Ontario Premier Says Cellphones In Class Could Be Useful
from the smart-comments-from-politicians? dept
With schools, cell phones and a politician in the same headline, you'd think the story would be about another attempt to ban technology, but in Ontario, Premier Dalton McGuinty is telling schools to be open to uses for cellphones in the classroom.
McGuinty, who won't even let his ministers keep the devices during cabinet meetings, said he understands they can be a major distraction, but there is a "right way" to use them in class.
"Telephones and BlackBerrys and the like are conduits for information today, and one of the things we want to do is to be well-informed," he said. "And it's something that we should be looking at in our schools.
The issue came up in light of the Toronto District School Board rethinking its blanket ban, and "exploring ways to make [mobile devices] more acceptable."
Political opponents are already mocking McGuinty, and his government does have a really mixed track record on technology... but the comments here are actually quite reasonable. There's room between the "discipline theater" approach of a total ban and the teacher's nightmare scenario of a total free-for-all. A good acceptable use policy would attempt to reduce distractions while not precluding ways in which mobile technology can be helpful in the classroom.
I attended a strict private high school in Toronto from 2001-2005, and we had a blanket ban on electronic devices... but teachers were smart enough to know when it made sense to ignore the ban. I used my PDA to take notes and manage homework in every class, and another student in my year often used a tablet computer. The ban was eventually lifted after I graduated, acknowledging the fact that more and more students were using laptops and mobile devices in ways that helped them learn, while I'm sure they still have a no nonsense policy for students goofing off or distracting others. Rules are needed to minimize bad uses, but that shouldn't prevent people from exploring good uses.
So, good for McGuinty for recognizing that we're better off exploring applications for mobile technology in the classroom than simply trying to ban it.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: canada, classroom, education, mobile phones, ontario
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
thank god this is changing.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Office stress
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buiq_mMjhQY
There are to many crazy people on the world.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
There is zero NEED for cell phones in school class rooms.
There is zero NEED for cell phones in school class rooms. You are there to pay attention to the teacher; not texting or making phone calls. After all passing notes in classes is a no-no too.
Real computers can server a purpose. A PDA maybe but something like the iPhone would be laughable - Taking NOTES on an iPhone - ha ha ha.
The problem is a good acceptable policy the PARENTS will 100% accept. A teacher friend of mine has a simple policy - all cells phones ringers off and the top right corner of the desk (visible at all times). One Parent attempted to contact their child 3 times with no luck so they called the police as they where worried their little Johnny had a accident at school. So much for the policy - now kids hide there cell phones, ringers on, texting there school mates two desk over. Not at all distracting for the teacher or OTHER students when you have at least 10 phones ring every hour.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: There is zero NEED for cell phones in school class rooms.
"There is zero NEED for cell phones in school class rooms. You are there to pay attention to the teacher; not texting or making phone calls. After all passing notes in classes is a no-no too."
Read the quoted passage below all the way through - PLEASE!!
"I used my PDA to take notes and manage homework in every class, and another student in my year often used a tablet computer. The ban was eventually lifted after I graduated, acknowledging the fact that more and more students were using laptops and mobile devices in ways that helped them learn, while I'm sure they still have a no nonsense policy for students goofing off or distracting others. Rules are needed to minimize bad uses, but that shouldn't prevent people from exploring good uses."
No where is anyone claiming that phone calls and text messages should be allowed or condoned. However they do want to point out that today's smart phones CAN help the learning process.
This is a pretty ridiculous statement as well:
"Taking NOTES on an iPhone - ha ha ha."
Actually, you can record the whole lecture/lesson and without writing a word, so you can pay MORE attention to what is being said AND participate in any discussion. You'll have the entire class (with any questions, answers, and dialogue including verbal emphasis and inflections) available to you indefinitely!! There simply is no way a human can write any better or more complete notes.
Take the blinders off and let technology help you rather than wrestling with it because it was never done that way before!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: There is zero NEED for cell phones in school class rooms.
What Ron said. Plus, this really has less to do with "cell phones" and more to do with mobile, handheld computers (even though McGuinty still calls them cell phones).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: There is zero NEED for cell phones in school class rooms.
Cell phones aren't phones any more. Sure, you can get a RAZR and you won't be able to do anything useful in class (well, except it does have a Calculator, but whatever.) However, more and more, everything has a cellular radio these days. The iPad has a cellular radio and is excellent for taking notes, but can't make phone calls at all. (Ok, VOIP, but not a phone call just the same.)
That said, I can think of a single, incredibly simple solution: Install Wifi and a call phone jammer. Problem solved.
With this (and a decent content filter on the wifi - these are kids, after all) mobile devices will be unable to take a phone call or receive a text message, however data applications, such as a web browser or email, will continue to function normally. If a phone is unable to do anything besides take a phone call or text message, it'll be disabled whether the student likes it or not. If, however, it has any sort of advanced functionality that could be useful in a classroom (Wikipedia CAN BE an invaluable tool, folks!) then it can do it over the Wifi, which will probably be faster anyway. Add obvious filters for porn and instant messaging and you quickly develop a network that offers incalculable benefits with minimal distraction in a classroom.
That said, I would like to caution anyone who seriously tries this - monitor the filter stringently. If I were avoiding a school district on this, my #1 most important piece of advice would be to have the IT managers themselves go around for at least a month and sit in during classes at random with a packet sniffer running on the local router. Figure out what else you need to block, and often more importantly, figure out what you need to unblock. Youtube is often a massive time-waster, but it also has not hundreds or thousands, but millions of free educational videos on everything from Algebra to Zoology, so blocking it outright will be detrimental to the system. Be granular, and craft your filter by hand to ensure that a blanket rule neither distracts nor restricts the students when it shouldn't.
Just the same, incorporating technology into the classroom is a great idea, and with school budgets being what they are, banning students personal - and often vastly superior - technology cannot help anyone, especially the students themselves.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: There is zero NEED for cell phones in school class rooms.
"call phone jammer"
thats a bad idea on so many lvls, people need cell phones, when they have to leave school ground to get a ride home from school, medical emeracys, staying social ect.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
having recently graduated from college I see what most young adults do with their computer/cell phone/laptop + wireless/3G free reign.
this is classic Lord of the Flys ... on would hope kids/young adults do the right thing but more likely they won't
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Your comment might have been set to HTML instead of Plain Text? Plain Text automatically spaces lines when you do, with HTML you have to make the spacing explicit in HTML.
Good points though.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
it ate up so much time that we gave up and went back to "allow all" and told teachers to check what kids are doing.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
heyyyyyyy
[ link to this | view in chronology ]