Never been talked about...
Being the start of the year, I talked to my year 9 class about where they came from and what technologies they used at there previous schools. They talked about the interactive whiteboards, access to wifi and being able to bring there own devices. Which then one of the students said, until we were banned from beginning them to school. Further discussion then took place, why were students not allowed to bring the devices to school, it turned out that the computers that they were bringing were superiour to the computers that the otehr students had access to, macbooks(school) vs macbook pros(student owned) and students not wanting to use the school technology...
I had never thought of this a being an issue before, how are other schools dealing with laptop/netbook envy, where students are using the devices as status symbols?
Replies
- Karen Spencer (View all users posts) 03 Feb 2012 4:31pm ()
I'm not sure we'll ever get round the 'tech-envy'. It's human nature - I do it myself!;-) and it's the real world, unfortunately. It's certainly a challenge in a BYOD world, and there will always be people who have something that is more high-spec than someone else's. From a Key Competency point of view, it presents the same challenges as any context in which people have to learn to work together, regardless of differences and circumstances.
I would not like to see this as a reason to blanket ban all personal devices, though, but rather, it's a 'design problem' (to quote Christian Long, the Third Teacher) to address the challenge of disparity. How might a teacher manage this?
- Discuss the issue honestly and openly. Agree with students and whānau how to manage the various technologies available.
- Advocate for creative solutions to teaching and learning: sharing devices in teams, different cogntive/pedagogical pathways and roles to achieve the learning goals...
- Working as a school to look for solutions in which the community responds to the challenge e.g. exploring bulk-buying
It's certainly an issue that is not going to go away. I would always be advocating for imaginative 'can-do' solutions, rather than shutting down options for students.
What do others think?
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