I had a funny evening with a couple friends the other night. They were friends before our conversation started. I can only hope they all are now, or, will be by the time this is Tweeted. It started with a comment from Friend#1 that he enjoyed my tweets from a recent P.D. experience I had had. Friend#BanSocialMedia jumped in with a “You tweet during meetings? That is rude!” There was some silence at the table from Friend#1 and Friend#4 (a high school I.T. department teacher). The conversation quickly lead to “Friend#BanSocialMedia”‘s expectations, complaints and comments about his students’ level of engagement in his history class. Now let me just say, this teacher is a great teacher. He loves his students. He stays current. He pushes the envelope. He is leading the education reform movement in his school if not in his district. Sans social media technology. He absolutely detests student cellphone use in his class. So . . . he has procured the specifications for his own “cell-phone jammer” and is in the process of manufacturing one.
Insert laughter here.
“Instead of swimming upstream why not harness the power, knowledge and expertise that your students already have?” I asked rhetorically. “I can teach you in five minutes how to run a cellphone, text back channel that could add in your delivery, provide by the minute feedback to you, engage your audience deeper and make you the talk of the lunch table from now until 2018!”
“Are you crazy?” was his response to me. “Cellphones are the worst things in schools. We banned them. I hate them.”
From here on out Friend#1 interjected to keep the peace, Friend #4 took notes on his cellphone and the band played on.
I kinda went “soapbox” on my friend. I asked questions like “Why are you denying me my learning? Because of my learning style?” and “are you afraid of the feedback you will get?” and “would you take away a students pencil when he was taking notes?” I admit, it got kind of ugly. I finished with a statement. “If the students are talking about what to do on the weekend, fights at lunch and who is dating who, give them something even better to text about: Your teaching methods, your expertise and your efforts to reach them in a medium that they all get and love. Tell them to follow your blog and follow your twitter account . . . then pump their heads full of historical fact that is more like fiction. Give them stuff they won’t believe and then they will try to prove you wrong by doing some of their own research. Ah . . . the old Jedi Teacher Trick, get them to learn when they think they are having fun. ”
I am sorry Friend#BanSocialMedia. I went over the edge. Please watch the video, continue your incredible work and consider buying a cellphone, engaging in some social learning yourself and with your students. Having an experienced opinion will give you much integrity with your students. I am sure you have taught history and World War II! You know what “cellphone jammers” and denying the public voice pangs of.
Sorry for that last one. I am refusing lately to take the passive way out. Our kids, my own children are worth it. When we refuse to meet students half way we do nothing to close the teaching – learning gap. Instead of investing in a “cellphone jammer” why not take a leap and allow the kids to answer questions, pose arguments and ask questions via a texting back channel. Come on . . . give it a try. The kids are going to jam your jammer anyway. Learning is supposed to be fun. If we don’t make it so . . . those darned kids will!
Your friend might be interested in this activity that uses the concepts of Social Media.
http://bit.ly/cIpT6E
Of course, it would require a knowledge of what Facebook is, and a Google account…
Thanks for posting – hadn’t seen the new updated version of this video yet.
Hello Technology fans I hope you have been outside to enjoy the summer (LOL),
I am the friend Cowperinicus was talking about. I am not anti-technology, I just believe in civility, there is a time and place for every activity. Texting your friends and class is not one of them. To show that I am not a luddite I have a google account and a blog and I will be trying polleverywhere.com in September. I really like the Smart Ideas program where you can have the students create Mind Maps and the students really loved using it too. I also have my students do skits for Ancient Civilizations History and many film them and put music to them and post them on You Tube. I had my PLC group watch a webinar by Dufour and Dufour. (Yes, I sweated before hand in trying to get it to work!). I want to learn about podcasting in the classroom but have had difficulties in getting help to do this.
The problem I was addressing is civility and the self centered behaviour of some cellphone users. I hate driving behind people who use cellphones, they generally don’t pay attention to what they are doing and are dangerous. The Globe and Mail reported in today’s edition that the use of Hand’s Free phones in automobiles makes a driver worse of a menace and more dangerous than an impaired driver. Many studies confirm the Globe and Mail’s report.
Meetings can also be interrupted by people constantly texting. Why do adults show up to meetings when they are only half there? Maybe the 1%ers are tweeting and trying to learn but in my humble opinion most people who are texting in meetings are attending to personal business on company time. My question to these meeting texters is this: Are you really that important that you can’t give your full attention to the person who has spent some time and effort to lead the group? Try looking at the speaker and give them your full attention, you’ll be surprised at how much more you get out of the meeting. If Research and Motion requires their employees to turn off their Blackberries and put them on the desk during a meeting I am sure you can do the same.
Another problem with cellphones is that many teenagers send 3000 plus texts in a month. We have a huge obesity crisis and the figures show that by 2025 Ontario will be spending 70% of our budget in health care. There will be much less room for much else unless we take care of that problem! With that much screen time how are they getting outside to exercise? Have you ever taught a teenager after they have texted until 3 a.m? How will we beat the other Nations who want to eat our lunch? Sure the P.I.S.A. tests for 15 year olds rank Canada in the top 5 Nations in terms of Reading, Math and Science but can we remain there with our addiction to technology? You are right the kids are worth it and sometimes a 15 year old needs limits.
The problem with cellphones as an umbilical cord even extends into University, In Monday’s Globe in the Life Section there was a book review about how texting parents can’t let their University age children solve problems for themselves. One example given was that parents will intervene in disputes with room mates. The reason is that the parents text their children on average 7 times per week and get sucked into the drama. What ever happened to learning to solve your own problems? Do you want to negotiate your salary for your first job? Why not let Mommy do it? I find that this hovering problem happening in the secondary schools too, with parents texting their kids during class.
So do I have a problem with the use of cellphones? Yes. However, I will I learn more about them and will use them in my classroom so that I can become a better practitioner.
Regards,
George