Banning pencils from the classroom...

The theme for this year's PA Keystone Technology Integrator Summit is Banning Pencils from the Classroom... If you haven't read Doug Johnson's Article in Education World it really speaks to what educational technologists have been professing....

When it comes to "technology" use in schools, every responsible educator's first concerns should be student safety and educational suitability. I am suggesting that we ban one of the most potentially harmful technologies of all -- the pencil. We must eliminate them from schools because:

1. A student might use a pencil to poke out the eye of another student.
2. A student might write a dirty word or, worse yet, a threatening note to another student, with a pencil.
3. One student might have a mechanical pencil, making those with wooden ones feel bad.
4. The pencil might get stolen.
5. Pencils break and need repairing all the time.
6. Kids who have pencils might doodle instead of working on their assignments or listening to the teacher.

Sound familiar? We have all heard the same arguments against computer use and the comments on Doug's blog regarding setting up policies for student owned technologies are interesting. Ok so we are not really encouraging teachers to give up pencils and paper....and while we know that banning pencils is unrealistic, the goal this year at the Summit is to expose teachers to real world, relevant technology applications that they can in turn go back to their schools inspired and ready to share with their colleagues -- Will keep you posted as I learn from them and they from me this week.