I wonder how long schools will continue to fight technology. This recent article from the CBC via teachinghacks, continues to shed light on the inevitable: “YOU CAN’T STOP IT SO JUST SAY UNCLE!” The article, in case you don’t read it, deals with teenagers who provoked a teacher into a tirade, recorded it on cellphones and posted it on youtube.
As has been mentioned many times in various discussion around the blogosphere, our feeble attempts as educators to block students from using technology in any number of ways is being proven futile.
But still we try:
A teacher approached me following a talk I recently gave and said something like, “Jeez, don’t tell all of them about YouTube. We’ve been doing our best to keep it out of our school. We don’t want our teachers and students to even know about it.” via Rick Schweir
It’s just way too easy; and whether or not your school removes its computers and network, you’ll still be dealing with the issue. I read Wes Fryer’s blog the other day and he talked about about being photographed and having his pictures posted on Flickr. It was quite harmless and fun. I don’t know if the photographer asked permission to post them but you get the point….someone may be watching and documenting your every move. This is the reality of our world and we need to get our heads around it. This is not to condone the behaviour but as mentioned many times, an opportunity to teach.
David Warlick has been working at helping folks understand that we must do a better job at thinking about what is best for kids. You might think it would be best if kids didn’t have myspace accounts or that they should never post private videos on youtube. You’re living in a dreamland…that ship has sailed. Now the question becomes, “Are we going to continue to spend our energies trying to turn back the clock or deal with the world we live in now and more importantly the world that we will live in 5 or 10 years from now”?
