As recently as three years ago, the high school where I teach adopted a very strict, very specific policy regarding use of cell phones and iPods in class. Simply put, those items were banned from classroom use. We had more than one occurrence of students texting test questions to one another, and one student even used her camera phone to take a snapshot of a test page and send it to a classmate. Now that smart phones and iPods have wireless capabilities, the integrity of classroom assessments and other materials is even more compromised. Students, for example, could take digital images of their notes and open them during a test, the 21st century version of crib notes.
So what do we do with a generation of learners whose connectedness and affinity for all things electronic? How can we harness that style of learning and use it for the greater good? The idea of code switching, moving rapidly from text-centered, lecture/discussion classrooms in school to social media, smart phone texting outside, can lead to difficulties like "coping fatigue, confusion, missteps and distractions," according to NPR blog host Gene Demby. The blog cites examples such as a student hopping quickly from one source of digital media to the next at home, such as texting, watching You Tube, and Facebooking, but in class struggles to stay focused on a singular activity, even when that activity requires the use of a tablet or laptop. Violation of school policy is tempting and almost unavoidable when technology is used for academic work. Some classes are beginning to allow smart phones and tablets or e-readers to do labs or other activities, even while the school explicitly forbids use of such devices. The dilemma is how to foster the use of technology in a focused, engaging manner while protecting the integrity of classroom assessments.
Some suggestions for managing this dilemma including a migration to project-based assessments which require collaboration and allow students a choice in their own learning. A movement away from traditional summative assessments seems to lay on the horizon, and the code switching that helps to define the current generation of students may become mainstream in the classrooms of tomorrow.
It is amazing how our schools "fear" what students might be doing with technology and how policies keeps cell phones and other devices out of the classroom are actually hurting our students. Several years ago I went to conference presented by Doug Fisher at our local ISD. The conference was not about technology, but what I walked away with was how his students were allowed to use it in the classroom. There were no cell phone or iPod policies in place. The only thing that students had to follow was the school's technology etiquette policy. He mentioned how quickly students adapt and how he doesn't have to worry monitoring for phone or devices. His students knew the appropriate times to use there devices and when they should be put away. Needless to say, our kids were born with cell phones in their hands. It is a part of their daily life and we should be using this technology to our advantage to engage students.
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