Edit #1: I posted this late at night and
woke up to 10 comments that have me thinking even harder about this
issue. I’ll get absolutely nothing done today if I continue to think
about it…so give me a chance to make it home and construct a
thoughtful response.
Edit #2: "I don’t want them to believe me, I just want them to think." – Marshall McLuhan
My rant has had a chance to marinate a bit. A few "next day" thoughts.
I truly believe that everybody…from the executive editor of Scholastic Administrator magazine through the teachers/administrators in the story and all the commentors on this post…everybody is trying their best.
We all have different agendas and see things through our own lens. I honestly wouldn’t know what to do with 150 students a day in a school that banned cell phones, iPods, laptops, etc. None of you would want me as your principal, trying to keep the lid on the place. I sure as heck don’t know anything about selling magazines or writing a balanced article.
My job is precisely the same as Scholastic’s. "I just wan them to think." Push the edges a bit. See what we learn as a result.
To Scholastic’s credit…
1) They do incredible work for teachers and kids.
2) Read 180 is on my really short list of educational technology things that matter.
3) The executive editor of Scholastic Administrator magazine was inside my inbox this afternoon, inviting me to construct a response for publication in their October/November magazine.
This is a great lesson for everybody involved in information and media literacy.
Markets are conversations. I’m going to continue pushing the edge on this "fear sells" thread.
Doug Johnson…I see the smile on your face. "He’s pure. Mostly."
Original Rant
There’s a running joke at my mailbox at work. It’s been nearly one year and I’ve received exactly 1 piece of mail that had even somewhat important meaning. Today was no different. CDW. Symantec. MacWorld. HP. Scholastic Administrator Magazine.
Seriously. That cover says "When Tech Attacks". Let that sink in just a bit further.
Ok. You have my attention. Go.
"Schools across the country are waging a war against technology tools gone bad. Read how some districts defend their classrooms against the new school thuggery—from iPod cheats to cell phone punks and sneaky Web surfers."
We are at war? Let me check my scorecard. Drugs. Poverty. Afganistan. Terror. Iraq. Cell phones? I really need to start watching TV again to catch this late breaking news.
"According to Will Richardson, author of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, we have seen the enemy, and it is us. Adults simply don’t know how to model appropriate digital behavior, he believes, so kids are making up the rules on their own."
Spend more that 5 minutes either reading or talking with Will and one thing is clear. None of this stuff is simple. Especially when a journalist leads with "According to…"
"Is it a case of bad technology leading to bad behavior or good technology with not enough role models? These horror stories should act as a primer."
Boys and girls, that’s called the "hook" of the article. It makes you want to read further. Let’s explore the horror!
"…(a female teacher’s) suspended student blindsided her with a vicious punch while his buddy recorded the scene (on a cell phone). The teacher ended up with 25 stitches in her head. Murphy High has a cell phone policy, but little good that did when students wanted to cause serious harm."
Nobody likes to hear a story like that. The students in this case faced some pretty stiff penalties and a trip to jail. No word on whether the phone did time, but that’s not important right now. Principal Doug Estle is taking steps to calm fears.
“We’ll also do professional development in the fall about spotting potentially violent kids, and we’ll set up tip lines for students who might know something about a potential attack.”
A tip line. We’ll protect kids from the dangers of technology by having them call a tip line on their dangerous cell phones banana phones.
Another example of technology attacking…
"In October 2004, a substitute teacher in Norwich (CT) Public Schools exposed some of the middle school students in her care to pornographic pop-up ads. Julie Amero was tried and convicted and faced the possibility of 40 years in jail."
Wow. That must have been some seriously harmful technology to be convicted and face a possible 40 year jail sentence. Surely school districts, especially the ones involved in this court case, are learning from this situation.
"Despite the incident, the district hasn’t made any radical changes in what it does to keep kids porn-free, according to Bob Hartz, manager of Information Services. “There are so many porn sites,” he says. “You’ve just got to assume it’s going to happen, pay attention, and take the right steps when it does.”"
I’m neither a lawyer nor an expert on this case. Would somebody please get this district a PR person to advise keeping these sorts of quotes quiet? Even if it’s simply for Julie’s sake? Damn. That stings.
