Aug

27

Why are we chopping off their limbs?

August 27, 2007 | | Leave a Comment

This mornings newspaper brings yet another story of a school administration trying to steer student behavior through regulation, as yet another local high school moves to ban cell phones and mp3 players completely on school premises.

Now I don’t pretend to have all – or even any – of the answers to the challenges created by the changing face of information within our schools and communities, but simply creating a blanket ban on new information technologies is akin to trying to regulate common sense. It won’t work!

Then comes David Warlick’s enlightened post where he speaks to the increased conversations that are just beginning to take place.

Now they are returning to school, which is almost entirely about limits. We contain them in classrooms. We contain them with schedules. We contain their access to each other — “No talking!” We contain content inside the covers of textbooks and the walls of libraries, and when we give them access to the Internet, it is so highly filtered that even teachers are frustrated by the valuable content and applications that are blocked.

Our youth – and yes, even us in ever increasing numbers – are connected to and through the information. They don’t see the technology as anything special – in fact they don’t see the technology at all! – they are simply using these technologies as a portal to conversations – conversations that lead to learning.

What is the real message that we send our students through these attempts at regulation? What we are telling them is that the very conversations that they hold so dear – their IMs, texting, social networking – are less than important and are inherently negative. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, through these conversations our young people are developing true 21st century information literacy skills, the skills of working, negotiating and producing collaboratively.

We need to stop looking at ways to contain our students, but set them free to explore, to learn. In the end, isn’t this the ultimate goal of education.

Until then, as David says, attempts to contain student behavior by chopping off their invisible digital limbs will fail.  In fact, not only will trying to stop the leaking fail, it’s the wrong approach if we want vibrant, student-centered, 21st century learning communities.

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