'Staggering' Education Inequality Caused During Pandemic by Overreliance on Tech, Says UN Agency (sanjuandailystar.com) 215
A United Nations report "says that overreliance on remote learning technology during the pandemic led to 'staggering' education inequality around the world," reports the New York Times. The 655-page report from the United Nations' education/culture agency UNESCO asks if we've just experienced a worldwide "ed-tech tragedy."
Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: Some of the main findings of the report include:
1. The promise of education technology was overstated
2. Remote online learning worsened education disparities
3. Learning was hindered and altered
4. Regulation and guardrails are needed.
Remember that the report covers countries around the world, with different levels of economic development. One section of the report is actually titled, "Most learners were left behind," citing estimates that "at least half of all students expected to access remote learning systems to continue their education were unable to do so due to technology gaps... In many parts of the world, accessing education via a technology portal was so uncommon and so unrealistic that many families did not even know that the option existed when schools closed." This should not have come as a particular surprise. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the specialized agency of the United Nations for ICT, estimated that approximately 3.7 billion people — roughly half of the world's population — lacked a functional internet connection in 2020... Countries around the world invested heavily in internet-connected solutions for education, even though these solutions commonly reached only a minority of students, resulting in a bifurcation of educational opportunity.
The report begins with a warning from the agency's assistant director-general for education. "Ultimately, we should heed this publication's recommendation to exercise greater humility and caution when considering the educational promise of the latest technological marvels."
Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: Some of the main findings of the report include:
1. The promise of education technology was overstated
2. Remote online learning worsened education disparities
3. Learning was hindered and altered
4. Regulation and guardrails are needed.
Remember that the report covers countries around the world, with different levels of economic development. One section of the report is actually titled, "Most learners were left behind," citing estimates that "at least half of all students expected to access remote learning systems to continue their education were unable to do so due to technology gaps... In many parts of the world, accessing education via a technology portal was so uncommon and so unrealistic that many families did not even know that the option existed when schools closed." This should not have come as a particular surprise. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the specialized agency of the United Nations for ICT, estimated that approximately 3.7 billion people — roughly half of the world's population — lacked a functional internet connection in 2020... Countries around the world invested heavily in internet-connected solutions for education, even though these solutions commonly reached only a minority of students, resulting in a bifurcation of educational opportunity.
The report begins with a warning from the agency's assistant director-general for education. "Ultimately, we should heed this publication's recommendation to exercise greater humility and caution when considering the educational promise of the latest technological marvels."
Staggering Inequality (Score:2, Insightful)
1. Life is not fair. It never has been.
2. Some people did better remote learning than in person. Most did not.
3. The tech worked well in some places, and not in others.
4. See point 1.
Re: (Score:2)
Agree.
But you left out "tough shit".
Re:Staggering Inequality (Score:4, Insightful)
Also, the side order of "I got mine, fuck you".
Re: (Score:2)
Also, the side order of "I got mine, fuck you".
...brought to you by Brawdo, the thirst mutilator, & Carl's Jr. "Fuck you, I'm eating!"
I think Mike Judge captured the 'Murican psyche with aplomb.
Re:Staggering Id10tcy (Score:5, Insightful)
1. "Life isn't fair" is a terrible excuse for making life less fair.
2. "Some" and "most" is a terrible way to quantify this. Was "some" 1%? 3%? Judging from my kids' schools, it was less than 5% even in a rich county.
3. Yes, it mostly worked well in neighborhoods with lots of existing privilege, and poorly in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
4. See point 1.
Re:Staggering Id10tcy (Score:4, Informative)
1. "Life isn't fair" is a terrible excuse for making life less fair.
Indeed. And in this case, it was clear that the policies were unfair as soon as they were enacted.
Within weeks, there was data that showed upper-middle-class kids were adapting while e-learning was a disaster for poor kids.
Data also showed that kids were not major spreaders of Covid, so keeping the schools closed was not justified. This was clear by August of 2020.
