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iPad pitfalls concern Eagle Point parents [Illustration by 123rf.com] Wednesday Mar 22, 2017 at 6:05 PM Mar 22, 2017 at 6:47 PM Buffy Pollock for the Mail Tribune More than 150 parents and teachers packed the gymnasium at Hillside Elementary Tuesday night to voice concerns about improper and unsafe use of iPads by students in the Eagle Point School District. The district had provided an iPad to every student last year to use in the classroom and at home. Many parents who spoke during the special School Board meeting agreed the iPads are important tools, but voiced concerns about students being able to search for everything from frontal nudity to Isis beheadings and being vulnerable to cyber bullying and online predators. Teachers urged the district not to place additional restrictions on the iPads but to wait for firewall updates happening over spring break and trust teachers to provide guidance. Teachers said the iPads offer advantages that allow accelerated learners to move at a faster pace while helping struggling students in other ways. Students for whom English was not a first language use the devices for translation purposes. District Information Technology Supervisor David Whitehead said the district had provided top-notch training to enable teachers to provide guidance while using the technology to give students an advantage in a future where tech jobs will be in demand. Whitehead stood with a dozen teachers and read a statement imploring the district not to allow "further restrictions, major policy changes or additional bureaucracy to limit student access to the internet beyond what we as the educators of each building feel is necessary for achieving educational excellence for each student." Whitehead said the team of educators, who he pointed out were also parents and grandparents of district students, represented more than 377 years of teaching experience. "The internet is one of the most sought-after educational tools, and we have it. This also did not come cheap, as the district has worked diligently over many years to achieve this most valuable access for all students," he said, noting that proper guidance would serve students better than excess restriction. "Like anything else, new things bring problems. For instance, when the pencil was invented and students were given paper, notes were being secretly passed by students in the class. Was it right for students to do that? We all know the answer to that ... but the bigger question was, did we take the pencil away from students or did we teach students to use it appropriately?" District parent Emily McIntire said she spent time Tuesday typing "lots of dirty words" into her eighth-grade daughter's iPad and was able to bring up "lots of awesome images, including a full frontal of a man." "Teachers: We don't want to stop the learning on the iPad," McIntire said. "I love that my second-grader can have a book read to him. And I love that my eighth-grader can go on and have a math tutor for her math program. I love all of that, and that is good, but it's when they go home with no Apple Classroom and no teacher to guide them that concerns me," McIntire said. Middle-schooler Ashlyn Carter addressed the board with concerns she had about student misuse of the devices, including using them for games and texting during class. "Yes, you can use the Apple Classroom app, but many teachers don't because they don't feel it is necessary, even though it is. Another thing that is a situation with the iPads is the World Wide Web. Students have access to many inappropriate things, and the district does have filters, but students may override these filters for 120 minutes each day," said the student. "Once I tried to go on Craigslist to buy something I was searching for, and it said it was classified as an adult website. But then it gave me an option on the side that said, if I put in my email and password, then it would let me override the web filter for 120 minutes." District 9 board member Scott Grissom pointed out that Ashland School District, which exceeds the Eagle Point district in test scores and other areas of student achievement, doesn't provide iPads to students but uses old-fashioned computer labs. Board member Dan Hodges said he felt that the discussion Tuesday warranted a wait-and-see approach to give the district technology team a chance to upgrade firewalls and make sure filters are working properly. "I was absolutely prepared to take action tonight," Hodges said. "But now I think I'd like to wait and see what this looks like after spring break." The next meeting is slated for April 12. — Buffy Pollock is a freelance writer living in Medford. Email her at [email protected].