It is easy to have this satanic panic about phones and there’s some validity to concerns. But the reality is teachers on their phones, obsessed with internet following and many edu leaders acting in the worst way online . I don’t think the kids are the issue tbh

No value just “innovation points “

Mobile phones to be banned in schools in England under new plans Government amendment to children’s wellbeing and schools bill to replace existing guidance with statutory ban

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Today, a teacher exhorted one of my children’s classes ( they are all 13/14) to “follow my TikTok /youtube” to learn the subject .

So exactly what are we doing here?

Also bans don’t work as every secondary has children with booze, energy drinks and vapes..

Well the excuse is that the course is newish so there isn’t the range but surely they could think up stuff ?

They don’t even give them exam q’s now. If it isn’t on the aqa website they are told to use chat gpt to generate possible questions

Might I add all these teachers are on or above 50 k

I have had in previous schools seen parents refuse drug tests for children who we found smoking weed onsite or under possible influence- because they’d smoked as a family the same weekend
So I don’t think a phone ban will
Work

Agree - and as a safeguarding issue the number of teachers filming children on their phones for TikTok etc… LADO don’t address it. But it is incoherent to allow that but “ban” phones. Also we ban booze, knives, red bull and they bring it in so..

I worked at that college years back and we proposed a range of student careers resources including a podcast - not ai- and were told there would be zero interest. I find it gross that they have to engage with this as the only revision content provided by the college.

Also the tech harms conference by the wonderful group at UCL, but sponsored by Google and kaspersky …

This is what she and her friends want- the sources and some insight remarks from the tutors- these are a* to b students who have offers from
Oxbridge and more.. they deserve better all of them. Whatever grade. And the lower attaining students are super at risk from this

downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/responsib...

I present this as a good example of “let’s enable harm while calling it literacy and ethics”

I find it so disrespectful to give students, who are lambasted in the press for “addiction to A.I.”, this cobbled together A.I. rubbish.

If it is inaccurate- four weeks before exams begin- there is no recourse. Who is responsible? Also who will check?

I’d prefer anything over this mess

My 18 year old has been given a weekly A.I. generated a level history revision podcast- with quiz.
It is terrible and she is simply completing the (gen ai quiz) as I don’t believe the teachers have checked the podcast for accuracy.
There is no transcript, no captions and the quiz is badly written

There is an ai “literacy” project by the BBC and others that published recently and it ignores all the harms. Glosses over and makes it all about just use it. Exactly as you describe here.
As always I am in agreement with you.

So miss me with the AI literacy solutions. In fact, keep missing me until you propose “AI literacy” that teaches folks how these systems incorporate systemic oppression into its operations. That’s the kind of literacy we need.

What a loss, such a great human. Thoughts are with those close to him. Truly sad at this

Anyway, we don’t need ten apps and you don’t need Facebook
You need a good website, effective comms that you can easily get advice on, and that’s it. Just build it, they will come. Stop using social media as infrastructure and adding terrible facebook ai generated pics

I’m also just exhausted knowing that the same people racing to put more and more on Meta apps or whatever will still expect people like me to pick up the pieces and help when it all goes wrong by 2027

I am so bone tired of the argument that Facebook is good for community. In the 80s and 90s we had vibrant school communities- imperfect but alive- and then we destroyed it with apps for everything and forcing people to swim in Meta sewage to get info on bake sales or uniform.

There is a real sadness watching schools accelerate into more tech and social media adoption, all while the same tech/socials are openly run against every core value that any school claims to have.
So respect, safety, kindness, ethics don’t matter if there are likes to be had

The “influencer economy “‘replaced “my uncle Jim never worked and now he’s rich” of the 90’s- and teachers are sucked into this mess. Too many schools think likes and online “personal brand” is a viable income and it isn’t. Everything about it is about exploiting you and using your work.

Schools also will not prepare young people for the world of work while teachers are incentivised to become
Influencers and overshare online- all things that can count against you in the corporate world. Your best bet for employment is head down, keep quiet, tiny digital footprint. Unlike schools

I sadly think that to succeed in education today you have to submit to a cult mentality of neon envelopes, 💯 attendance and turn and talk ableist rubbish. I don’t doubt many new teachers have great skills but they aren’t encouraged to use them

All those critical skills we are defunding in favour of ai literacy and more. Also private schools are dominating in degree apprenticeships because they understand the working world and entrance exams mirror assessment centres. Sad fact: many schools think that work looks like 1995

Also sadly too many people go into schools from external orgs and fail to challenge ideas because schools don’t welcome that.

My local sixth form tells all 4000 students to apply for jobs by post -in neon envelopes - or handing out CVs

Again for those at the back: the issue is that too many adults in education have a 1990’s view of the workplace and think ai literacy and neon envelopes and ties are what happens.

I wish I could spend all day on Twitter uploading pervert glasses footage, posting profanity and then deleting it all a week later, and still be considered so competent and insightful that I’d be invited to “advise “the U.K. government.

One of the men I know of who uses these pervert glasses a lot is a paid member of a U.K. DSIT committee on cybersecurity.

Do with that what you will

It never ceases to amaze me how many women especially in tech but across sectors, will line up to convince other women to accept crumbs from tables they should be flipping, or tell other women their terrible experiences don’t exist because THEY got promoted etc

I’m against phone bans, and all the associated mess. Especially when schools continue to post children on TikTok and online, film in classrooms and use edtech that shares data that impacts children for life . Bans never work. Young people bring in vapes, drugs, energy drinks ,booze -all banned