Classrooms Without iPads

I complained about this regularly when it started in EANES, but my concerns fell on deaf ears.

Cedar Creek, Hill Country Middle, and Westlake High School Parent Documented at EISD Focus Group: I have seen the progression of the use of the ipad from my oldest to youngest. Youngest- hurries through work so he can play on games . He is not doing great in math and that is a class that uses the ipad a good bit. 8th and 10th grader- complained about math recently and said “I just want to be able to print out my math.” Also, she said writing is all done on the ipad. They wish they could print it and out review in print. Also, some teachers use the ipad as a crutch and babysitter. So many boys are coming out of Westlake really struggle. They are so addicted to screens. All of the homework is done on the ipad- 2 hours. Kids start wishing they had other teachers that use the ipad less.

Bridge Point Elementary Parent Documented at EISD Focus Group: My second grader had a picture pop up on her ipad that asked “do you want to f--k?” in the middle of class. She can never unsee this. This was hard. I was booster club president at the time and tough situation. What guidelines are teachers getting? How can we stop incidents like these from happening?

Cedar Creek, Hill Country Middle, and Westlake High School Parent Documented at EISD Focus Group: We are using consumer devices for educational tools. Ipads were never designed for education. There has been a gamification of education. There is a lot of positive but concerns too. When EISD introduced the 1:1 ratio, I asked for the science to justify starting the ipad initiative. I still have not seen it. What improvements have we seen to show that all of this is really preparing them for college. At some point, let’s stop relying on our gut and actually look at the data. This is a big deal.

Cedar Creek and Westlake High School Parent Documented at EISD Focus Group: She explained when the ipads first started being rolled out, they did not realize for an entire year that once you leave the school premises the kids have unfettered access to the internet. My children saw things they should never have seen. We are very conservative. I was present and trying. There are many parents where both parents work and don’t have as much time to monitor. All tech is a tool but it is like a loaded weapon in the hands of people who do not know how to use it. You teach 5th graders about sex education in 5th grader. You don’t wait too long or start too early. Where is the talk on responsible digital behavior? The school sent an ipad to my house with zero filter. It was not until my son went to 6th grade that I got an email from the school that there is no filter. If you would like to “opt in” this how you do. Do you know how many kids stumbled on awful content? I don’t care what educational value it has. And yes, it is a total time waster. It is a distraction.

Cedar Creek Parent Documented at EISD Focus Group: She is concerned about the amount of time kids are on screens in the classroom. At my home, she is constantly battling screen time wants schools to do a better job with how much screen time is in the classroom. Why are we offering so much screen time at such young age? She has a child with ADHD. She turns her kids over to the school district for 7 to 8 hours and needs the schools to be better when it comes to screen time because it hits kids hard. I was talking with a friend yesterday, she said last year a kinder boy was able to talk into ipad through siri- at school and able to say into the ipads “siri show me photos of girls butts.” What popped up? Images and images of inappropriate pictures of girls’ butts! I did not believe it so I went to Cedar Creek yesterday and tested it with the principal, Tanya Fiske and my daughter’s teacher and we confirmed together that this can be done.. These kids are too little to have this much access to the Internet. If a 6-year-old boy can figure this out, what can a 10 year old do? Or high school student? Do you just take away siri? We need to think through why a kinder needs siri or a browser. Part of the problem is being aware- making sure the teachers know. Parents are sometimes embarrassed but the teacher last year should have told the tech person. Maybe there is a form – whenever there is tech issue – let’s document it so we can address it as a school district.

Our youngest is moving on to middle school this year and I do see some more practical applications of the technology there (although it's still hard to control). I am opposed to iPad use in elementary school

Parents were told initial iPad rollout was to enable the students to have all their textbooks (20 lbs. worth!) downloaded onto their iPad. Unfortunately, in spite of firewalls, kids found hacks to access innappropriate material (porn, games, etc.) on their iPads. When my kids were at WHS, each teacher expected students to download one to several apps to be used in that classroom. The kids wasted valuable time downloaded many apps, trying to get them to work, dealing with glitches and more. It added so much stress to their school life! Maybe a Kindle with ONLY school textbooks could be used. Let's go back to pen and paper which are important tactile learning supplies. Also, students should be submitting work DURING CLASS and not at midnight on the weekends. Please remove iPads from classrooms and leave the technology to the parents or the tech class!

There is no reason to have IPADS for the kids. The number one school district in Texas, Highland Park doesn’t use them, they are ahead of us every year. Perhaps we should evaluate other top schools and what they are and aren’t doing.

iPads should not be used in Eanes isd

No iPads in younger grades (or at least no internet browser access on the iPads), and the district should carefully and specifically track how much time is spent on the ipads per child/per teacher and on what apps/tasks.

My youngest is 5th grade this year, so will be moving on to middle school, but I agree with other comments that there is no need for iPads in K-2nd grades, and then very limited use in 3-5th.

giving an ipad to even kindergarten is not acceptable.

Children don't need to LEARN how to work on an iPad, they were designed specifically to have zero learning curve.

thank you for this initiative!! I am also of the idea that the less screen time they have, the better.

While iPads can be great for learning, too much freedom for young minds can be dangerous when they can't even comprehend the consequences. In addition, electronics in general are getting out of control and kids spend far too much time on them therefore hindering the development of their social skills and missing out on the world around them. Do we really want to start this process at such a young age??? I say absolutely not.

our kids are missing out, the ability to free form , to look at a math problem and , having scratch paper, take the messy way to solve a problem or work it backwards. The tech limits the individual perspective. Our kids should be learning how to think, not how to think like Apple.

Incoming kinder. My children will not be allowed to participate in this program. I’m frankly shocked this is an issue.

At a time when parents are trying to monitor/limit screen time, it feels like the school district is working against us. The downsides of the iPads outweigh any benefits - particularly in the elementary schools.

The iPads serve no educational purpose whatsoever. They only serve to shorten attention spans and undermine the didactic purpose of primary education.