This was not a case of well-meaning policy that failed. This was a policy implemented with intentional callousness.
Covid learning loss has been a global disaster [economist.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Data also showed that kids were not major spreaders of Covid, so keeping the schools closed was not justified. This was clear by August of 2020.
Everyone's a spreader of COVID-19. There's nothing magical about being young & the day-to-day realities were complex & varied. Schools were a major concern for being "super-spreader" centres, i.e. prolonged periods of time confined indoors with large groups of people. However, schools are also typically highly controlled & controllable environments so that effective measures to reduce the risk of contagion were much easier to implement than in other places, e.g. Republican Party fundraising even
Re:Expectation management (Score:5, Interesting)
That is a gross oversimplification and distorts the facts so much as to make you argument completely invalid. If people had been disciplined in wearing masks, keeping distance, washing hands, and as soon as available, getting vaccinated, maybe this could have worked without lockdowns. And maybe not.
As it was, the medical system would have collapsed without lockdowns and then death rates would have gone up beyond what is sustainable. The lockdowns served to prevent a collapse of society and they were _needed_. Everybody ordering them was clear that they would have drastic negative effects. But the alternatives would have been a lot worse. The only reason the usual morons can now lie and claim they were not needed because they were done.
Re: (Score:2)
As it was, the medical system would have collapsed without lockdowns
Nobody here is saying lockdowns weren't justified. Lockdowns and school closures were justified in the Spring of 2020 because we didn't yet know the epidemiology.
But by August/September, it was clear that kids weren't very susceptible and weren't significant spreaders. Many schools reopened and were fine.
Other schools remained closed for years, despite bars and restaurants reopening ... the exact opposite of what made sense.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
One quick bit of googling shows that the data is not nearly as clear-cut as you are portraying it.
"More than 70% of US household COVID spread started with a child, study suggests."
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cov... [umn.edu]
"Children's role in spread of virus bigger than thought."
https://news.harvard.edu/gazet... [harvard.edu]
"Children aged <10 years can transmit SARS-CoV-2 in school settings ..."
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volum... [cdc.gov]
"Evidence grows that children may play a larger role in transmission than previously believed ... kid
Re:Staggering Inequality (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Life is not fair. It never has been.
Why do people say this as if this is a good reason to not address inequality when it in fact is a self evident statement that not everyone is born on equal footing, that meritocracy doesn't actually exist because of that fact and that we should be striving so everyone has the same opportunities to succeed and choice of decisions so they can in fact make the right ones.
Re:Staggering Inequality (Score:5, Insightful)
Because they're (currently) benefiting from the non-fairness.
Or think they are.
Re: (Score:3)
New process of picking winners (Score:2, Insightful)
The solution to 'address inequality' never makes things more 'fair', whatever that is. It just picks different winners, in theory.
The interesting point is that whatever the proposed change, people will game it. In other words, the same people more-or-less end up on the winning side regardless of the rules. The complaining mostly results from having to change strategies to maximize their results.
The corollaries of that are left as an exercise for the reader.
Re: (Score:3)
You are doing it wrong. You have to create a society that isn't "winner takes all", so you can move beyond winners and losers.
There are societies where the vast majority of people "win" a decent quality of life and level of happiness.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Why do people say this as if this is a good reason to not address inequality when it in fact is a self evident statement that not everyone is born on equal footing, that meritocracy doesn't actually exist because of that fact and that we should be striving so everyone has the same opportunities to succeed and choice of decisions so they can in fact make the right ones.
The biggest factor in outcome is parental involvement, specifically:
- Both parents are present and involved in the life of their children.
- The parents read to their children on a regular and consistent basis.
- The parents are actively involved with the education of their children, wheter it be in-person or remote, public, private or homeschool.
