IMO.

yeah. school is fuarked whether digital or physical. it needs a complete redesign, but unfortunately as some person in charge once said (i cant remember who) "we need workers not thinkers" and unfortunately most people are predestined to be good employees not overthrowers of anyone else haha

nonetheless, this is a different conversation entirely lol

 

[WKYK]

Technology is a tool that teachers can use to enhance learning, the quality of educations from public schools will always be determined by the quality of teachers. I was extremely lucky to go to public schools with nice teachers who genuinely cared about the children they were teaching. We used IPads in late elementary and middle school, and then laptops in highschool. The actual teaching was always done in person, with teachers giving lectures on a whiteboard and interacting with the class. The technology was only used for assignments, but even then some classes like math still assigned homework on paper so students could show their work.

Technology isn't inherently bad in schools imo, but if a crappy school has money to spend they should invest in quality teachers rather than IPads.

 

[8310]

Today I wanted to discuss a subject that I have personally witnessed but have literally seen zero discussion about it on the internet: Apple Distinguished Schools and Office 365 in schools.*.

Back in 2017-2018, I did an internship at a "school computer recycling factory". Said factory was below a school. Although I technically did not attend said school as a student, I was allowed to be with the other students as I was a student at the time. Now this was mostly during recess, but on one occasion I got a glimpse of a classroom due to some event.

So basically, the classroom were mostly if not totally devoid of paper. Every students had a iPad lended by the school. Everything was done on tablets and the school took great pride in it. The Apple logo was on many walls. I think the only non-technological Apple thing in the entire classroom were probably the SmartBoard and the teenagers' personal phones.

At the school I was actually studying at, everything was increasingly done via Office 365. Now Microsoft being in the school room is obviously nothing new, but before it was mostly limited to their operating system and their office suite. Even before COVID, the online service was heavily being pushed. It should be noted that every students had a school account automatically made. If my memory serve me correctly, they even gave you a liscence to install the tools on 2 or 3 different computers - thus incentivizing home usage.

I am not going to ask if you gus think this is bad because I think the answer will be obviously absolute disagreement by most Agorians. I am however curious about what effects do you think it will have on the students in the long term.


*IIRC they are called "Apple Certified School" where I live, but I think its still the same thing.

Our School provided us with iPads this year. We use OneNote on them. You need WiFi if you want to distribute files and for shared notes and such. Guess what happens when you give a bunch of teenagers iPads with barely any Internet restriction. They all start playing online games instead of paying attention.This is prohibited but the teachers can barely even catch you given that you can quickly close the tab or switch applications. My Grades actually got worse at the start of the year. Atleast they let us choose between iPads and good ol' Paper. Will be using that thing for archiving my handwritten notes and the occasional Kahoot and such after my summer break.

 

[4d1]

the quality of educations from public schools will always be determined by the quality of teachers

very true

a good teacher defines how well you do 100%

even if you enjoy a subject it demoralises you so much if you dont have a good teacher