The smart phone is not a new technology, but the service to schools it can provide is new. My school does not have the appropriate funds to equip the school with up-to-date technology or software. The business and technology departments are still using the Microsoft 2000 operating system which, among other things, makes it difficult to take advantage of open source software. Also, equipment is failing at an alarming rate; services to these old computers are slow or nonexistent. Another major problem with the use of this form of technology is behavioral. The attitudes of district leaders are negative in regards to the use of the phones in the classroom. The reports of harassment, bullying, and privacy come in to play, and liability is a major concern; however, because I teach seniors, almost every student has access to a smart phone in the class room but school policy will not allow teachers to take advantage of these tools.
Using a smart phone in the school will allow students to work efficiently with others across the district, use software not available to them in the school, save money, and save time. As evident by the new report from National Association of Secondary School Principals, the tide may be changing. According to their recent report on using social and mobile technologies in school, they are supportive of this new form of connectivity in order to further support independent, critical thinkers. With guidelines in the form of responsible use policies and leader recommendation, these devices will help teachers and students move to a different level of understanding and knowledge.
We cannot deny that cellphones are more and more common place in our everyday lives, and to deny this trend in education is to pretend typewriters are used to teach keyboarding. Are cellphones acceptable in your school? Do you believe they can be used as an effective tool in our schools; why or why not?
National Association of Secondary School Principals (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nassp.org/Content.aspx?topic=Using_Mobile_and_Social_Technologies_in_Schools
IDEA Blog. (2011, May 13). Smartphones Widely Integrated into Our lives (graphs). Retrieved from http://www.idea.org/blog/2011/05/13/smartphones-widely-integrated-into-our-lives-graphs/
~WandaCOMMENT ON DOLLY'S BLOG
http://studentofedtech.blogspot.com/2011/06/14-months-and-emerged.html#comments
COMMENT ON SULLUS' BLOG
http://sullus-teague.blogspot.com/2011/06/blog-trends.html#comments
No comments:
Post a Comment