Chapotraphouse

I had an SAT prep class where the math section was entirely online and some guys learned that if you watch porn on the school's computer it'll block you from logging on but not say why so at one point most of the boys just couldn't do their work

Yeah when I was in high school we discovered an exploit on Chrome that would let you download files despite the content control blocking any downloads for non admins. So I hosted a bunch of pirated games on a google drive, and my friends and I would distribute it. Then everybody would be playing Minecraft or CS 1.6 LANs in class and in the after school detention room. Shit was awesome

Open source textbooks are an intriguing idea - basically like Wikipedia but in print.

Then you just have to figure out how to gate the nutters from editing, and a tremendous amount of cooperative oversight to ensure the record is factual.

The challenge is that so many people choose to live divorced from objective reality.

The CIA implemented laptops because they were tired of me writing Joseph Stalin's name as the borrower's name in the front of the textbook instead of my name.

It's okay though I bet the laptops are very high quality and durable they probably last for 20 years with no need for repairs or replacement

No more computer labs , give everyone a plastic thin client that connects to a multinational private entity with SaaS up the ass.

Computers are no longer a tool, but an additional limb.

It's probably more than 50 dollars for a textbook but absolutely, they are still paying exhorbitant fees for the digital works, and buying new ones when their old ones are still good. It's not like there are advances changing these subjects, math, history, economics, political science, you name it, buy it once and own it, and reprint the same book. Print an addendum to add new information if you want. But there is no reason to get a new math book every few years. Algebra hasn't changed one bit in lifetimes.

I don't even think any of that was intended. It was just a massive handout to Apple, Google, and other tech companies and a diversion of resources from teaching/education to hardware and apps. Coincidently it also made us all dumber which was a nice bonus for the capitalists.

Plus allowing private interests in league with the government to steal the biometrics of every student.

Yeah, journalists can be very naive, taking the capitalists or the state at face value. Destroying critical thinking and literary skills was the goal. They've admitted over and over that schools exists to create the next generation of workers, not to create helathy thriving individuals that can go on to realize their dreams and do whatever they put their minds to.

Imo the bigger concern for COVID is the brain damage and other lasting symptoms caused by long COVID, which is now the most prevalent chronic illness in children.

I taught as a substitute during / slightly after covid. These kids had no motivation. They would show up, take a nap, ask if they could leave early. I saw a kid with a 3% in his class.

They were provided with no support, nobody cared about them or how things were at home, no interventions to identify the problem. School districts are too scared to fail children as well, they receive less funding, or risk a parent screaming and threatening lawsuits.

I was subbing these 6th graders once, standing on tables, screaming, not doing any of their work. I gave about an hour for each assignment, but there weren't any markers in the room that would let me teach the lesson plan to the class.

Because Minecraft Education Edition is installed on all their laptops, they would play with each other for ~55 minutes, then I'd tell them to wrap up their work and they'd say they weren't given enough time to do their 15 questions they were assigned. I called them out for playing minecraft and they were so shocked that I knew what the game was, like it didn't come out when I was their age lol.

I really can't blame the kids though, it was the same when I was going to school, plenty of kids who had working or uninvolved parents. Now they're at school and the teachers are uninvolved as well, administration will gladly spend millions they don't have to grift some new AI tool that will never be used.

My mother, thankfully, was involved deeply when we came home from school as a child. I'd get home at 3, had an hour to play outside or watch TV while she cooked, then after dinner it was homework / studying until bedtime.

What parent can be involved in their children this much, now, in the west? I'm not talking 💩 but a lot of my peers are having children only as an accessory, just following the motions of what society is expecting of them. How many people would sacrifice the time to make sure their children are nurtured to the best of their abilities? Schools were good enough to mask that problem, but they've gotten so bad to reveal all the flaws.

The really "cool" thing about the Chromebooks is that it isn't even teaching them how to use a real computer as a byproduct, because ChromeOS abstracts away and hides all the actual workings of the computer.

there's probably an importance of learning how to use traditional methods before using the technology that is revolutionizing processes. especially, when the technology is not democratically controlled.

certainly, professional researchers start with electronic, indexed archives because that's fast and easy. but any sort of delve into records shows how patchwork the availability of historical and even recent information can be in indexed or even digital records. and some of that migration is deeply political.

the authors i've known who have dropped some severe knowledge bombs using critical analysis have had to go to physical archives and look through actual paper media, sometimes in distant places, to find the treasure.

and that's just in the highly developed world.

another thing that's wild about digital archives is that, while they can be made available for distribution around the world.... just as easily, they can be deleted in seconds forever by a single person. for a long time before digital records, one had to shred and burn shitloads of documents to permanently destroy them.

I wonder which generation made it so that the internet and technology were all bottom feeding black box products that depend on psychological manipulation and addiction.

It's millenials. Zuckerberg is 41. Altman is 40. But that just shows that capitalism ruins everything and every generation has it's shitty capitalists(all of them).

I always had people be like "Look how generous these tech companies are giving away free computers to elementary schools." And I was, even as a child like, 'Yeah its real generous to get someone to become familiar with your product when they are young, so when they buy things or ask their parents to buy things, they naturally gravitate to your product."

Generous my ass.