By Sandy Sanders
On this page today the editorial cartoon shows a paper airplane as an example of a “by-gone era of student distractions” and the cartoonist adds it was “replaced later by iPods, cell phones and texting.” As one from the paper airplane era, I agree its sole purpose was for distraction — teacher, class, etc. — anything to cause loss of focus. Those of us who know what a paper airplane was will smile and agree with the cartoonist. We also like the comparison to the gadgets with which we share a love-hate relationship.
On television lately, I have seen an actor who is playing a college professor apologize to his class of students for the education system being so old fashioned. The students in the class have iPods, phones in their hands and plugged into their ears. The advertisement is for online classes at a university. As I have watched the commercial and read today’s cartoon, I wonder if adults are not education’s real distraction.
Political leaders who love to “fix” the public education system have beaten their breasts with excitement when they raise the technological level of the schools. We hear about new computer labs, white boards connected to computers (instead of black boards and chalk), and even laptops for every student. What we as adults see as high tech many of the students see as a paper airplane. Instead of using what every student has — the cell phone, iPod — we trail behind exclaiming, “look what we have done now.”
Why don’t we develop classes around texting on a phone? How about a class using a Wii? How about something using the Xbox? Surely, we have people smart enough in the country to develop education programs that will bring our children back to the basics of education through the latest in technology.
Here at The Times, we have partnered with a company called TweenTribune.com where teachers can open a class and have the students sign in for their daily work. The teacher can then close the class (lock it) to outside use and make assignments only the students in that class are allowed to do. The same concept could be used for many different subjects allowing the student to work from the smart phone, laptop, computer at home, the library — wherever.
Maybe instead of banning cell phones at school, we should be using them to extend the reach of the school. I wonder how many failing students we have in our high schools who can out-text their teachers typing on a computer keyboard? I would wager to say that most know how to download new ringtones and applications without any outside help. (Side Bar: LG, a mobile phone company, is sponsoring a national texting contest that will pay the winner $25,000.)
It is almost an oxymoron how we mobilize leadership committees to develop a high-tech workforce, but we see the technology of this generation as a distraction. My, my, maybe we are too smart for our on good!
