BLogarithm

For those that don’t know, I’m a student in the Master’s program at Georgia State University. Since GSU is the only liberal arts/research university in the city I often find myself taking courses with higher ups from all of the local school districts. Last week, during our first class, one of the higher ups shared that his district had conducted a focus group and the data collected from the focus group showed that students, parents, and teachers were overwhelmingly supportive of a proposed ban on the use of “electronic communication devices” in schools. Now, as a research student I was tempted to question the district’s sampling methods (which the higher up did not share with the class) to challenge the validity of those results, but the bigger issue is the knee jerk reaction to the proliferation of cell phones in schools.

In this day and age of school systems bemoaning the benefits of integrating more technology into the classroom I find it completely counter intuitive to ban a technology that is becoming increasingly accessible to people of all income levels. Several of my students who DO NOT have computers in the home have cell phones that can access the internet in their pockets…during class! Why not engage them on that level and with the tools that more people can afford to have access to ?

Just this weekend, twitter users were up in arms over CNN’s shoddy coverage of the Iranian election. The twitter community responded by using the hash tag #IranElection to bring attention to the OBVIOUSLY fraudulent election results. Twitter helped to document history in real time…not at the speed of a huge news network beholden to too many stakeholders. If teachers allowed and encouraged the use of cell phones in a responsible manner we may see the level of student interaction increase…rather than the current trend of higher levels of student disengagement from schools. Just think of the conversations that will be missed if we deny students/teachers access to the real world with policies like the one proposed.

I’m not a proponent of using tech in the classroom just to say we’re using the newest latest thing. However, banning access to something before fully understanding the benefits of its use is draconian governance and irresponsible leadership.

We need this economy to turn around quick so some of the less creative educators can make room for innovative educators who aren’t afraid to take risks in the classroom and change bad policy instead of creating more of it.