• rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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    1 hour ago

    Well, maybe a school-issued computer should be designed differently than a consumer device.

    Maybe such things should be considered beforehand.

    In industrial ergonomics you are supposed to, ideally, present a worker with a few buttons with abundantly clear results of pressing them and no forbidden combinations leading to unexpected\undefined\dangerous results.

    Kids sticking things into what’s given to them are not an unexpected event. I’d say kids doing that are better than kids not doing that. And if it’s expected, then this is almost entrapment.

    Oh, oh, OH, you can’t just put a consumer device with a web browser with Google and MS and Apple shit into schools then? No kickbacks from those companies? So fucking sad.

    Forcing a kid to wear around a centrally managed device with a microphone and a camera makes me want to vomit. That should be illegal as many other things. It’s a disgusting world.

    These should be military-level (by resilience to attempts to throw them out of the window, sink them in the water, overheat them and so on) devices with something like FreeDOS+OpenGEM. That’s by far enough to run school programs. If you think it’s not, then you are possessed by collective delusions, that’s a thing in crowd psychology, so drink a glass of water, listen to cars\birds, look at the sky and answer which fundamentally new tasks you need to solve as compared to having year 1999 Internet (as in open a static webpage, follow links, send forms), WordPerfect and Basic. Especially at school.

    We use axes, knives, hammers and screwdrivers and other stuff to do things, more or less as they existed 300 years ago, when we are not professionals, who of course use power tools.

  • FireWire400@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    Google didn’t respond to Ars Technica’s request for comment.

    To be fair, I don’t really see why they should. Chances are they didn’t factor in that level of stupidity when designing those things.

  • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    Sadly, this makes me miss when people pretended to slip and fall at the grocery store so they could throw milk jugs in the air and make a mess.

  • veee@lemmy.ca
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    9 hours ago

    It’d be a crying shame if the students were required to complete the school year with physical books and a notebook.

    • ButteredMonkey@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Normally that’s exactly what they would do if enough students destroyed their computers to blow through the loaners. The frustrating thing is this is happening right when schools are set to do state testing and state testing is mostly online now. This requires every student in the building to have a device at the same time. Normally all the loaners would be for kids who forgot theirs that day.

  • u/lukmly013 💾 (lemmy.sdf.org)@lemmy.sdf.org
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    11 hours ago

    the so-called Chromebook Challenge includes students sticking things into Chromebook ports to short-circuit the system.

    I am rather surprised that works. I thought any modern device would have overload protection in place. I think I even remember accidentally tripping it on some device, but it would just reset after reboot.
    I also tried to see the max output current of my previous phone this way. Load it up till the protection trips. Result: Stable up to 2.1A, tripped at 2.5A.

    Oh, yeah. A Xiaomi phone charger I have also shuts down if I either overload it or immediately load it near max rating rather than gradually increase the load.

  • jabathekek@sopuli.xyz
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    13 hours ago

    Perhaps it’s more like “Kids short-circuiting school issued chromebooks because of excessive surveillance.”

    …but probably not (or at least, not entirely) because many kids are dumb.

    source: was a dumb kid.

        • Warehouse@lemmy.ca
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          10 hours ago

          Which also meant that they had to seal them in…
          Which means that you couldn’t clean them out when they got dirty.
          Fun times.

      • ddh@lemmy.sdf.org
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        10 hours ago

        It’s school property with a camera and microphone in their homes lol

        • FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au
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          9 hours ago

          You’re assuming that they’re ones that leave the school property. You’re also assuming that they are constantly recording audio and video, which being chromebooks we know they’re most likely not since they’re low spec low storage devices since they’re cloud based.

  • ExtantHuman@lemm.ee
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    13 hours ago

    I don’t get it. I was never this stupid as a kid.

    Edit: thank you for explaining to me that many of you were that stupid. I guess I never hung around any of you.

    • Landless2029@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      Ditto. I grew up helping fix VCR by replacing displaced bands and gears. I knew to be careful not the let the magic smoke come out. Bad genie!

      • ExtantHuman@lemm.ee
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        14 hours ago

        I never intentionally destroyed expensive electronics to “try to impress” anyone in real life, let alone online (although that didn’t quite exist yet).

        So, yeah, I’m sure.

        • peregrin5@lemm.ee
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          14 hours ago

          When I was a kid schools didn’t have expensive electronics to destroy. But we sure drew a ton of penises in expensive textbooks.

        • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          14 hours ago

          My buddy stuck a paper clip in an electrical socket while we were in the cafeteria. Because his cousin had told him it would shoot sparks across the room. All it did was make him scream real loud, then the power to half of the cafeteria went out when the breaker blew.

          Another friend “accidentally” stapled his homework to his hand, to try and get out of going to music class. Apparently his plan was to ham it up and go to the nurse instead. The teacher laughed, called him an idiot, and sent him to music class with a band-aid.

          Kids have always been fucking stupid. The only difference is that now every kid has an internet-connected camera in their pocket, so their stupidity is more visible.

