Comments on: Teens just gotta text

By: Bill Leonard

Bill Leonard — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:54:09 +0000

Good for you, Ben F.!

Stomp on every device you can find! Slap the little and middling shits upside the head, if that’s what it takes to make’em pay attention!

Sadly, not enough teachers (nor, God knows, Administrators) are willing to take direct action.

I fear for the future of my country.

Bill
Bill

By: Ben F

Ben F — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:23:03 +0000

As a middle school teacher, I want the authority to smash confiscated cell phones. Do you think we can get our state legislators to get behind this plan?

By: anon

anon — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:55:26 +0000

Real simple solution. No cell phones in the classroom (teachers included). For any reason. Anytime. Anywhere. Ever. Confiscate phones found in the classroom (teachers included). Don’t tell me it can’t be done. If it can’t be done, it’s not a school. It is something else, but it’s not a school.

By: Margo/Mom

Margo/Mom — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:21:24 +0000

Charter Mom–it’s all about the appropriate medium for the message. Blackberry emails (usually a standout because so few of us adults are really accurate thumb-typers) can facilitate handling of short, immediate kinds of things. One of the things my boss’s secretary knows is where he is and whether it is a good time for Blackberry conversation. Also very good for scanning through things in order to know what is waiting for a good read at a later date.

Tweets (although I confess, I haven’t figured the danged thing out yet) are good for emergency notifications (Team won, final score or snow emergency closes schools at 2 PM). RSS feeds save one the trouble of checking a frequently updated site every day to see what’s new.

Some communication requires a phone call, or a face-to-face–and even these things are changing somewhat as the options abound.

I have sometimes found it very useful to ask my son to text me a picture to verify that he actually is where he claims to be. Chicago parents whose kids were daily traversing the war zone to get to the school bus set up a schedule of calling or texting everyday to let mom know they had gotten on the bus.

By: CharterMom

CharterMom — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:24:24 +0000

I would say this phenomenon is not just limited to teens. I work at a place where all managers (mostly middle-aged) are given blackberries. It is amazing to sit in meetings, watch those things buzz and watch many of the managers be unable to help themselves and grab them and read and respond. And this happens even at times when the manager should be engaged in the meeting. They don’t call them crackberries for nothing.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that the email communications coming from these same people are often short, vague and subject to misinterpretation. Often no background or context is provided even on complex issues. And if a longer detailed email is sent — it often isn’t read (or at least not comprehended). So communications tends to suffer and there is a lot of frustration and productivity is reduced.

By: Anon

Anon — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:35:29 +0000

Margo it all depends on what the default mode is. If electronic devices are always out of play except when the teacher decides that they’re in play, that’s OK. But there is no easy way (or even feasible way) to hold them to controlled use, if they’re in the possession of the students and not subject to confiscation. The level of self-control that students would have to have, if they’re allowed to bring phones, etc to class and expected to use the honor system to regulate their use, is not possessed by most students.

By: Marco

Marco — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:19:33 +0000

At our (charter) school, personal electronic devices are banned during school hours. Exceptions can be made for the use of calculators and laptops, if appropriate and supervised. If a staff member sees an IPod, cellphone, or similar device, we take it away, and a parent has to come and pick it up. Texting is not really a problem here.

Marco

By: Tweets that mention Teens just gotta text « Joanne Jacobs -- Topsy.com

Tweets that mention Teens just gotta text « Joanne Jacobs -- Topsy.com — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:08:27 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by kriley19, JoanneLeeJacobs. JoanneLeeJacobs said: Teens just gotta text, but are multi-taskers more productive? http://bit.ly/4kJonI [...]

By: Tracy W

Tracy W — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:22:47 +0000

Parent2, again though we can’t draw from this the conclusion that multi-tasking causes loss of concentration, it may be that students who can’t concentrate as well are drawn to multi-tasking.
Of course it also may be that multi-tasking does cause poor concentration. Just I don’t see how these researchers have gotten around the causation problem.

By: Margo/Mom

Margo/Mom — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:46:32 +0000

Tracy W–I think that Facebook is becoming normalized by the presence of people our age. It’s become so last week. Personally I have found it to be a helpful way to expand my network of folks I have known over time by may not still be in daily or weekly contact with.

As for twitter–I get the same universal answer–that’s for old people.

But, in terms of school, I think that there are more and less beneficial means of responding. The charter that got parent buy-in for one-week removal of phones used in class moved effectively. Other effective responses include incorporation of the tools to those already available for education (there is an in-school facebook clone that can be used for group assignments, etc)–twittering assignment updates, etc.

It’s always important to think about what we are trying to teach. Just getting rid of a distracting annoyance frequently leads to power struggles that are less than productive. I can come up with a list of very acceptable reasons that students ought not chew gum in class. In the end that might not be a hill worth dying on. Involving students in an exercise in self-government by considering implementation, enforcement and ramifications of various policies regarding food, candy and other edibles and potables on campus and in classrooms–and then accepting responsibility for carrying them out–probably a far more worthy endeavor.

Personal technology in the classroom is pretty similar. There are most likely many ways to tackle the issue–with many different outcomes.