Children raised in such an environment will have better outcomes on average than those who aren't. But "better outcomes" aren't "equal", and parents
Re: (Score:2)
Nobody gets to choose their parents. Yes everything you are describing sounds like absolutely correct advice I would confirm and would tell parents I was talking to directly or people in terms of life decisions. That said not everybody has kids when they are ready, not everyone has the finances or time or state of mind to do everything correct or many absolutely do make the effort and have the best intentions but not the tools and skills to make it effective, maybe because their parents weren't able to give
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
It's the nature of the human condition. There is an inherent desire to get ahead. All the wishful thinking and dumb fuck liberal policies in the world won't change that basic fact.
Re: (Score:3)
Dumbfuck right wing mantras aren't a substitute for reality.
Humans are also inherently cooperative and help each other. Even cavemen did. Especially cavemen did.
Re: (Score:2)
Why do people say this as if this is a good reason to not address inequality when it in fact is a self evident statement that not everyone is born on equal footing, that meritocracy doesn't actually exist because of that fact and that we should be striving so everyone has the same opportunities to succeed and choice of decisions so they can in fact make the right ones.
The problem with "addressing inequality" is that often the solution is not to bring the less lucky up, but to bring the more lucky down, which is actually unfair to the more lucky.
It's not the fault of a more lucky child that they can successfully make use of e-learning and profit from it, so should they be denied that option because other children are in a different situation? With that rationale, you'd land in a "lowest common denominator" push which would not actually help anyone, be it the lucky or unlu
Re: (Score:2)
What policy in America actually "brings the lucky down"?
If you want some historical examples, the "no child left behind" act caused a cut of funding for more gifted students. This was caused by the act entirely focusing on the lower end of the students and completely neglecting anything beyond the bare minimum. This led to the "lowest common denominator" I was talking about.
A slightly different but actually relevant example is affirmative action, where the "less lucky" are arbitrarly given preference over "more lucky" candidates, often at the expense of the more
Re: (Score:2)
1. Life is not fair. It never has been.
2. Some people did better remote learning than in person. Most did not.
3. The tech worked well in some places, and not in others.
4. See point 1.
5. Some people did worse in a classroom environment, and were told to "deal with it" in the past. When table's turned, it isn't fair?
Re:Inequality is deliberately bad framing (Score:5, Interesting)
I really appreciate the totally bad faith summation of "any attempt to address inequality" == "North Korea"
you're better off learning on your own vs. school
This works for like 0.01% of the global population. The rest of human history shows robust public education is vitally important.
I mean, when people don't believe that competence exists
Nobody is saying this except in your own head.
Re: (Score:3)
that people have their basic needs met rather
This is just semantics of "equality of outcome" versus "equality of oppurtunity" and nobody but the very small fringe is advocating for the former. You are boxing a strawman. Is Piketty in the room with us right now?
"But the Nordics!" you can say as soon as you find some way to get mass oil revenue
The US has a higher GDP-per-capita than every Nordic nation other than Norway and that's very close. It's not oil that stopping us, it's purely political will. The US is the wealthiest nation in human history, we have the money. You just don't want to do it (despite your stated goals)
When why is there so much stuff out there claiming that merit doesn't exist [wikipedia.org] or IQ doesn't exist [digitaltrends.com]?
1. Be
Re: (Score:2)
The Auties loved home schooling cuz they could ... spontaneously spout off obscenities
Definitely a major benefit of WFH.
The only place I curse more than in front of the computer is in the kitchen (where I'm more likely to physically injure myself).
Re: (Score:2)
Well, meetings used to be worse. But now I can have the narcissist drone on while I continue working, so that problem kinda went away.
Inventing is hard (Score:2)
Inventing a really good remote learning system is hard, really hard, REALLY HARD!
Doing it properly would require years of tech and procedure development, coupled with testing and careful analysis of results
Doing it quickly in a panic is doomed to failure
Re: (Score:2)
I agree with you. Remote education is hard, because actual education is hard. I have had plenty of bad teachers who could not teach anything, even when they were standing right next to me. Doing it remotely requires not only that you know how to teach well, you need to create material that either suits for all or automatically changes based on the learner.