    • peregrin5@lemm.ee
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      14 hours ago

      I used to be a teacher in the 2010s. I remember boys having this ghost pepper challenge they would do that would put them in literal tears.

      I never stopped them. Some just have to learn through experience that being an idiot to impress your buds isn’t going to result in a good time for you.

    • rabber@lemmy.ca
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      14 hours ago

      I was. When the bell would ring and the halls were hectic I would put popcorn in the communal microwave and put like 20 min and leave and sometimes nobody would notice till it catches fire

      I almost burned down the school a couple times

        • rabber@lemmy.ca
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          13 hours ago

          Woah

          Dude I was like 12 and severely bullied haha I’m a grown up now with a mortgage and a job

          • ExtantHuman@lemm.ee
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            13 hours ago

            Dude, Sounds like you were old enough to understand that almost burning down your school intentionally, multiple times, was bad. Bullies or not. I’m not sure why you’re taken aback by someone thinking a little arsonist in training isn’t a good kid.

            • jabathekek@sopuli.xyz
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              7 hours ago

              IIRC constant abuse tends to ‘reset’ the brain to earlier points of development where there was no abuse as it attempts to find less painful behaviour patterns. This results in delayed development of certain areas of the brain; most notably the prefrontal cortex that is heavily involved with decision making and social behaviour but that isn’t fully developed until one reaches ~25 years old so I don’t know what you mean by “should be old enough to understand” because they clearly weren’t physically capable of it.

              Source is introductory psychology courses. One of my professors is a researcher in child development and worked a lot with kids like the person you’re replying too. Treating them like “pieces of shit” just leads to more damage, so chill out.

  • KelvarIW@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    13 hours ago

    As I age I find myself feeling more and more like the cool step-dad or uncle.

    Y’know I hate everything Chromebooks stand for. “You get 'em, kid. Now how about we get some pizza?”

  • Norin@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    Youthful rebellion transcends technology.

    Is there much difference between this and, say, using a pen to drill a hole in your desk?

      • TryingToActHuman@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        I’m not so sure about cheaper. A quick google search shows the desks I used in school are priced around $400-$600 depending on type (different subjects had different desks), whereas the Chromebooks are around $250. I definitely agree with your second point, though.

          • TryingToActHuman@lemmy.world
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            15 hours ago

            Chromebooks are designed to be cheap and disposable. I’ve seen some as low as ~$100. That doesn’t mean you can’t get some very expensive ones, but since they basically only allow you to use Google and a select few apps from the play store, I don’t know why the expensive ones exist.

            • ouRKaoS@lemmy.today
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              12 hours ago

              I got an EOL Chromebook for $50, dropped Mint on it & use it to run a 3D printer instead of a raspberry pi.

            • peregrin5@lemm.ee
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              13 hours ago

              I used to have one as my primary work device for a few years. Honestly, it was surprisingly usable once you find online analogs for all typical things you do on a computer.

              The biggest issue is you’d be using a free online service for some application, and then they start charging per month or the company goes under and you lose your work, so you have to keep finding new services and exporting your work to a common format that won’t disappear to a central file system like Drive diligently.

        • IllNess@infosec.pub
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          15 hours ago

          i don’t know much about school desk but I can get a nice standing desk for $600. That is nuts.

          Also I wonder if they sell replacement parts.

            • FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au
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              10 hours ago

              And isn’t rendered unusable by a “hole drilled by a pen”. The person comparing a desk to a Chromebook is making a ridiculous comparison.

          • TryingToActHuman@lemmy.world
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            15 hours ago

            I’m sure the schools don’t pay that much for the desks (or the Chromebooks) since they buy in bulk – those are just the prices I could find for single units. I was more trying to show the difference in price, rather than exactly how much the schools spend.

            • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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              13 hours ago

              Not even that, but they are simple and repairable. I remember we had these sleigh-style desks (same idea except the seat was one-piece molded plastic) that were a total of four parts (two rails, the seat and the desk top) aside from bolts/hardware, and they had a graveyard of parts to replace pieces as needed. And those desk were tough as all hell.

              • pirat@lemmy.world
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                10 hours ago

                Sounds great, but… unfortunately, it seems impossible to tilt on the chair with those, which I see as an essential part of going to school.

                Also, the heights of the chair and table seem unadjustable, and it seems the pupil is seated too far away from the desktop to actually be comfortable.

                What a useless piece of piss. Yeah, at least it’s repairable, but is such a stupid piece of faulty furniture even worth repairing?

                • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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                  8 hours ago

                  Again, that was the style and not the exact ones we had, but yeah they were all fixed position, however ours weren’t too bad. I dunno, I don’t remember anyone complaining much, I was on the taller side of my peers and fit fine while I recall even the smaller kids were alright too. Id wager a big reason they were chosen was so kids couldn’t balance on the back legs, fall back and crack dome. They were great for cracking your back!

        • FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au
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          10 hours ago

          What sort of hole were you drilling in a desk with a pen in order to completely render the desk unusable?

