Joanne Jacobs
Phone-free schools: Can it be done?
California is getting on the no-phones-in-class bandwagon , reports AP. Gov. Gavin Newsom wants school districts to restrict students’...
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Joanne Jacobs
Jul 241 min
Post-Covid kids are unfocused, poorly behaved and -- surprise! -- learning less
Student behavior hasn't recovered from the pandemic, says a federal survey of public schools.
Joanne Jacobs
Jul 22 min
'We are talking 4- and 5-year-olds who are throwing chairs, biting, hitting ... '
Covid toddlers are now in school, and teachers say many are not doing very well, report Claire Cain Miller and Sarah Mervosh in the New...
Joanne Jacobs
Jun 232 min
No phones, no Moms, just kids playing in the park
Parents should band together to "say 'no' to smart phones and social," writes Laura Yuen in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. She dreams of...
Joanne Jacobs
May 52 min
How a middle school kicked the phone habit
Smartphones are a major classroom distraction, say nearly three-fourths of high school teachers and a third of middle school teachers in...
Joanne Jacobs
Mar 302 min
Japan uses more adult diapers than baby diapers
A Japanese company will stop making diapers for babies and shift production to adult diapers, reports the BBC. Adult diapers have been a...
Joanne Jacobs
Mar 243 min
Childhood's end
Phone-centered childhood is a disaster, writes Jonathan Haidt in The Atlantic. In the early 2010s, "adolescents in rich countries traded...
Joanne Jacobs
Mar 132 min
Teens love their smartphones -- but some say it's 'peaceful' to be phone-free
Seventy-two percent of teenagers say they often or sometimes feel "peaceful" when they're without their smartphones, according to a Pew...
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 292 min
'For All Mankind' celebrates courage, competence, resilience
I'm a fan of the Apple+ series For All Mankind, which imagines an alternative reality in which the Soviet Union reaches the moon first,...
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 182 min
The Finnish miracle is finished, but why?
Finland! Finland! Finland! Twenty years ago, Finland's top-of-the-world PISA scores made it "the most widely celebrated and imitated...
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 142 min
Present and paying attention: Smartphone detox is worth it
Smartphone detox is difficult, but worth it, writes Seth Lavin, principal of a Chicago middle school. After his school equipped...
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 102 min
Truancy is the 'new normal' -- and a growing business
Tracking down absent students and persuading their parents to get them to school every day is a booming business, writes Alex MacGillis...
Joanne Jacobs
Dec 23, 20232 min
Ban phones in school: The experiment with kids' minds has failed
Smart phones are making students less smart, writes Derek Thompson in The Atlantic. Student achievement has been falling around the world...
Joanne Jacobs
Dec 15, 20231 min
It matters how kids read: On-screen reading doesn't build comprehension
It doesn't matter what kids read as long as they're reading, people often say. Maybe so. But for "developing readers," leisure reading...
Joanne Jacobs
Nov 5, 20232 min
Mom knows everything: Apps let parents track kids' schoolwork -- and drive them crazy
If only parents were involved in their children's education, teachers said, students would do so much better. If only teachers...
Joanne Jacobs
Sep 3, 20231 min
Fourth-graders are finding PornHub
Online porn is easily available to kids, addictive and destructive, writes Isabel Hogben, a runner-up in The Free Press's high school...
Joanne Jacobs
Aug 12, 20232 min
Easy come, easy go: Googling is bad for learning
Students don't need to learn facts, educators have been saying since the Cro-Magnon first learned to search the Internet. "They can just...
Joanne Jacobs
Jul 28, 20233 min
U.S. schools devalue academics, celebrate failure
Are you excessively cheerful? Did you turn your frown upside down and now it's stuck that way? David Steiner will remove your...
Joanne Jacobs
Jun 28, 20232 min
Set a bot to monitor a bot: Is the TA hallucinating?
Are two bots better than one? Georgia Tech is hoping its old-tech AI tutoring bot will keep its new-tech AI chatbot from "hallucinating,"...
Joanne Jacobs
Jun 9, 20231 min
Virtual Reality meets financial reality
Unable to afford Apple's new augmented reality headset, a Harrison, Arkansas man "has found the next best thing by "duct-taping his...
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