But even with this said, there are some students that are simply really good at learning. If you just give them some text, some examples and some exercise
Find the noun in this sentence: "Oy." (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
They both said that during the pandemic students were automatically promoted to the next grade despite their scores.
In California, this was announced as an official policy.
The kids were told by the government that there was no point in doing any of the assigned work because none of it counted for anything.
Many parents, who were already struggling to keep their kids engaged, gave up.
Re: (Score:2)
In California, this was announced as an official policy.
The kids were told by the government that there was no point in doing any of the assigned work because none of it counted for anything.
And yet, TFA summary says one of the findings was we need more regulation. Of an industry almost entirely controlled by governments at various levels. To suggest more government involvement will solve the problem is a triumph of ideology over experience.
The one silver lining to emerge from the last three years is the student choice movement. I dearly hope parents stay furious at how their union-controlled government-run primary education monopoly failed and they continue to stay away in droves.
Re: (Score:2)
When I was in primary school (UK equivalent of grade school), nothing ever counted for anything. Classes were by age, you moved up a year every summer no matter what. And within a year group there was no division by ability, if the school was big enough to have two classes in the same year then kids were assigned at random. There were no exams, few tests, and very little grading (I'm not sure we even got an end of year grade, though the teacher would let parents know how their children were getting on at pa
Re: Find the noun in this sentence: "Oy." (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Can you imagine how lost you would be as a kid if you were in a grade where you didn't understand the previous grade's work?
That actually happened to me, because on the first day of first grade my older brother (charged with getting me to school safely) dropped me off in the SECOND grade classroom. They didn't figure out the mistake until after lunchtime. It was a great relief to be switched to the correct classroom, where everyone wasn't significantly larger and more sophisticated than myself.
But apparently I was able to pass for a second grader for an entire half a day. Not bad.
Re: (Score:2)
Because of a scheduling problem in high school, I was put in a sophomore gym class for a semester despite being a freshman. "Initiation week" was rough...
I'm not intending to minimize the issue (Score:3)
But I'd be curious to find out - out of the 3.7 billion people who "lacked a functional internet connection", how many of them lacked realistic access to school in the first place, the pandemic nothwithstanding?
In other words... was this report looking at the right thing, or just looking for easy things to point a finger at?
Re: (Score:2)
The headline of that page is "An Ed-Tech Tragedy?" (Betteridge's law of headlines would say the answer is: No.)
The page is written like a sales pitch with every relevant buzzword you could think of for Education.
The page's proposed solutions for future pandemics, i.e. their so-called "options", are:
1) Make the pandemic worse by sending children out into it regardless.
2) Forgo the children's education entirely until the pandemic is over.
3) Disavow technology, and p
655 pages to come to this conclusion? (Score:2, Insightful)
- Promises made by ed-tech (which turned out to be wrong)
- Most learners were left behind
- Inequalities were supercharged
- Learners engaged less and achieved less
- Education was narrow and impoverished
- Immersion in technology was unhealthy (this chapter is actually probably worth reading)
- Environmental tolls
- The private sector's
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed, those recommendations strike me as a list of "duh, you don't say..." wisdoms.
If that's the great revelation after doing a study that produces a 600+ page report, I'm not impressed.
The accountability dodge (Score:2)
This smells odorously of bureaucrats simply trying to blame others for their bad policy decisions.
"Hitler didn't lose the battle of Stalingrad he just overrelied on beleaguered troops." You see it was really the soldiers' fault. They just didn't rise to the challenge of his brilliant strategy. And how could he have known they were misrepresenting themselves as being dependable and ready for victory?
4. Regulation and guardrails are needed.
The bureaucrats were totally uninvolved for years but now they are going to come in and make all the right
So what's their suggestion then? (Score:2)
So what's their suggested way to solve the problem of educating people when classrooms are a hub for disease transmission (which they always are) and the disease being transmitted is very dangerous?
