Students Need Time Offline

 Educational Technology, Leadership, Pedagogy  2 Responses »
Jul 042012
 

This post is contributed by Marcelo Lewkow, National Director of ORT Chile.

It often seems as if everyone in the education world today is racing to keep up-to-date with the latest technological developments and to integrate the latest technical gadgets into their teaching. The benefits of using technology to engage students in the classroom are well-rehearsed, and I have no wish to dispute them. Nevertheless, I have been involved in a project which prevents school students from using technological devices in school.  Let me give the background and explain the rationale…

Maimonides School in Santiago, Chile, is an orthodox Jewish school which achieves consistently high academic results. The school makes frequent use of technology where it enhances the teaching and learning environment – both inside of the classroom and for homework/extension tasks. We certainly have all the technological equipment that we need. However, we have decided to ban students completely from using their own communication devices – smart phones, tablets, or anything else – inside school. Of course, much of the received wisdom nowadays is that making use of students’ own devices for positive educational purposes in the classroom will involve them more in their studies.  So why are we going against the grain?

This generation of school students is permanently “connected” – via instant messaging, via Facebook, via music sharing sites and via many other platforms. Absorption in this online world can often come at the expense of developing meaningful face-to-face relationships – for children especially. At Maimonides, we think that schools can offer one of the last places for addressing this and for reducing the “noise” which comes from being constantly connected. We want students to relate to their teachers and peers on a person-to-person level, not always interrupted by technological distractions.

As a by-product, this decision has helped us also to reduce the amount of contact between students and their parents during the school day. Students would sometimes worry or mislead their parents by contacting them immediately after any minor incident that happened at school. This would also result in teachers feeling undermined, if parents knew better than them what had been going on at school. The distance at school between students and their parents is a healthy space for growth, and should remain this way. Our policy has helped to maintain this space.

Much educational research points to the fact that education is an inherently social activity. If there is no real interaction, there is no real learning. Online interaction is great, but it cannot be the only kind of interaction. That is why we are going back to basics at Maimonides and refocusing the way that our students communicate – between themselves, with staff and with their parents.

Left to their own devices

 Educational Technology  No Responses »
Feb 212012
 

There is a lot of talk in the business world these days about developing BYOD (‘bring your own devices’) policies for the office rather than providing and maintaining computers for staff. Apart from the obvious cost saving for the employer and the flexibility that it offers the employee, there are many other implications that perhaps we need to be considering for the world of education.

Until quite recently many schools preferred to block their students from accessing their networks to reduce the risks of malware and from using their own devices in class to avoid distractions. But perhaps it is time for us to reconsider being the providers of all hardware in educational setting too. The proliferation of laptops and handheld devices providing more power for less money means that students are increasingly finding it more convenient and comfortable to work on their own devices.

Many schools and colleges are moving towards providing a campus-wide wireless network, cloud based email, web based apps and an online learning platform that can be accessed by any device. It would seem that the barriers are no longer technical, but organisational and educational. How can learners access and use their devices safely and with appropriate support? Do we need to differentiate between personal and work use? What about students who can’t afford to bring their own devices?

As our current ICT hardware becomes obsolete we will have to consider more prudently the costs of replacing them. It would seem that a move to BYOD is inevitable, but for most of us the issue is not about replacing existing ICT facilities but supplementing them. By allowing some classes to bring their own devices for simple tasks such as word processing and internet use, you free up specialist ICT rooms for use by others, making more efficient use of your existing provision.

Although we aim to prepare students for the workplace, it’s important to differentiate between business needs and educational needs. Our primary responsibility should be to address the educational needs of our learners rather than trying to mimic office life. Yes, working with their own devices would mean that students could access their work from home and at all hours, but what are the costs of trying to get ever-increasing productivity out of our students?

In many cases, students will have better devices in their homes (or in their pockets) than they use at school, but we shouldn’t assume that every student is fortunate to be in this position. Is it our responsibility to ensure that all students have equal opportunities to learn? Then there are questions about providing appropriate training for teachers to deal with a new way of working, including developing new policies, rules, and codes of conduct.

These are just a few of the considerations – there are many more (see here for example) – but the time certainly seems right for us to be considering BYOD now. It does seem to promise the most practical solution of achieving a 1:1 ratio of devices to students, but there needs to be some serious discussion to make sure that if and when BYOD is adopted it works.