Does "Peter Scandal-son" not work because you need the first bit (a rhyme is perhaps less effective than alliteration)?

Today has been fun with blocks and mutes. As ever, the lessons are plain, and will be ignored: short-form social is a shit place for discourse; most people resort to nastiness incredibly quickly (Bluesky has a special penchant for pass-agg rudeness); social media is a pointless, poisonous time-suck.

I mean, it's a datapoint, and a valid one (unless SLT are lying through their teeth...). I don't know what you think my agenda is, but honestly, there's none above providing evidence for this debate. The fact you've chosen to interpret it as some kind of campaign says more about you than me.

Sorry, what Kool-Aid? Are you saying criticising edtech is some kind of wild conspiracy? Not sure what your point is.

I am "Shazam was an 0898 number" years old.

That's interesting. How much has technology addressed the causes of that lawlessness? I'm finding some interesting parallels with the corporate world: the tech often helps us do the busy-work, but it also creates its own busy-work, too, and additionally creates a dependency on the tech.

I vaguely wanted to train ChatGPT on my past work, partly to see if it could learn my style, and partly to see if it could be a decent archivist for me. It's got about 12 pieces in, and got bored...

Exactly. Listening to some of the arguments, it feels like schools 30 years ago must have been lawless hellscapes of unimaginable risk and inefficiency.

I tend to agree - flexibility is really valuable. All I can say is that I don't *object* to a ban, having seen positive effects in our school. Sounds like your kids place has deeper problems (solutions to which, of course, might include getting kids away from smartphones to improve their attention)

Yeah, that's probably a bit unfair. But people in this debate are saying, "we can't manage without smartphones" for tasks that were done at a fraction of the cost without them ten years ago. Ditto parent comms: how did we managed before Weduc!?! Well, TBH, it was cheaper and better...

The Y7 ban is going OK for out staff; obvs MMV. But I think in general there's been an over-reliance on tech, and often tech "designed for education" is just a way of creating supplier dependence because they know hard-pressed, inexpert SBMs are an easier sell than corporates.

Clever AI, too, maybe? (I wish I was better at recalling stuff from January, but honestly I've forgotten most of the questions I asked in an interview yesterday! 👨‍🦳)

I feel for you. That sounds like a classic edtech rip to capture education budgets. I know the balance between tech benefits and costs in our school is massively tilted the wrong way. We could do so much more with the money we spend on tech; it has some plusses, but so many minuses...

My admiration for your wife's tolerance grows with every interaction.

Citing the union's official policy and telling "all teachers support this" is... well, it's kind of funny.

Well, we can already surmise she's a very tolerant person. That always helps.

We'd do better to make people pass a qualification to be parents. Obviously not! (Bluesky gonna Bluesky...) But the lack of awareness about development and care among parents is *staggering*. People in this debate, for example, saying smartphones are *essential* for tracking kids... I mean...

We'd need a *bunch* of extra resources in PSHE and IT to make that happen, and I suspect would be like a candle in a hurricane. No objection to managing edge cases (which we do all the time) but I've never found managing to the exceptions (as opposed to exception management) works very well.

You know, maybe you're right. Those crappy teachers are just whiny idiots who should do their job better so people can offload parenting to tech. TBH, I'm a bit ashamed I hadn't understood that before. No further response needed, you've nailed it.

I used to be a libertarian, too...

Nope. IMHO the entire education system needs an overhaul, right down to its purposes. But absent that, I will support anything that makes it easier for teachers to teach and kids' brains to develop in more diverse ways.

I agree, and one of my big concerns is that KCSIE is becoming an unworkable tome of Making Sure Nothing Bad Ever Happens And Ensuring We Can Blame Teachers If It Does. (I'm all for safeguarding; sanitising, not so much.) But if we're gonna create safe places to teach, a phone ban feels... fine?

A change in the law is also great cover for teachers: "not my judgment, I have no leeway here, the law says you shouldn't have your phone here, detention and pick it up at the end of the week..." No point wheedling and bargaining if you know the counter-party can't negotiate...

Well, a change in the law gives excellent cover to SLTs facing resistance from parents and pupils. I know the head has spent non-zero hours dealing with helicopter parents who think being able to Find My their DD at all times is Good Parenting.

It's working well with our Year 7s. SLT is rolling out a creeping ban and the effects are clear enough to maintain it as they move into Y8 and the new crop comes in. FWIW is also think "you can bring it but not use it" is far harder for teachers, too. (I had to enforce this during ITT...)

Obviously requiring a smartphone for homework is insane. But in the same way we allow a phone in the living room but not in the bedroom (a policy I apply to myself now, with excellent effects!) I don't think it's too much of a stretch to compartmentalise like that.

Our school has tolled out a creeping ban, which started with Year 7 this year. It's almost entirely positive. Better playground interactions, less bullying, more focus. One or two parents have bleated about tracking their kids but that's just helicopter parent insanity.

Might the IT provision be the problem, then?

Is it $71.4bn or $74.1bn? Asking for the subs who want oversight on the graphics dept.

Up to a point, Lord Copper. Feeling like you need to see what all the fuss is about by downloading an app vs. liking that app vs. using it regularly vs. having an emotive response to its underlying technology... they're all very different, no?