Most of my good ideas in the classroom so far have come from watching kids goofing off with computers in study hall. You could say I'm broadly sympathetic to the point Audrey Watters' latest piece in the Atlantic, Students Are 'Hacking Their School-Issued iPads: Good for Them."
Almost immediately after receiving their new school-issued iPads this fall, students in Indiana and in California (and probably elsewhere) managed to bypass the security on the devices, “hacking” them for “non-schoolwork” purposes: listening to music, checking Facebook, surfing the web.
As school districts look to lock down students’ iPad access further, students in turn find themselves with less opportunity for this sort of mastery. This isn’t simply a problem with Apple’s mobile devices; it speaks to a deeper issue about how many schools (and technology and publishing companies) view education. Indeed News Corp’s education division Amplify has built a tablet that seems predicated on the stripping away of students’ agency and autonomy. The Amplify device boasts the ability of schools to track students’ usage habits at school and at home (in the service of “data-driven education,” of course) and to flash an “eyes on teacher!” warning on the screens of those who aren’t paying the right sort of attention in the classroom. “Programming the child” indeed.
Whether we trust students with “powerful devices” or not, students “hack” back—and, let’s be clear, it’s not simply out of maliciousness. And unfortunately, whether we call it “hacking” or not, the students find themselves in trouble for doing so. According to the acceptable use policy for the district in Indiana where students purportedly “hacked” their iPads, any “misuse” of the devices—including “attempting to access or accessing websites blocked by the school’s internet filter”—“may result in disciplinary action.” Detention. Expulsion.
In the days since the story broke about the Indiana and California students’ “hacking” their iPads, the districts’ poor planning and preparation has been roundly criticized. But more important perhaps than pointing a finger at any one security or administrative issue here, we should recognize that the real failure may be more widespread and more insidious: a profound lack of vision about how students themselves could use—want to use—these new technologies to live and to learn at their fullest potential.As we've been entering the lesson planning phase, I've been increasingly conscious that in programming things for students to see and do, I've been leaving out points where the students themselves can exercise their choices. Unless I do that, it seems like policing attention and behavior is going to be a much bigger part of my working life than I ever wanted. That can only be more of a factor as technology increases opportunities for coloring outside the lines.
as i look over the [whopping] four posts we have here, i'm struck by the common theme of autonomy. i think this is yet another interesting and relevant version of the autonomy that much of our reading and seminars have been encouraging...or that our readings and seminars have been encouraging us to encourage in our students.
ReplyDeletei am in a school that gave Chromebooks out to its students and there is a similar sort of fear about 'what if' - what if they get around the security protocols in place, what if they manage to access sites we'd rather they didn't? i think this way of thinking is quite limited. most telling, i think it takes the teacher/parent/guardian responsibility out of the equation. the world for which we're educating and raising our students/children values the kind of self-directed work and play that this access to technology supports. it's up to teachers and parents to model and help students find what those boundaries are. which is difficult. but if we can't instill in our students the respect they should give to a peer or adult speaking in the room without a computerized eye telling them to pay attention, maybe we have more to learn.
this all said - i know in our school that the Chromebooks that make it through the year will be given to the next group of students. my largest concern (and this may come from a lack of knowledge, as i don't know if one can un-hack an iPad) is: does this complicate the technology for the next wave of students? i want each student to be able to interact with the technology we have; if a few entrepreneurial students ruin their devices for the next crew, that would be disappointing.
what are other schools finding with regards to technology use in the classroom and at home?