Technology that attacks isn’t limited to knocking out teachers or throwing them in jail. Take the MP3 player.
"Everybody loves an open-book exam, especially those who forgot to study. Used to be such exams were at the teacher’s discretion, but technology is changing all that. Which is what a teacher at Mountain View High School, in Meridian, Idaho, discovered upon overhearing students discussing how iPods could help them cheat. The idea is this: Kids record material that will be on an exam and then download it to bring to school on an MP3 player."
How will kids know what will be on the exam prior to the exam? That’s right…they review. These kids got clever about it though. They taught their iPods what would likely be on the exam. Like the article says though, teachers have discretion whether to allow students to use their notes, books, and resources on an exam. All is well. Or is it?
"So why let the MP3 players in the exam room? ‘We wanted to be the cool guys and allow kids to relax a little while taking tests by listening to their iPods,’ Principal Aaron Maybon explains. ‘We’re an SPED and ELL magnet school, and listening to quiet music while taking an exam is a good way for our students to stay focused.’"
What? This isn’t a case of "When Tech Attacks?" These things actually have good uses?
"But even if MP3 players are banned outright, Maybon says, the kids can tell you exactly how to hide the tiny players, cords, and earbuds under bulky clothes and underneath their hair."
Ahh, so it’s not the technology that we are at war with, but rather the bulky clothes and hair.
"Still, Maybon points out that there has never been an incident of iPod cheating at Mountain View. He also has no intention of banning MP3 players and punishing kids for behavior they haven’t exhibited…"
Whew. This story didn’t end up in a trip through the criminal justice system. It’s just kids practicing study skills.
What’s next?
"He (note: not Will Richardson, but referring to Will) says technology is getting smaller and smaller—and easier to carry as well as to hide. Plus, we’re about to enter an age of ubiquitous computing, where kids will be able to snag a Wi-Fi signal from the surrounding community and simply get around whatever blocks or bans school administrators have made. Can you imagine the insanity that will ensue when kids can search the Internet unchecked on a school computer—linked to an unfiltered Wi-Fi connection?"
Insanity? You should see me after I check into a hotel without free wifi these days.
"The good news is that of all the people in the world, educators are best able to solve these problems."
Like CIPA and DOPA. I’m sure that stuff came out in your research on this topic.
"To Richardson’s eye, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and stop thinking about policies that limit technology, and instead focus on what we do best."
Hallelujah.
"’It has to be a K–12 curriculum in which we model good behavior,’ Richardson argues. ‘We have to be consistent in our own behavior, and hand out real consequences for abuses to the procedures.’"
Be firm. Set the expectations. Model proper behaviors.
It’s time for Scholastic Administrator to finish with something profound.
"In other words, be ready to do battle."
That’s how it ends? You are advising your 240,000+ audience of school administrators "be ready to do battle?"
Full disclosure. My personal media critic filter is smart enough to separate Scholastic Administrator Magazine from a peer reviewed journal article or a Wikipedia entry. I also fully admit playing a bit of "Jon Stewart" with the story. I insist that you go read this article in its entirety.
http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3746915
Before the comments fly, let me list the deeper, more important reasons why I’m stirred.
1. This article in Scholastic Magazine makes us all look stupid. It is a complete insult to the entire K12 education profession. Is there anybody that really believes a cell phone caused a student to punch out a teacher, a porn pop-up is an "attack" on students, and that an MP3 player is a cause for war?
2. Scholastic Magazine went to Will Richardson for his take and to add a splash of credibility to the article, all the while mangling it. Will (and others) have quit their "day jobs" to chase their passions of school reform and educational technology. I’ve known Will for a number of years. We’ve lived the same highs and lows together. No doubt he’s on some small propeller plane tonight, headed to another hotel room, wondering if it’s possible to hit 4 consecutive "rooms that open to the left" in a single week. I’m sure he’ll come across his copy of "When Tech Attacks" in the near future and question, yet again, whether the time away from his wife and kids is worth it.
