#taken for granted

[unknownn-girl]

no one loves like i love and no one bothers to see my love for what it is either

[tsubaki94]

19 Left behind

Ai-less whumptober

[4lastaire]

the big meeting... (⁠;⁠ŏ⁠﹏⁠ŏ⁠)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63892501/

[howifeltabouthim]

'You can look at someone your whole life and never see them.'

Jenn Lyons, from The Ruin of Kings

[misstress-gee]

Wish I was enough -

Pretty enough to be posted by you

To be worshiped

To be seen

[matilda-jugs]

never take anything for granted.❤️

[anxiouslyindecisive]

[tinkertechy]

I need to Scream about ChromeOS

It's been a long week and this is something I can rant about without doxxing myself too much.

So I teach kids about computers. And before anyone says 'But they're the technology generation, they know all about it!' remember that you didn't know how to drive a car before you were 16, and cars have been around for over a century. But I digress.

You know why Kids don't know anything about computers? Because we've set them up with the *worst possible computer* to learn about computers on: Chromebooks. Yeah, yeah pandemic and learning form home and all that, but this started well before the pandemic; Shutdowns just exacerbated it.

Chromebooks are designed to be simple. But they're *designed to be simple*. I want to teach kids how to read a file system? Google Drive is all they got. Want to teach kids how to check computer specs and how well their computer is currently running? Nope-you *might* be able to check the RAM if you're lucky. Diagnose how much space is left on your storage? Good luck; Drive doesn't even show how much space they have left. Compare and Contrast different applications for a particular use? It's the Chrome Store or nothing. The entire environment is designed to be a glorified web browser. You never leave the Chrome environment.

There's no native apps on the Chromebooks because they have all the memory and internal storage of a 6 year old with ADHD. Everything has to be through a web browser, and since most of my students are elementary age they can't really make accounts for most stuff without their native school account which, guess what? is through Google. The whole system is designed to be as simple to use with as few buttons as possible. Which, as a teacher managing hundreds of kids, is helpful to a point. But it holds the kids back just as much. When something goes wrong, it's so simple that you feel like an idiot for not being able to figure out what went wrong. There's no room for troubleshooting or critical thinking here.

Oh, and by the way the entire OS is designed at a basic level to be readable by kids who *know how to read*. Teaching the lowest levels how to log in, click on a link for TypingClub or read basic instructions can be grueling. Google Classroom is optimal for middle school and maybe 9th grade and that's about it. They use touchscreens for everything, so it's hard to get them to learn to use a mouse in the first place. (It's also aesthetically ugly, but that's my personal opinion)

There also seems to be fewer resources or standards for teaching about computers; my state's standards are very comprehensive from a programming or analysis standpoint, less so from a 'they should be able to type X words per minute' or 'be able to format a report' or 'write an email with neutral tone' or 'be able to move a file from Google Drive to a flash drive,' stuff that Every student should know how to do. Stuff that most adults take for granted because they were either taught or grew up in an age where everyone had to figure it out for themselves because there were no teachers yet.

And, while this is a more niche one because I don't know how most schools operate, Chromebooks just add to the student's load. They haul them back and forth to EVERY class and were 'supposed to replace textbooks', yet somehow they still have a mountain of textbooks they haul around in a wheeled backpack because *there's so many books they can't use a normal one*. I helped a student lift their bag the other day and it must have weighed 20 lbs! (Definitely more than the car battery I had to haul home from the store, but that's another story.)

I have accounts for kids that can't even spell their own last name yet, let alone know how to type. It's hard to teach about computer security when half the school needs to have a sticker with the username and passwords for up to 4(!!!) different online accounts for various programs. And kids will share that information anyway because they don't think anything major of it yet, and half the time it's not hard to figure out.

(This isn't even getting into side tools and peripherals to teach kids about computers. Anything you want/find is niche and will be extremely expensive)

So how would I fix this? (Because I don't like to rant about something when I can't offer a solution.)