More importantly: what's their suggested way to solve the problem knowing only what they did, and having only the resources available, in March 2020?
Re: (Score:3)
I have a solution: Make part of regular non-pandemic education remote. That way the children, and more important, the teachers will know how to do it in the next pandemic. Which is assured to hit.
Stop speaking in terms of inequality (Score:2)
Speak in terms of people receiving less education than before. Pissed offmess at equality is pure jealousy/envy. The solution to inequality that gets implemented inevitably standards reduced for everyone. Of course new elites will emerge from those “solutions” because ultimately you are going to hand power to the depraved and jealous.
I read the report. (Score:2)
It also mentions how poorly prepared the vast majority of schools are to provide online
Re: Uh huh (Score:2, Troll)
Two decades ago, the composition of the nominal adults in charge was different enough that it's possible that the panic-driven self-destructive policies might have been 5 or 10 dB less than what they turned out to have been.
People were still worried about getting sued, but there was much less willingness to indulge the mental pathologies of the pathologically fragile. Schools might have stayed open even if zoom had been an option.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem was more that they'd be carriers and pass it on to their parents and grandparents, who'd then clog up the ICUs.
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
Re: (Score:2)
Spare? Quite frankly, I would have killed as a kid to not have to spend time with the assholes that they locked me up with every day for 6-8 hours.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
And that's a good enough reason to say my mental health does not matter? Or that of kids that are like I was?
Re: Uh huh (Score:2)
So because some people are crazy/stupid/lame, the rest of us can't have nice things?
Again...you're encouraged to weld yourself into your house next time it gets covidy out there. And maybe stay in there. For your own safety. You can never be too careful.
Re: (Score:2)
That would be perfect, and while it works for me, there are people who get pestered by pests like employers that want them for some weird reason to come out.
Don't ask me, I don't get it either, but you might have heard about this ridiculous fad of whipping people pointlessly back to the cowhouse called office.
Re: Uh huh (Score:2)
Now's a good time to remember that there are places in the world now where parents send their kids to school through honest-to-God-bullets-flying war zones.
Because schooling is that important.
Re: (Score:2)
That's probably in the areas the original article was about, the ones with the crappy internet connections where remote learning is impossible?
Would kinda make sense, cell towers and other communications infrastructures are notoriously unreliable in areas where warring factions want to cut the communication lines for tactical reasons.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
The focus is on deaths, but COVID also causes long term debilitating symptoms for some people. Tiredness, loss of cognitive function, that sort of thing, otherwise known as Long COVID.
It affects children too. Some people with mild COVID symptoms get it. Vaccines seem to help but aren't complete protection.
Letting it rip through schools left a lot of kids disabled.
Re: (Score:2)
The NIH disagrees [nih.gov].
Frankly, if I have to decide whether I believe some random Joe on the internet or the NIH...
Re: (Score:2)
Here's how I can tell that long covid doesn't exist:
1. I'm a rightwing nutjob and therefore a total fuckwit who is immune reality
FTFY
Re: (Score:3)
Biggest concern was that our health care system might collapse because of it. Most people looked at death rates, I looked at free beds in hospitals.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Uh huh (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
There was a huge number of people who were not able to see the big picture and rejected valid guidance because they didn't understand it.
There were also people that rejected guidance because they knew better [nytimes.com]. Can you tell the difference?
Re: Uh huh (Score:2)
Re: Uh huh (Score:2)
At the behest of my town's board of health, my then-2yo's daycare mandated that all the little kiddos with no concept of personal space and barely any ability to wipe their own noses, nonetheless wear cut up teeshirts over their faces. Except when eating together. Or during nose-to-tail naptime. Or whenever.
Why?
I know why. For the same reason devout practitioners of any religion mindlessly perform their blessing rituals: because the board of health was scared, and the CDC to whom their looked for levelheade
Re: Uh huh (Score:2)
Re: Uh huh (Score:2)
Proper masks worn properly in specific contexts can make a difference specifically within those contexts.
