Right, so I neglected to post anything concerning this yesterday and was politely reminded by an article that showed up today on canada.com. This past year, the web has begun to float with staged and unstaged videos of students fighting on school property. These videos were recorded on cell-phones or with portable cameras. The cameras have not been allowed on school property for a while, but things have just become harsher for the current generation of tech-heads.

Here's the canada.com article. You'll notice that it's talking about high schools, mostly in the United States, banning IPods and other devices. This trend is hardly unique to our American neighbours. A couple weeks ago, my home board, District School Board Ontario North East, passed a resolution to handle this same problem (read the policy here). Essentially, the new policy forbids the presence of cellphones and mp3 players (in student possessi from school property during regular school hours (roughly 8:00am - 4:00pm). Previously, students were merely restricted to using their cell phones and mp3 players outside the school building, not that it really stopped too many of the grade 7 & 8 students at the school I'm currently finishing my placement at.

I'm split on this policy. On the one hand, I agree that while on school property, students should not have any need or use for a cellphone. The video recording capabilities of cell phones causes a great deal of trouble and is a safety and privacy concern. The audio recording abilities of new mp3 players is definitely problematic for cla$$room management as well. These are the aspects that the people who put forth the resolutions for the bans keep pumping out, and they are generally convincing when put to the test.

But, as a bit of a tech-head myself, this causes its own set of problems. At the bottom of the article on canada.com, it speaks about one place that actively gave its students Ipods for use in school to attend to specific lectures. This possibility is definitely something that could be a great asset to any school, especially as it actively plugs students in to both electronics and education simultaneously. According to reports from Duke, incidents of cheating has continued to decline, even with the addition of these potentially harmful devices. On top of that, I know that I've found some use for these devices as a part of my teaching. I use my cell-phone as a quick camera that students can then take photos from and use for a part of their biographies. Recording an audio or video clip can be a useful exercise and a part the media literacy curriculum (a part of the language arts curriculum). Having several of these cell cameras and audio recorders, on hand at school would be very beneficial and would help students to connect to the curriculum that must be addressed.

Thankfully, DSBONE's new policy only bans them from student use and display. I think, as a part of a cla$$ project, within the individual cla$$room for the duration of the project, it may be possible to get around the policy. However, if that is not the case, then it would mean that the teacher would be the sole individual in the cla$$room allowed to use any recording device. This, in effect, limits student involvement with technology, cutting them off from film and audio projects. Students would still be able to participate in the editing and acting process, but they could not be behind the camera or controlling the actual recording. Although this ensures that the equipment should remain safe and in proper functioning order, the limited student interactivity with the technology is something of a draw back and makes addressing some of the aspects of the media literacy curriculum more difficult.

On top of this, there is the potential trouble that could occur during student trips to school and home from school. Although the distance isn't particularly far, many parents and students like to have cell phones on them "just in case" during those travel situations. With the use and sight of cell phones banned completely, students cannot even turn it off and tuck it away as they enter school property. Which works as another drawback. And finally, if I were to bring up the effect that bans generally have, that is, that when something is banned, illegal usage skyrockets (ie. prohibition and weed), I think we're likely to see the more staged fights recorded, especially where cell phones and mp3 players are banned.

As I said, it's something of a divided issue and I can understand both the board's concern and that of parents/students/tech-profs.