When Technology Attacks. Seriously. "Schools are fighting a war..." and "...be ready to do battle" http://tinyurl.com/2qrb4x Couldn't wait to get off the beach to see what the link held for me....
It was a link to the cover article of the most recent Scholastic Administrator Magazine...
As I was reading I didn't know whether to be shocked, distressed or annoyed...
Schools across the country are waging a war against technology tools gone bad. Read how some districts defend their classrooms against the new school thuggery—from iPod cheats to cell phone punks and sneaky Web surfers.To start an article like this...SIGH....
Drugs can be used illegally, but they are also a cure for many diseases...A hammer could be used to kill someone, but it can also be used to build shelter...Knives can be used to kill as well, but my even my 5 year old has been taught to use it to cut her food.... and as I pointed out in an earlier post....PENCILS can be dangerous perhaps we should ban THEM from the classrooms.
I have seen Will Richardson present on MANY occasions and have read his book and he is right...this is NOT an easy issue. Teachers are clamoring to use collaborative technology in the classroom and administrators are facing pressures from parents and school boards to implement policies to curb its use. But even the National School Board Association is encouraging schools to re-examine their social networking policies. I understand that the hook, the shock value is what gets folks to read, but to I am disappointed that Scholastic chose only to demonstrate the way schools have been battling "issues" and not focus on ways they have demonstrated successes.
Please, read the article, read John's response to the article, and start the conversations in your own school districts....Make this a successful tech school year in your district and then...let scholastic adminstrator know about it.
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KH,
ReplyDeleteThis article was perfect!!! The most dangerous environment is one where everyone agrees. Focusing on mistakes and problems has to fire people up to speak out. People that use technology all the time see how acute the thinking was going into this article, but the people that are the technophobics will use this as an excuse to not use a technology.
We need to communicate, collaborate and partner with those that don't normally use technology. We need to make this fun and beneficial to students and staff.
We tend to view how technology effects education. This is the point-of-view of the article's writer. We need to change the perspective. How can education benefit from technology is a much better question!
Let's focus on what works and spread the word! We can use our mistakes as lessons learned. The more people that we make part of the process of reform, the better insight and empathy we all gain. Articles and TV shows are one way media. Blogs, wikis, discussion boards and more allow for open forums. We need to out blog and wiki this guy!
www.eduwiki.us rocks!!!
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Imagine a world where we don't have to find a budget to bring an internet-enabled computer to the hands of every child in our room.
ReplyDeleteForget OLPC... how about OPPC... one web-enabled phone per child? It is not that far off in the future...