My thoughts, phones in classrooms ... @mikematthewsCDN ... http://bit.ly/IL490W

If you have not read an open letter in today's Guardian, you must.

In part of our new esteemed Ofsted Cheif Inspector's recent speech is his Victorianesqe view that phones are not of the classroom.

Ahem, let's think about this for a nanosecond, you have these wonderful computers in the pockets of most school children where you can teach a range of skills including programming (which his bosses, the current Education Minister and Prime Minister are advocating).

Apart from the subject of programming, we have a notepad, a Dictaphone, a GPS, an array of applications, a camera, a video camera and much more. With the obvious internet capability we have the ability to link many of the learning environment tools into the students pocket. Even better THEY ALREADY DO, Moodle amongst others are mobile compatible.

Hmmm
This is like the well known possible urban myth of the student, after the teacher writing on the whiteboard retrieved their phone and took a picture so they could do their homework only to be disciplined for having a phone in class.
For our youth this has been second nature for some considerable time, these tools in their pocket are an extension of their engagement with learning. They do it at home, out, about and also; 'shockingly' in school.

We can also take the view, that in this publicly cash strapped era, we have this technology being paid for by parents everywhere.

This current article in the Guardian is not the first, you can also see others sharing similar views from last year.

So, dear Chief Inspector, there is a world called the 21st Century, may I invite you to join in.




This is not the sum total of my views, only an expression of my current ire.



Comments

  1. Anonymous12 May 2012 at 09:15

    This cracked me up, you must tweet this

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bronwyn12 May 2012 at 12:20

    I don't think we should let them have pens either as they might graffiti something horrendous on the wall

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wikipedia editors never walk alone: Hillsborough changes can be traced ... from @ConversationUK

Image
By Andrew Smith , The Open University According to the Liverpool Echo , UK government computers have been used to make offensive comments on the Wikipedia page detailing the 1989 Hillsbourgh Disaster over a number of years. The newspaper reports that revisions to the page have been made from computers using the government’s secure intranet since 2009. They include insults to Liverpool fans and a comment suggesting that fans were responsible for the football ground disaster, in which 96 people died. This case highlights the continual issue of trolling and cybervandalism on Wikipedia. It also shows how journalism is using good, technical forensic tools at the disposal of every cybercitizen. Cybercitizens can be good or bad So many of us use Wikipedia on a daily basis that it is one of the most visited websites in the world. Yet not that many of us really understand how it works. Wikipedia is based on the principle that the community can create, edit and refine pages covering
Read more

If airlines offer in-flight Wi-Fi, they should invest in an extra black box for security ...

Image
Yijun Yu , The Open University and Andrew Smith , The Open University In-flight Wi-Fi is one of the most sought-after facilities for air travellers these days, now that laptops and smartphones are so common and so much of our working and personal life revolves around online services. But a US Government Accountability Office report has suggested that many in-flight wireless networks could expose the plane to being hacked or remotely controlled . In fact it’s of such a concern to US authorities that when a well-known computer security expert made an admittedly ill-thought-out joke about doing so on Twitter, he was promptly arrested, his computers confiscated, and subsequently banned from the airline . And all he was suggesting was to make the oxygen masks drop down. So it would appear that the stuff of Hollywood may jump from fiction to fact: Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore starred in the 2014 film Non-Stop , where a passenger hacking the aircraft’s internal wirel
Read more

Highlights and lowlights of 2014, a golden year for cybercrime from @ConversationUK

Image
Looking back, 2014 was not a good year for keeping things safe under digital lock and key. If a score was being kept, it might seem that the cybercriminals are in the lead, despite the valiant efforts – and own goals – from the cybersecurity profession worldwide. Cast your mind back to March , everyone was panicking about the HeartBleed bug. Based on an error in code upon which the majority of the world’s secure servers relied, experts had plenty of time to fix the issue. Sadly there was an array of conflicting information about changing passwords, leading to widespread confusion. While most IT administrators made sure this was managed in a professional manner, it created a stir that seemed to set the tone for the year. In May , online auction giant Ebay admitted to having been compromised. The site said its systems, with personal details of tens of millions of users, may have had been vulnerable for months. Everyone was advised, indeed forced, to change their password. In the
Read more