Get them on actual computers and not glorified web browsers.

Assess whether or not Chromebooks are helping students in the classroom or just creating more work. Their primary use should be in the event of a shutdown or virtual school day to allow all students to work from home regardless of personal computers.

Build an Operating System/UI that's designed to grow with the student: Kindergarten and 1st grade are primarily picture based, larger cursor, as little clicking as possible to get to activities. More options and standardized UI appear as the student grows until high school where it's a normal system.

Actual Standards. Not just 'this is a monitor' (Most of my students didn't know this) and 'Here's how to program a thing' (Which is fun, but can be advanced) but 'How to save my work' 'How to write an e-mail' and 'what is a file type?' A minimum typing speed should also be required.

Keyboards designed to teach how to type. Colored keys, letters in a font that match the typing program, maybe a bit bigger than a normal keyboard. And to wrap it up, some fun quotes from my students: "That's not a Computer, that's a PC!"

"That's a TV!" (It's a monitor)

"You're doing a writing challenge? Why don't you just use AI?"

"Ms. Teacher, (That's exactly what they call me) I found a weird thing!" (It was their Drive.)

"Why did you paint all those?" (I pass a hard drive around so kids can see it. They all sniff the yellow paint I sprayed it with last week.)

"I wanna play the ice cream game." (There is no Ice Cream game. They just want to play random internet games)

(Students sign out by turning off the computer)

(A student looks up a minecraft video on YT because he wasn't paying attention when I gave out instructions and thought I wouldn't notice.)

Next rant: The double standards of 'forbidding the use of AI' for students while using it behind the scenes for teachers.

[uaravsh]

"A thousand moments that I had just taken for granted - mostly because I had assumed that there would be a thousand more."

- Morgan Matson, Second Chance Summer (@uaravsh )

[4lastaire]

the 2nd chapter 5!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63892501/

Stan flips open the file to see whose big college grant money dreams he's killing today. The grant application is entirely filled out in an all-too familiar looping cursive. Oh no.

[howifeltabouthim]

They took his patience under their thoughtlessness for granted; they didn't seem aware that he had feelings to hurt or interests to injure, and some of them talked together as freely in his presence as if he wasn't there.

L. P. Hartley, from The Hireling

[petiteaspiegirl]

If you treat a person well all the time, you are going to be taken for granted

[hrithisha]

HE WILL MISS YOU...

WHEN HE IS NOT TREATED THE WAY YOU TREATED HIM.

WHEN HE IS TAKEN FOR GRANTED.

WHEN HE LONGS FOR CONVERSATIONS BUT RECEIVES EXCUSES.

WHEN HE REALIZES WHAT HE HAS LOST AND FINDS HIMSELF DESTROYED.

WHEN HE IS IN THE DARKNESS WITH GUILT.

WHEN HE STARTS LOOKING FOR YOU IN EVERY FACE.

WHEN HE LOSES HIMSELF.

[tj-aint-right]

[lupa2003]

"The fact that u are reading this must be because i have already reached heaven....you must be amazed to see the 'me' in those photos that you have surfed in this phone when u took the gallery...and i am pretty sure that this must be the last photo which i left for you if u ever surf through this phone after my retire from this world...the 'me' you are seeing in this phone ain't fake its the real one.And the one who was before you ...was the one you made me into.Marrying you with great expectations was my fault....thought i could change you if i loved u enough was also my fault...thinking that you would lean on me when u feel tired was also my fault...reaching you out my hands even when i know you won't take it was also my fault....thinking that you would try to love me one day just like i am trying to love you was also my fault. I know u will miss me...cuz u never realised that i have become a salient part of your life..u just think everything is happening like the arrival of day and night.You never stops to think what if one day the sun or moon doesn't come out...by the time u realise it, you will be crying ...just like how you are crying now while reading this....."

[dinkybutkinky]

It never will