That's one question. And it happens to be one that is amenable to rigorous scientific interrogation.
The questions at hand, however, are
1. Whether half-assed pseudomasking or complete nonmasking everywhere outside that context will wash out any benefit to society of proper masking in the narrow contexts where it does make a difference*
2. Whether imposing disciplinary consequences on children or parents of
Re: Uh huh (Score:2)
Re: Uh huh (Score:2)
Well, I didn't appreciate having to make my toddler mask to soothe someone else's superstitious fears, so I really do have a problem with the path they chose, and I have an equally large problem with the fact that I see little evidence of those same people having recognized that they erred in any way or having learned from their mistakes. All while preening about how they're the enlightened ones who believe in science.
Re: (Score:2)
You could arrange remote education with radio or with pen and paper. That would have not been that much worse than what it actually was with the internet. Majority of teaching was pretty much messages having instructions to read the book and do some tasks based on it. Nothing that couldn't be done with pen and paper.
Re: (Score:2)
In Pittsburgh last week, schools were closed because it was "too hot". Sure, they have money for football teams and cheer leaders and bathroom awareness week and every dumb fuck education initiative under the sun, but apparently, not air conditioners.
No wonder I send my kid to private school.
Re: (Score:2)
Blame everything but the needless school closures. Be thankful there was any kind of technology in place to permit what little learning may have occurred. Two decades ago it wouldn't have been possible to even attempt what was actually accomplished in that timeframe even with fore-planning.
Learning would have completely possible.
Everyone would have their books and do exercises assigned.
Please tell me what exact technology was needed to have learning occur.
Without the constant distraction of technology, maybe even more learning would have been done.
When you have absolutely nothing else to do but read your textbook, you'll read the textbook.
Re: (Score:2)
The school closures were needed. Period. Stop lying about facts. Yes, the school closures were not needed to protect the children (mostly), but teachers and parents would have suffered catastrophic effects without them. Or is that mechanism already too complicated for you to understand?
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Deal! Go out and die for my comfort!
Re: Around here, what parents did was (Score:2)
I can't come in today, boss. I burned my fingers trying to weld my door shut.
Re: "Pausing formal education" is an option? (Score:2)
I don't like that you're taller than me. Let me get my machete. You want I should cut off from the top or the bottom?
Re: (Score:2)
The UN really wants us to eat bugs.
Lobster is generally pretty sought after. It's a crustacean, just like insects are.
Re: (Score:2)
Lobster is generally pretty sought after. It's a crustacean, just like insects are.
Insects are not crustaceans.
Arthropod [wikipedia.org] is their common clade.
Re: (Score:2)
You literally linked a page that says the exact opposite of what you are claiming and exactly supports my point.
Re: (Score:2)
The UN really wants us to eat bugs.
Lobster is generally pretty sought after. It's a crustacean, just like insects are.
Not just like. The decapods like shrimp, lobster and crab differ quite a bit from other arthropods.
Anyhow, Lobsters are several layers away from insects in classification. And if you want to see the difference, have a lobster, than have a tasty cockroach.
Re: (Score:2)
I do believe that you self-identify as hog, cattle and poultry. You sure seem to have the mindset for it.
Re: (Score:2)
I sexually self-identify hogs, cattle, and poultry as a form of invertebrate. I mean, I don't see any vertabrea when I look in the package in the meat aisle.
We all good now?
I identify as royalty. You may address me as "your majesty" and my pronoun is hepsopseudapod.
Re: Don't forget (Score:2)
I'm a Republican; I recognize no king!
Re: (Score:2)
I'm a Republican
A real republican, or the weirdos that worship at the altar of Trump, and have him sign their bibles?
Re: Don't forget (Score:2)
One time I voted for the guy, one time I didn't. The time I didn't, I figured he was a dangerous clown. Time I did, I calculated he was a necessary corrective against the unsavory tendencies of the establishment, blunt instrument though he was.
