Reflection #3

The Educational Technology course has heightened my awareness to the discrepancy between the Acceptable Use Policy in my high school and the district’s initiative to incorporate technology into the curriculum. We are encouraged to restructure our classrooms to allow for more authentic learning environments, while the school continues to operate as it has for the past several decades.

Several faculty members discussed this quirk in the system when we first began integrating laptops into our classes. Our unprecedented access to technology makes many of the current rules antiquated. Students quickly took advantage of the loophole presented by the new initiations with technology and our administration’s lack of action. Students who would have quickly squirrel their cell phones or iPods away when they saw a teacher last year now walk through the hall with one ear bud in while texting their friends. This change in character happened almost overnight when the bulk of the Classrooms for the Future carts rolled out at the turn of the semesters.

It has led to a frustrated student body, faculty, and administration. Students perceive there is a double standard: that it is okay to have an iPod in one class but not in another; that it is okay to use their laptop on one class and not in the next. Some faculty members interpret the student handbook as the letter of the law which is to be enforced at all times and others see it as an outdated document in which they are forced to pick-and-choose the rules to be enforced. The administration does not want to rewrite the handbook during the year, wants rules to be enforced, but would prefer if teachers could handle the majority of the issues. We are a building limping along at the end of the year with many unresolved issues that must be fixed before next fall.

An email from a fellow colleague perhaps best describes the frustration of the more traditional teacher toward this change. The email was entitled “Cell phones, ipods”:

“We do have policies in place and administration has backed us up when students are referred (perhaps not EVERY time - but I have had a majority of good results). There is a lot of room for improvement on all sides - but as teachers we REALLY need to start holding the line. When we let kids do what they want all year and then get angry when things falls apart at the end of the year, we really are not doing anyone any favors. We need to prepare our students to be productive and respectful citizens - to do that, we have to expect them to be mature and follow the rules…. You [teachers not enforcing iPod/cell phone rules] are making the school unsafe and making it tougher for the rest of us to keep things orderly and safe.”

Many teachers are of the opinion that there is no place for cell phones and iPods in school. Their major complaint is that students will use these devices to cheat. I would suggest it is not the access to these devices that needs to be addressed, but our entire philosophy of education. We must build a culture where not only our rules of conduct match realistic expectations, but where the entire learning environment is more realistic. The Innovative Educator, a blog by Lisa Nielson (PD manager for the Office of Instructional Technology for the NYC DOE) discusses that the classroom must change from a “know what” environment based on producing the correct answer to a “know where” environment that emphasizes how to find, evaluate, and analyze information.

I have also included a link to an article that discussed how some schools are harnessing the power of iPods to engage students:
“In Some Schools, iPod are Required Listening”

Just came across this blog post by Will Richardson that I thought was appropriate to my reflection. The blog post is entitled: Adapting to Change