Encouraging welcome, isn’t it?

As a language teacher I find some parallels here. Usually people are afraid to immerse themselves in a culture or language they don’t understand because they feel unease. But when someone begins to learn a language and is able to begin to interact with a different culture, you can get your point across and there is usually an appreciation of your effort, even if you are a novice. You’re entering into someone else’s context and trying to frame things in the way they understand it.

It seems to me that if we learn how to use the technologies that are part of the students’ everyday life, and help them connect to skills and information by using these, it can only help our cause. Even if we begin awkwardly, if we are speaking their language in their culture we can begin to translate the essence of what we’re trying to teach in a way they can connect to. You don’t have to throw your baby out with the bathwater to begin. Kids would still be expected to demonstrate enough etiquette to turn off their iPods and cell phones when you need to talk to them or have them practice some face-to-face interaction, but how great it would be to make friends with these resources and invite them to class now and then.

@Beth You are so right that we need to educate admins, teachers and students and by piloting programs such as yours, we have the opportunity to show what works, and what doesn’t. I think this comes back though, to what we may have even talked about at breakfast at Educon that morning – - Why are the folks without backgrounds in education making decisions that affect how we educate our students?

@Natalie I don’t get it either. I think that’s what frustrates me the most. I’m going in circles. I do whatever I can to make materials accessible for students and then the policy makers (and the policies) make it so that I can access the materials.

Thank you all for your comments. I appreciate your contributions to the conversation.

But what about podcasting? Mobile web access (why have the taxpayers pay for 1:1 when in just a few years every cell phone will have Internet access?).

Two: isn’t this a local/school issue? This would turn creative teachers and schools into lawbreakers. My school has a “no cell phones” policy that I am permitted to set aside if I’m using cell phones in an appropriate manner (PollEverywhere, Gcast). Why not just let schools create their own policies and enforce them? Are we really going to arrest students who break the law anyway? Come one, be serious. When it comes down to it, a school can set policy, consequences, and follow through when appropriate. This bill amounts to a law that will never be prosecuted except in a case when another law is broken (I recognize that a student could schedule a drug deal via cell phone – but they can do that via a piece of paper too – why not ban paper & pencil just in case?)