    • Kami@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      15 hours ago

      Thank you, it’s relieving to see that some people don’t fall for the “kids today” bullshit

    • JaymesRS@literature.cafe
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      16 hours ago

      Yes they are. These 9th graders are feral though. That realization would require forethought.

      Some of these kids should have been sent out to cut trail for a year between HS and Middle School.

      • Warehouse@lemmy.ca
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        9 hours ago

        What does “cut trail” mean in this context? Do you mean literally going to walking trails and maintaining them? Is there precident for that?

      • mean_bean279@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        This is highly dependent on the state and even the areas within a state. Here in California for instance we have the Williams Act which lays out a ton of guidance. Some of which impact students paying for things at schools. Some districts in the state view Williams Act and 1:1 Chromebook deployments as being something that the student/parents aren’t responsible for paying for even when they purposefully damage it. This can change though from region to region in the state based on how a districts legal team and its board chooses to read the law since no one so far (at least as far as I was last aware and I work in edtech) has pushed to see where it stops or starts. I’ve worked for districts that were on separate ends of that spectrum and even in the district that made parents pay for damages we still would give them a replacement and not charge them since it was added to a “tab” and only if they wanted transcripts did they have to pay.

        • JaymesRS@literature.cafe
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          14 hours ago

          That’s fair. In my district your insurance is covered if you qualify for assistance, but intentional damage isn’t included in insurance.

          In my school we will still replace the Chromebook though (barring admin or district saying otherwise), and the financial impact will be fought by others at the district level. It’s above my pay grade.

  • Ryick@lemm.ee
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    14 hours ago

    If this were an unbiased and honest article; then it would read “Kids are short-circuiting their school-issued Chromebooks for social clout.” The subtle message, in this article, is TikTok = bad, which is illogical because events such as this will occur regardless of platform or even lack of a platform. It will ALWAYS happen. The question is how to mitigate these events as much as possible, because it’s impossible to completely eradicate “kids doing X for social clout.” It’s a part of learning and being human.

    • TowardsTheFuture@lemmy.zip
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      14 hours ago

      Yes but without tik tok this is a kid or two being stupid and charged a couple hundred at one school. I think we had 3 kids today at school destroy their laptops.

      • Ryick@lemm.ee
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        14 hours ago

        You can replace TikTok with any social media platform. That’s why this argument is illogical in that it blames TikTok.

        • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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          14 hours ago

          I don’t remember Friendster causing mayhem like this.

          Lemmy seems to not be spreading challenges either.

          You have a point, but TikTok has a unique power in this moment.

          And if the students did see it on TikTok, then it’s factual, specific, reporting.

          TikTok is at the forefront of designing algorithms that optimize for this sort of situation. Reddit isn’t. YouTube does not appear to be. They have their own issues, but it’s not exactly this sort of optimization.

          VRChat is another social network not optimized around incentivizing this mimicking and reposting behavior.

          Snapchat is not built around this sort of algorithm either.

          • Ryick@lemm.ee
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            13 hours ago

            If it had happened on Friendster; then it would have been because of the specific user(s) creating and posting such content, not because of the platform. To say platform = bad because a user or users post negatively affecting content is a sweeping generalization which does not reflect reality, meaning that the negative connotation of TikTok = bad is still incorrect. The users which created and posted such content, in this case, are to blame.

            If students see such content on social media; then the first thought should not be: platform bad; it should be: who posted it, and for what reason(s).

            • TowardsTheFuture@lemmy.zip
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              13 hours ago

              It can be an issue with the people starting these challenges while also being an issue with the way tiktok works with sharing these copycat videos on the platforms algorithm.

              I don’t think “omg tiktok bad” but in the case of these dumb challenges, it is one of the few things I can see people actually pointing at when saying tiktok is bad, rather than “but china.”

              • Ryick@lemm.ee
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                13 hours ago

                it is one of the few things I can see people actually pointing at when saying TikTok is bad

                Yes, and this article reinforces that idea, regardless of whether or not TikTok = bad is correct, which is my point.

    • w3dd1e@lemm.ee
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      13 hours ago

      Yeah, could have been called “kids are learning how circuits work thanks to TikTok trend” and suddenly the story has a whole other meaning

  • Wildfire0Straggler3@lemm.ee
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    16 hours ago

    Fuck chromebooks anyways, Google shouldn’t be allowed to steal so much information about our youth directly from the devices they use at school. They should be using laptops with Linux installed on them, preferably PopOS to preserve the kids privacy.

    I don’t condone damaging school property, although I think it’s a lesser evil to Google’s privacy practices on Chromebooks.

      • Wildfire0Straggler3@lemm.ee
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        10 hours ago

        Pop!OS is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution featuring a custom GNOME desktop.

        It is designed to have a minimal amount of clutter on the desktop without distractions in order to allow the user to focus on work.

        This distro was also designed with security and privacy in mind.

        So students can more easily focus on their work while also being more secure and private while using an easy to use interface, I know it’s not the only one but its a good one!

        https://system76.com/pop/security/

    • 🗑️😸@lemm.ee
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      12 hours ago

      I’m with you, but that’s not the reason these kids are doing this. It’s because they are idiots.