I wrote all the earlier entries in this blog on the eee PC, since I want to see how practical it is as an editing tool. However, for this post I’m writing on my BlackBerry Pearl. The keyboard on the phone is not nearly as easy as my desktop (or even the eee). I suppose I’ll have thumb cramps by the time I finish, but I’ve been thinking a lot about the BlackBerry recently, and I decided to let form match theme for these reflections.
I carry this phone with me all the time. Recently I’ve become more aware of all the things it can do:
1. All phone functions (duh!)
2. It can take and send (somewhat poor quality) pictures
3. It syncs with my school calendar
4. It has all the usual utilities like a calculator, address book, and note pad
So far all pretty ho-hum, but as a smart phone the Blackberry has a whole second set of capabilities:
5. I can send and receive email from my school and home accounts. BB is known for this “push” email which comes directly to the phone
6. I can access the Internet. The browser shows full pages, and I can zoom in to read and work on any section I want. I also use a reader to quickly access and read new stories and articles from my chosen sites
7. I can access and operate my home and office computers. I can bring up either desktop and operate the mouse and keyboard. This isn’t the best way to run a computer, but it’s great if I need to access a document or run Aeries.
8. I can load PowerPoint files and send them via Bluetooth to a projector. When I’m doing presentations, I don’t have to bring a laptop
9. I can edit documents and spreadsheets. I wouldn’t want to write the WASC report on the 20 key keyboard (though I could purchase a portable Bluetooth keyboard)
10. With the media player I can listen to music or podcasts and watch videos and movies. The small screen isn’t optimal for video (the movies with subtitles are really tough!), but I found it a lifesaver on the plane
11. I can use Google maps for directions. In fact without a GPS the program can identify my location on the map with 1000 yards throug triangulation of cell towers. I can also quickly find the nearest Starbucks!
So, what’s the point of all this? I suppose what I’m suggesting is that all this computing ability is and will be carried around by our students ALL THE TIME.
What are we doing to prepare them for this?
For Lent, I asked students to consider how they can bring a balance to life when it comes to technology.
When we use to an extreme something that is good, we create an imbalance in our life and in our relationships…text messaging while at dinner with family.
Along with learning and using technology, we must also teach balance in developing socially, physically, spiritually, intellectually…reading time, quiet time, praying time, hanging out time along with study, entertainment, etc.
How can we prepare them to learn in a balanced/wholistic manner? How can we as teachers learning to use new technology also find the time and balance in our life?
If students were allowed to carry a Blackberry or similar, I would hope that there would be some way to lock out the “Playing Around” functions. For those of us that are on the battlefield (I mean in classrooms) the kids that carry similar electronics use them to play. For example, they play the games that are built in, but when asked what they are doing I receive a lie. I can plainly see what they are doing and I hear something like, “I am calling my parents for a ride.” They spend time texting each other, listening to mp3s, reprogramming numbers etc. For our students to carry something like this without removing games and texting, it would complicate our lives to no end. I would love to believe that our students wouldn’t use it for social networking, games or listening to music (with no school control over the lyrics they hear in the music) but the reality is this generation views electronics as toys, not learning tools. It would require a major paradigm shift for the kids for them to use electronics as a way to learn.
Students will be using this kind of tech in college although maybe not right away. My daughter wanted a smart phone for Christmas but the monthly access fee was too much for my budget. She’ll have to wait until prices come down.
Lowell is right that the kids use tech for fun and games. It would be too hard to monitor smart phones in the classroom. But we could create assignments for outside the classroom. The students could use: the computers in a library, a home computer, or a mobile device according to their resources. There are fantastic college-level feeds for any subject. The students need guidance to find and use the technology to advance their curricular learning.
There is a modicum of critical thinking benefit to learning anything new, even the latest release of Office 2007! However, the main use of technology at the high school level is as a portal to learning and knowledge, not an end in itself.
I clearly need to write more like this topic since it seems to have received the most attention.
Let me clarify
In this blogpost I’m not suggesting that we have our students purchase smartphones or add smartphone training to the curriculm. I’m not even talking about possible revision of our cellphone policy (that will be later). Rather I’m commenting on the amount of computing power that many people have with them all the time. I’m wondering how it will change day to day life and how we as a school will support these evolutionary changes.
I LOVE Aileeen’s comments about teaching students about finding a balance in their use of technology. I particularly like her use of the word balance. It is so easy to quickly fall into the “technology makes life better” or the “technology is ruining everything” camps. I’m sure that the truth is somewhere between the poles. I know that I want our students’ lives to be improved by the technology available to them, and I want them to have access to everything that helps to make life richer and fuller, but I also want them to be fully developed spiritual persons who find meaning beyond the machines.
FIrst, I think we are fooling ourselves if we really believe some of our students are not using their cel phones and mp3 players in some, if not many classes, already, and not with the teacher’s approval or knowledge.
So, what Aileen and Greg have stated is very appropriate, we need to teach our students how to balance their use of technology. But maybe we should also somehow clue the parents in on ways THEY can model and encourage a balance; not texting at dinner, no/low technology time, etc. My daughter does not spend hours on her cel phone talking or texting when there are others present because she knows it is rude, we have taught her that and comment on it when we see other people doing it.
As for smart phones, they are not going away. It is a powerful, relatively affordable, compact computer. If students were to be required to purchase a ‘computer’ in lieu of textbooks it is something that would be feasible in terms of power, functionality, and price. As far a monitoring what our students are doing with them, well don’t stone me, but that goes back to classroom management. If students are not engaged in what is being taught, if it is not challenging enough or if it is too far over their heads they will look for distractions, either with a computer game or pen and paper. I don’t know of any way to keep all students on task and diligently working 100% of the time in any subject. Some students will use their time more efficiently than others and some are more easily distracted. Any technology that is brought into the curriculum will require a change in teaching methods and classroom management. I teach in a classroom full of internet linked computers, yet students don’t play online computer games or download or listen to their own music. I guess some would say it is because they are “scared to death” of me, but I think it is because they generally enjoy the class and also because they know if they are goofing around they will not be able to complete their work on time.
I agree that this generation sees electronics as toys…Of course they do! Could this not be because they are teenagers? As adult educators, we must continually remember that our students are children. As a child, I played with dolls. The dolls were toys to me, but they were a learning device to my preschool teacher–one from which I was ultimately learning about how to be a parent. If we define the objectives for use of electronic “toys” first, then true learning will occur, sometimes when the teenagers don’t even realize that this is the case.