That iPod of Yours Is Very Useful–Just Don’t Use It.

Pam did a nice job of bringing “taboo” technologies (cellphones, iPods, etc.) into the classroom, thereby legitimizing the ways students acquire information and write in new media.  These technological changes are happening so fast that the adults in charge cannot keep up with them, and often their only response is a wet blanket, such as “No cellphone use ever–unless something really bad happens.”  At the beginning of the year, parents and students alike sign their forms acknowledging that they are aware of the policy, but parents still have no qualms about texting their kids in the middle of the school day.  Meanwhile, there is a lot of good that can come out of the various handheld devices our students are hiding from us.   The reason we don’t seriously consider the potential benefits is simply because in the short term, it is easier not to.  All of this is creating a techno-policy-mess that will be difficult to clean up in the long term.