Your guess as to the order of events and which reasoning will guide me next time.
Re: (Score:2)
Wait, WHAT? Why do you think we send the little monsters to kid prison, I mean, school if we wanted to deal with them?
It's bad enough that school offloads them to us during holidays!
Re: (Score:2)
UN is an utterly corrupt organization which is only used for siphoning cash
That doesn't make them wrong in this case.
This yet another piece of the leftist propaganda.
How is it "leftist"?
At least in America, the push to reopen the schools came from the right, while the left, at the behest of the teachers' unions, tried to keep them closed. You can ask Terry McAuliffe how well that worked.
Re: (Score:2)
Teachers - especially in the lower grade - think they're the sole guardians of knowledge and better able to decide how our kids should be raised. That a random parent could be better than them at something knowledge-based is not something they typically handle well as a concept. Sometimes they're correct, but all too often they think they're ALWAYS correct.
As a general rule, principals, school boards, and teachers are extremely poorly equipped to make decisions about technology. That would be why most of
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
>The problem really isn't the hardware, it's the software, and a total lack of knowledge or care.
Agreed - You can't enforce morality with technology, but it does wonders for enforcing policy. If the system didn't allow the teacher to put more than one external address in the TO, CC, or BCC fields, they simply couldn't without using an alternate system.
I only mentioned hardware in my previous post as no matter what system you implement, it's useless if the kids can't actually access it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
if you ever ask for secure communication, they scoff like you've asked for a limb.
You pretty much did. From their point of view.
Realize you're talking about technical illiterates. What's worse, technical illiterates who think they know everything about everything. Because they're teachers, so they are supposed to know everything. Now they are challenged with doing something they have no fucking clue about and have to pretend like they do.
What you're dealing with is pretty much some cavemen who somehow managed to throw a plank across a chasm to finally bridge it and who celebrate their gr
Re: (Score:2)
What about getting emails with 20+ email addresses being exposed? That's a fundamental issue, one that no excuse exists for in 2023. In 1991, you
Re: (Score:2)
I know, but I also know that you're trying to fight windmills here. I mean, good luck and all that, but you're in for a futile exercise.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Here's what's gonna happen. You'll be labeled a Karen who makes a fuss about nothing, and as long as nothing happens you're just the scaredy cat who sees the boogeyman behind every corner.
Then as soon as something happens, everyone will first of all go "but nobody could have foreseen that" and "how could we know" and no, pointing out that you told them so will not help at all because nobody will want to hear it. Instead, you'll again be the bad guy for not telling some obscure "right instance" that you coul
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
PGP? Really? What process do you expect for establishing the WoT for a school?
Also, every nutcase out there asks schools to cater to at least one of their hobby horses -- and often several. What makes you special in that you think schools should spend resources on yours?
Re: (Score:2)
How do you verify emails and files? If you get a random email, with a random document attached, do you download and open it based on faith? If you do, then you need to wake up and realize that's incredibly dangerous, and if not, then how do you verify the identity of who sent it? PGP has been a core aspect of security and identity validation for decades.
In 1994, it was considered the golden standard for email security practices, and The Computer Chronicles did a segment on it
Re: (Score:2)
Realize you're talking about technical illiterates.
Technical "illiterates" who are also extremely busy and not paid especially well. It's just great when a smug, well paid nerd tries to dump yet more work on their heads, and "scoffs" at said nerds demands since they're probably at about position 50 of the top 100 most important and urgent things the teacher needs to do today.
Re: (Score:2)
You know, there are things at my job that I hate to do that I still must do because they're part of the job. And we're not talking about doing something outlandishly complicated, unless you want to tell me that teachers are unable to use the BCC instead of the TO line in emails to write the recipients and to not post personal pictures of the kids entrusted to them on social media.
One is literally something that I was even able to teach my luddite father to do, and the other one requires them to NOT do somet