Yes, banning electronic devices when they are woven into the lives of our students doesn’t seem like the best solution. Our school has a “faculty council” which is basically a group elected by the staff to review and research concerns, it is not a group with authority but at times provides recommendations. Faculty writes down a concern and places it in a locked box similar to a suggestion box. Each month the council meets and reviews staff concerns with the biggest issue of late being cell phones. When our group began to sort out the cell phone concerns there was a common theme, inappropriate use. Our group felt that banning cell phones was equivalent to trying to hold back tidal waters, basically a battle that could not be won. I thought education could be the key and began to look for guidelines to cell phone etiquette for teens without success last spring. What I did find was a book by Liz Kolb called Toys to Tools Connecting Student Cell Phones to Education.
Take a look at this PBS video addressing cell phone or smart phone etiquette.
Liz Kolb's recent interview confirms a very similar mind set with Mike Wesch when it comes to student use and access to technology. Both Liz and Mike beliefs focus on connecting to the student's world if you want to engage them. I don’t think anyone has all the answers but we need to be open to trying new approaches for connecting education and student interests. Mike Wesch added a facebook connection to the class wiki as a means to attract students but admits his uncertainty with the decision. I think the point is to ease into the possibilities looking for the opportunities. Mike is creative in his efforts to engage students and we need to be creative in our efforts, so that I students can see and experience the benefits of taking risks. Students need us to model what thinking outside the box is all about.
Consider viewing Kenneth Robinson’s Ted video on creativity.
Take a look at this PBS video addressing cell phone or smart phone etiquette.
Liz Kolb's recent interview confirms a very similar mind set with Mike Wesch when it comes to student use and access to technology. Both Liz and Mike beliefs focus on connecting to the student's world if you want to engage them. I don’t think anyone has all the answers but we need to be open to trying new approaches for connecting education and student interests. Mike Wesch added a facebook connection to the class wiki as a means to attract students but admits his uncertainty with the decision. I think the point is to ease into the possibilities looking for the opportunities. Mike is creative in his efforts to engage students and we need to be creative in our efforts, so that I students can see and experience the benefits of taking risks. Students need us to model what thinking outside the box is all about.
Consider viewing Kenneth Robinson’s Ted video on creativity.
I have always found the attempt to ban or restrict cell phone use a bit funny. I understand that the temptation for students to distract themselves with phones is ever present, but in my research, they are just developing strategies to deal with technology in the same way I may have dealt with how to deal with a computer and older generations dealt with typewriters, pens, etc.
ReplyDeleteI have focused a lot of my studies in this M.Ed program on the potential of text messaging in education. I gather you are teacher younger students, so the idea of using cell phones for student support is probably not viable, but I have found their use unbelievably helpful in teaching freshman general education courses at PSU. Although many have touted e-mail as immediate, I still have to be sitting there at the computer in order to answer their concerns in a truly timely manner. With texting, I have supported students at 11 pm at a bar in Boston. The benefit is not solely theirs; by entering their process with such immediacy, it helps me because I don't have to answer e-mails and, ideally, I have less to assess later on. I am going to support them either way, so I might as well do it on their time especially if it only takes me a matter of seconds.
But in my studies of text messaging and how it affects student performance, David Crystal's Txting has a lot to say about it. Amidst the archaic and unfounded concerns of text messaging ruining writing ability, Crystal claims that texting is in a lot of ways making young people better communicators than the generations before them. Think about it. What communications medium or form of writing has EVER had so many teenagers so willingly and so frequently engaging in the act of writing? Surely it may be for purely social reasons, but there are benefits associated with that as well. Furthermore, all these text messages are, in a way, a comprehensive practice of strategy building for social situations where students don't have the risk of losing face.
Sorry if focused on only a minor piece of your entry, but I get on a writing tangent and it just keeps going and going!
When I saw the bit about Facebook in the Media Literacy video, I was a bit confused that Wesch had not, at least up until the point of publishing this video, come up with a practical use for Facebook. If anything, I think that the purpose for which he was using it, albeit unintentionally, was perfect.
ReplyDeleteImagine working on a project where you need collaboration. As much as FB has pretty much focused on the trivial, the possibly for using it as a "call to arms" could work. Imagine working on all those other projects as a part of that application platform, and suddenly you realize you could benefit from the effort/input of someone else. Well, just post your question or sell your idea on your FB wall. Over the course of the day, a few interested parties might just trickle in and help you out. I mean, how far is the distance between "collaboration" and "social networking?"
Oh, and one added note. I believe Plymouth once proposed this idea where cell phones would be banned in class. The motion was defeated because of, if you believe it, human rights issues. If I remember the argument correctly, cell phones were a student's mode of contact if some emergency occurred at home or elsewhere. Also, text messaging is used to alert students of school cancellations and campus emergencies. Therefore, to ban cell phones was to ban student rights. Although I think this stance is a bit hyperbolic, it is interesting to say the least.
ReplyDelete@Filip- That is very interesting! I can see the point, however, it makes you think about what people did before cell phones were around? Just a thought...
ReplyDelete@Diane- Very interesting blog! I like the idea of using the cell phone and Facebook in the learning process to engage the students. It is very sensitive because I feel many are afraid to go this far and there is always the possibility of it being abused. It is also true, though, that even just using laptops or computers in class creates the opportunity for misuse. That also brings the point of blocking websites in schools. Some say that blocking the websites is inefficient and instead should be used in a lesson about the proper use and internet safety. Do you agree or disagree?
All, I wonder how it would go if we allowed cell phones all the time in our schools. Would the "fad" wear off? Would we be able to get over our fears of cheating and information sharing? Can we begin to think differently that the cell phones may be yet just another tool in the kids tool boxes to accomplish learning tasks? Just yesterday I was displaced from my room due to testing, so I needed my student to use his cell phone for the calculator! It is not about memorizing information any longer but how we can locate that information that is so very important. (I think!)
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