3. I can’t help but worry when I think about this article. I’m unsure of how many hours of research go into something like this I’m sure it was plotted out on a storyboard, edited, re-edited, fact checked, and passed through a few hands before going into a publication that reaches 240,000 educators. Right? Somebody had to decide that this article was worth of the cover story. Even scarier, if I approach the article objectively, the fact that is was deemed "cover story quality" means that Scholastic truly believes that the majority of readers will appreciate this story.
Would somebody please let me know if I’m being punked?
Banana Phone Courtesy Flickr CC @ http://flickr.com/photos/nitz/543734402/
{ 17 comments }
Doesn’t the article boil down to the fact that we are basically at war with the kids. This is something I have thought about for a long time. If we could just get rid of the kids school would be a great place wouldn’t it.
John — If this post is NOT read by the Scholastic team, we should all be ashamed as educators and citizens for not connecting the dots.
I’m on good terms with one of their head marketing folks; you can plan on my connecting with her in the near term. I do not have any idea if the article or choice of cover story has any connection to her day-to-day responsibilities (most likely not), but I will ask her to read your post and to offer feedback (if she is in a position to do so).
One of the single most impressive blog posts I’ve read in the last 2 years. Period.
Thank you for taking on the question that matters most…and the many that follow.
Cheers,
Christian
I’m glad you called Scholastic “out” on this hysterically-toned article.
Scholastic has done some helpful work on behalf of educators and literacy–so it is a real disappointment to see an article like this from one of their periodicals.
When are we going to stop approaching students out of a place of fear and control? And instead approach them from a place of hope and curiosity for learning?
Tonight I read of another blogger whose district won’t approve her students using blogs or wikis in the classroom–meanwhile companies like IBM have over 100,000 employees utilizing wikis as part of their daily work.
Have we gone overboard in this “danger, danger Will Robinson” mindset in this country when it comes to our children? Or can we trust that they have common sense, a desire to learn, that they will recover quickly from accidentally seeing an illicit pop-up, and that they are adaptable and intelligent?
It’s dismaying to see how many administrative magazines frequently feature articles like these.
I don’t think you needed to qualify at the end why you said what you said. Even if it seems over the top to some people or “Jon Stewart-esque” WE (teachers, administrators and edubloggers) NEED TO START GETTING DRAMATIC AND YELLING AT THE TOP OF OUR LUNGS! This conversation has to get into the main stream and out of the echo chamber.
Awesome rant. I needed that.
“No word on whether the phone did time…”
Haha. So many cell phones have bad home lives- what did you expect.
“Everybody loves an open-book exam, especially those who forgot to study.”
Man, that is not true. Every open-book exam I’ve ever taken was tough. Why? Because it required synthesis of my resources. THAT’S a 21st century skill!
John, ok – so I’m real glad I wasn’t the only one who read that article and thought… whoa nelly… better save that stuff for the grocery checkout line!
Your points were all right on. I led with a softer take:
Wheaton’s article has perhaps a bit too much of a Brave New World / Fahrenheit 451 bent to it. In one instance, she alludes to chaotic insanity breaking out in schools as students gain access to community based open Wi Fi signals and run rampant circumventing the prohibitive broadband access measures put in place to thwart them.
http://notesfromtheridge.edublogs.org/2007/08/13/tech-abuse-school-admins-and-teachers-must-work-together-to-curb-it/
First of all, I deeply appreciate your rant. Having said that, I wonder if as secondary response to this article, we could use a wiki page to collaborative write a proactive, non-alarmist, sans-war-analogy response to some of these concerns. In other words, write what the article this could have been–addressing some of the same concerns, but empowering teachers to work with technology, rather than combating it. I would set it up, but I think you (John) or Will would be in a better position to sponsor the page.
I frequently get the question, “What do you do to control your class?” My answer for the past decade has been, “There are 55 adults and 800 students, there is no controlling them. The reality is that it is my job to work with students, to convince them to go with me on a journey of learning, to inspire them to treat each other with respect. Control is a complete farce.”
The transformative nature of learning in an environment where the students are engaged, interested and invested, outweighs the need for control. Technology nor the kids are the enemy.
