1. Schools should definitely follow the trends in technology to keep up with students. The NYC educator, Marc Prensky made a great point when he said “School represents the past. After-school is where they are training themselves for the future. “The danger is that as school becomes less and less relevant, it becomes more and more of a prison.” If we don’t allow these devices inside our schools we are teaching the children it’s wrong to be using them. It would be amazing to have a technology reform in schools that embraces these tools and use them as learning tools. I believe this will happen, but it will take lots of time, I agree that a lot of the veteran teachers are holding schools back from following this path. Once buildings are filled with a generation of teachers who feel confident with technology, schools will be on the move.
2. It is so frustrating when people are so concerned with censorship and the Internet, but no one seems to be making a fuss about what our children are seeing on TV. The news, music videos, sitcoms, “reality” shows… I see Schools have already blocked a large amount of content from being accessed at school. TeacherTube sounds like an excellent resource and a great alternative to YouTube. Just by developing this new site is eliminating a huge risk or seeing inappropriate material, and people are still worried. I do agree that we need to teach Internet responsibility so children don’t post too much information online. It is impossible to censor all things inappropriate and children may have access to that information after school, everyone will be exposed to something inappropriate during their lifetime. Maybe seeing it as children will discourage them from wanting be associated with certain activities when they get older.
3. Wow, the I'd really like to try out the Teachermate. It sounds like a great way to ease teachers and elementary students into the digital realm. It is amazing how inexpensive these machines are, I'm interested to find out how they're going over in the pilot schools. I could see some teachers using the Teachermate to do their job for them. It was scary to hear one of the teachers say, “If the students could use these devices all day long, they would. It gets them focused on what they should be learning, but they think they are just playing games.” Clearly the Teachermate would make a great addition to reading and math lessons, but we should be careful that they don't take over the entire class.
4. Everyone involved in this situation needs to lighten up and get over it! Administrators and school officials need to learn to take criticism just like everyone else does. It's part of life, I'm certain every person on this planet has been called a name before. Sure it's rude and uncalled for, but don't let it get to you. It's that easy, not everyone will always agree with you and some people will handle that the wrong way. The student responsible for hurting the Superintendent's feelings needs to learn to deal with the consequences of what happens when you get caught talkin' smack about authority figures. For instance, if I sent an e-mail to the teachers in my building stating my principal is a "douche bag," more than likely I would be fired. If she really feels the need to let the student body know about this person's "douche baggery" she should be smart enough to do it anonymously. We really need to teach this generation of kids about Internet etiquette and responsibility. I don't think they understand that the Internet isn't a safe place to publicly broadcast your thoughts about specific people. I remember hearing about students being arrested for posting online that they wanted to kill (insert name) usually meant as I'm so sick of this person, but this is taken as a serious threat, and now there's evidence.
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