Can policies stop a mobile learning tsunami?
Justin Bathon on Thursday, August 26, 2010 at 3:24PM No. They can't. There is no legal floodwall even remotely big enough to stop this one.
Yet, we keep trying ... and causing ourselves even more policy trouble in the effort because as we are trying to build the wall higher and stronger we are also trying to bail out the water already on the other side.
Is it time to switch tactics yet? Is it time to go with the flow and help direct the waters in responsible directions? We legal types are the ones that need to let administrators know when it is appropriate to stop trying to plug the dam. That is our responsibility as their advisors.
Meanwhile, the kids are waiting for us ...
For my non-legal readers ... don't be scared to send this kind of stuff to your principal or even to your school district attorney. Especially the lawyers need to start hearing this message.
h/t Free Tech for Teachers + Wes Fryer's Speed of Creativity
-- By the way, in the vid. above, what kind of principal puts a picture of a bear behind their desk? Talk about the wrong message for kids ... this guy's got it all wrong.
Reader Comments (2)
By trying to wall out mobile technology we do our students a disservice. They are already exposed. All they lose is our mentoring and guidance.
Thank you for the thoughts.
Scott Diamond
If that's Bayside High in Palm Bay, FL, the mascot is the Bears, so that explains the picture. I still agree that the school has the wrong approach, though.
Schools (especially in FL) are enamoured of the "control" paradigm. The newer ones all resemble medium security penitentiaries, and the general feeling when you step into one is a feeling of control. I guess this is better than the war zone schools that were prevalent in large cities (but not exurbs like Palm Bay) in the 1980s. But it goes along with "zero tolerance" policies that make little sense, as well as over-the-top "contraband" policies on things such as cell phones. I get the feeling that some teachers and administrators relish the "policing" role that they get to assume when they enforce these policies.
That being said, I resist the recent moves to inject technology (often simply for the sake of injecting technology) into every learning experience. Some learning is hampered by technology. In my own classes, for example, I ask my students to live without their laptops for three hours a week, and I find that this greatly improves the dialogue and makes independent thinking (as opposed to reading from one's case brief) much more likely. I'm no Luddite, but I'm also not willing to reject the traditional modes of learning, which were all based on face-to-face group dialogue.