If *they* are afraid of kids ‘cheating’ on a test, how about you give them a test that does not have one right answer, but asks them to synthesize and analyze information. The ‘kids these days’ are capable of enormously amazing feats. Technology offers one set of tools in realizing that potential and the fear mongering just gets in the way of having a real conversation about responsible use of technology in a learning environment.
Thanks for getting me all excited and angry tonight. Maybe we need to get mad more often! My blog response is at http://tinyurl.com/ypp7sx.
I really do appreciate you sharing this madness!
Well done, John. When I saw this article come across in your twitter post, I immediately tagged it for a workshop I am doing in late August for administrators in our district. The more I got into the article, the less I wanted them to see it. Who needs these talking points to refute in a room full of people who need any excuse not to take educational risks for fear of legal consequences? Not saying that administrators aren’t innovative, but an article like this, without proper vetting, sets some of us back quite a ways.
Here is my new plan, thanks to your post: deconstruct it point by point without giving them the article to work off of. Instead use it to construct my argument for bringing intelligent use of these technologies into the classroom through modeling and cooperation.
Thanks Scholastic!
Once again, it’s a case of putting the cart before the horse. It’s the BEHAVIOR that needs to be addressed, not the tech tools. A bully – or thug – or whatever – will still act true to form, whether his “audience” is students in the hallway or the YouTube multitude.
If *they* are afraid of kids ‘cheating’ on a test, how about you give them a test that does not have one right answer…
AMEN DANA
John I was as fired up as you when I read this article…we are trying to establish a 1:1 school where kids have the tools they need to analyze, synthesize and create and when the “horror stories” of the tools are the first revealed…
John you did a BRILLIANT job of deconstructing this article… will definitely be taking my own stand and pointing to those of you here.
I love the idea of a wiki for the other side…anyone else game?
I just threw a slight edit at the end of the article. I won’t get anything done today unless I leave this alone until later this evening when I get home and put some thought behind it.
Thanks for exposing the erroneous suppositions in this article. I can only hope that the administrators in my district won’t see it.
It would have been wonderful for the writer to provide additional examples of students’ resourcefulness in capturing the power of the technology tools to help them succeed in school. The MP3 player example is a great illustration of how kids are using these tools to help them study. Many kids benefit from auditory repetition of information – let’s take the slant of how kids are creatively utilizing the tools instead of seeing kids as the enemy and the tools as their weapons.
John – a friend of mine at work made a great analogy “It’s not guns that kill people, it’s people that kill people.” We talk about this all the time at work. It’s not the technology that is bad, it’s people’s behaviors. If kids are going to cheat, they are going to find ways to cheat, whether they use technology or not. My husband’s school just implemented a new rule this year about “No cell phones, ipods, mp3 players, etc.” In my presentation yesterday, someone brought up about a lawyer saying the biggest ways teachers get fired is posting something in myspace – so we shouldn’t have those kinds of accounts. Technology can be used for both good and bad, but we can’t throw out the tools because some choose to use them for bad!
My students use iPods in the classroom. I keep my own cell phone close at hand. I use wikis, blogs, podcasts and any other tools that get the job done. The biggest problem isn’t how technology is being used for evil. We are not doing a good enough job communicating with each other and educating each other on the use of these tools. The people who respond to this blog are passionate and caring, but so are many other educators that aren’t hip to blogs. We need to step it up and help people to see the good that technology can bring to education. Getting mad about what somebody says doesn’t get the job done. We can only change an opinion with results and a helping hand. The idea of using a wiki to showcase success sounds great, but we need an audience. This forum has to be easy to use for even the most technophobic. This cannot be the result of one person. My cyberschool.us website has the tag line “dedicated to a bigger learning network”. I’ve been blessed to be a part of a group starting http://www.eduwiki.us for these same reasons you’ve read throughout these comments. We can all play a part, but we need to communicate, collaborate and partner to make this happen. MB
Hmmm… maybe this magazine is on to something… perhaps they should do an in-depth study on how dangerous #2 pencils are. I remember getting poked with one in middle school, and boy was it painful.
Perhaps we should go back to writing with blunt charcoal sticks so as to protect ourselves from such “pencil violence?”
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