Digital Citizens

A truly 1:1 digital classroom is still a ways off, but it will definitely become a reality. With iPads slowly integrating toward all classrooms, and the more economically accessible Google Chromebooks, all students from all socioeconomic backgrounds will have access to state-of-the-art technology in the next 5 to 10 years. That might seem like a long time if you focus only on the 2014-15 school year, and think that there will still be hundreds of students in a district that won't have full access to technology all of the time, but considering just a few short years ago only the teacher had access to technology, it is a monumental leap of progress.

However, monitoring the use of this technology introduces multiple levels of classroom management that will be new and overwhelming for a lot of teachers. First, students must become digital citizens, meaning they know they are accountable for all of their activity when they have devices in front of them. The Social Media article mentioned that all the students had to delete their Instagram accounts as a punishment for posting while in class. This seems a bit severe. What were the pictures? Is there a way to have students use these media sites to promote the lesson?

Second, the Wired Classrooms post seemed to have a keen grasp on holding students accountable for the worth of electronics, and how they need to use it wisely and stay on task. Unless students are trained, laptops and iPads won't hold any more value than a textbook or their binder: they have to know how to handle the devices so they last for years instead of months. I really liked having designated students responsible for distributing either laptops or iPads within the classroom.

As an adult user and teacher who has been using electronics for years, I still get excited to use my laptop, or search something on my iPad, or do something as simple as text on my phone. The younger generation, even though electronics are synonymous with their daily lives, must also get that same rush to feel 'connected' to somebody or something through their digital device. Unfortunately this excitement can lead to broken screens, damaged keyboards, and snapping and sending Instagram posts at inappropriate times.

Digital devices are at the simplest level just another textbook in the classroom—just another tool to facilitate the learning. Just as the current batch of hardcopy textbooks must last for years (sometimes for far too many years) the digital devices must be handled with respect and care and with the knowledge that future students must have access to them as well. A huge part of the distractions in class are from students who don't have access to the same technology at home. For them an iPad or laptop is astonishing.

For all students, the best way to create digital citizens in a class would encompass a full class discussion on rights and wrongs, assigning numbered devices to students so everyone is held accountable for the sustained quality of any one device, and perhaps creating a list of rules to abide by, such that every student could hold themselves and their peers accountable for acceptable use.

Once that is established, let the fun begin.