theprivacydad

Yes, that is a weakness. But people have to do the same thing when they install F-Droid, or any other software directly from a developer's website. Maybe it is safer to trust an app store, but I've recently heard stories of hundreds of malicious apps getting past app store verification too.

Maybe take a look at pCloud.

As a teacher, I have often been astounded how 17 or 18 year old students don't know about backups and lose big project files at crucial moments.

I taught in high school for several decades and can tell you I saw this shift happen over the past 15 years (by the way I saw my students were just using search rather than folder hierarchies.)

I clone my kids' drives with Clonezilla, but not often enough.

Thanks for posting this here!

I went from teaching in a Google environment to teaching in a Microsoft environment this year.

Though Google now feels familiar and relatively easy (though try moving documents from one folder to another online...), I'd almost forgotten that when it was first introduced, it was met with a lot of resistance, and teachers and students alike were confused for years.

Microsoft spaces (Teams, Edge) are far, far worse.

Since the schools I've worked at run their own servers locally, I think using Nextcloud as your main platform should be very doable. The apps you can install are mostly very slick and modern. (I use Talk for calls now, for example). https://nextcloud.com/blog/keep-your-data-in-your-school-use...

I see the point about the clunkiness of LibreOffice. But as a teacher, I see great value in thinking carefully about what you introduce students to, because once a decision is in place, the effect multiplies with each new cohort of students.

Thanks, I have added the direct link to the Danish ruling in the article now. Good point.

> user-controlled linux

Thanks, I will change that in the article. I appreciate your feedback

> refurbished hardware (a random mix of old laptops in a large-scale deployment lol)

On the refurbished laptop market, I see large amounts of the same series of laptops, often Thinkpads, for example. I assume this is because companies will replace entire collections of hardware dated for their purposes. I don't think it is too far-fetched to connect this market to schools in individual districts.

> a laundry list of other "technology solutions" which would be, obviously, impossible for a school system to smoothly maintain or even deploy.

See: https://nextcloud.com/blog/keep-your-data-in-your-school-use...

When I started writing (and the other stuff that comes with it - planning, editing, posting, follow-up, archiving) I stopped making music, because blogging takes up a lot of time.

If you're testing for the skill of using LLMs, then no problem.

It's a good idea, but doesn't solve the problem of the student then using AI to answer the questions in the interview. We're back to square one.

A calculator is an impressive single-function tool. LLMs and other forms of AI are multi-function problem solving tools. ChatGPT and other AI tools are closer to the introduction of the world wide web than they are to the invention of the calculator.

That won't work in many national and international systems, due to externally prescribed exam or coursework conditions.

GPT4 can already convincingly analyse and explain why a drawn comic is funny or ironic. It's really unbelievable when you see it do that.

The main issue that is not addressed is that students need points to pass their subjects and get a high school diploma. LLMs are a magical shortcut to these points for many students, and therefore very tempting to use, for a number of normal reasons (time-shortage, laziness, fatigue, not comprehending, insecurity, parental pressure, status, etc.). This is the current, urgent problem with ChatGPT in schools that is not being addressed well.

Anyone who has spent some time with ChatGPT knows that the 'show your work' (plan, outline, draft, etc.) argument is moot, because AI can retroactively produce all of these earlier drafts and plans.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll take a look at rewording that better. It's not clear, as you say.

I'm mainly worried about a permanent record of a profile of a range of my online activities. A realistic first step is to break that up a little.

With the Google Maps mention I was suggesting it's ok not to go hard core privacy, because that really takes a lot of time an energy. I use google Maps maybe 4 times a month on my PC, in a browser dedicated to it with a Google account just for that activity. I use a VPN. On the road, I use Organic Maps on CalyxOS.

https://www.wjcl.com/article/hurricane-idalia-update-georgia... (set VPN to USA if not in the States)

You could be right, but for now, those supermarket discount schemes are still going strong.

What a great idea :)

But being censored on a social media platform is not in the same league as being cut off from your own money. That's a real problem.

If you can find it, check the Murdaugh murder trial document of his physical movements on the night of the murder extracted from his phone and the phones of his contacts.

I wrote a paragraph about this issue but cut it out for conciseness. I think it is worrying that if data is truly 'the new oil', it's really strange the names of the behind-the-scenes companies are not in the public debate.

Please feel free to follow the blog. I write about parenting in particular.

My worry is that we are lobsters slowly being boiled.