laptops in particular, are going to become so cheap that they become as
common as pencils and three-ring notebooks. In fact I'm looking forward to
the day when we just provide the networking infrastructure for printing and
Internet access, and they bring their own machines.
But getting back to the binder/pencil analogy, we don't tell students what
kind of binders to buy, nor do we try to control what they do with them.
Yes, they could be writing harassing notes with that pen and on that piece
of paper. Yes, they could be drawing pictures of naked people. Or just plain
doodling when they should be taking notes. And you know something? We all
did that when we were kids, and we survived.
Just because it's possible to have total control over a student's use of
certain tools doesn't mean that it's a good idea. And just because it's
theoretically possible doesn't mean that it will work out in practice.
Unlike Greg give all of our students and faculty members MPH email accounts,
for the same reason that Syracuse University and most other colleges give
all of their students and faculty members institutional email accounts: to
make communication easier within the organization. However, most students
here prefer to use different systems, so they either don't use their MPH
email or they POP it into some other system. Are we going to tell them that
they can ONLY use their MPH email accounts when they're communicating with
members of the MPH community? I don't think so. It would be way too
cumbersome to try to enforce.
We don't even think of controlling and monitor who they send handwritten
notes to, so why are we trying to set up a system where they can only
communicate electronically over systems we have control over?
The decisions we made 12 years ago when we talked about the Internet were
based on the idea of us having total control over how students accessed the
system. I disagreed with those decisions then because I felt that ultimately
they wouldn't work, and I was proven right. So let's give up the pretense
that we can control everything they do on computers.
Besides, if they choose to use Gmail to suck their MPH email off of our
server, I'm all for it.
On 9/27/07, Dave Baker <dbaker@mttam.org> wrote:
>
> Greg,
>
> Then I am not understanding your post about the reason you don't offer
> students or faculty email. A school is not a public library, particularly
> an independent school. Also, if a student is accessing an email account
> from school and sending/receiving messages during school hours it is not a
> private matter. One of the reasons we have chosen to provide students
> email accounts is we can control it/monitor it. As they are accessing an
> account during our classes we would be involved in the "private" choices a
> family is making.
>
--
keg
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Keith E Gatling - Computer Instructor
Manlius Pebble Hill School
5300 Jamesville Rd
DeWitt, NY 13214
315.446.2452
http://www.gatling.us/keith
Some teachers teach subjects. Others teach students.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a Creative Commons license.
