Chris, I know you were looking for a different take on this but your question is a great springboard to a deeper discussion...
So you have to ask: Who is the technology suppose to serve? That should be the number one filter when talking about school technology. I realize there a whole lot of issues besides this one, but this still has to be a top priority. School technology is suppose to serve the students, foremost. The next question you need to ask is: how will this technology be used? If it is to be used as a tool to help the kids learn, then email or whatever is a necessity- but too often it isn't anything more than another means to chat during the day- in which case, your students don't need email. The challenge is to harness tools like email and get the teachers to use it to get kids to think, work and collaborate online about the things they are teaching in class. I have sent out several emails suggesting that teachers take advantage of communication tools like msn communities http://communities.msn.com/home or other threaded discussion boards and workspaces. Kids use MSN to communicate all the time, from the time they are in third grade. Why aren't teachers taking advantage of this? Why aren't they asking their students to post a paper on the web and then assign other kids to read and reflect on the first kid's work. Or as part of an assignment, plan an event or whatever and post their plans to the web. The postings and reflections are all captured so the teacher can follow the groups' thinking and work. The teacher can also get on the web and offer suggestions and guide their learning. Image effective and meaningful, collaborative homework... Anyway, we have to use technology to our best advantage in order to get kids to achieve and learn- it is not about the technology, its about how to use the technology to improve education- and until we start proving to the legislature that this is what we are doing with our tech dollars, they are going to keep taking that money away. - I say all this, but will also back it up by saying I am willing to work with any of your teachers who would like to learn some strategies for effectively using technology to improve instruction. Nancy ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Charbonneaux" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2002 3:16 PM Subject: [tech-cord] Student email How many of you allow students to have email, either by school provided or Internet based? I am working on reasons not to allow email to students becuase of the problems it has been causing. LEt me know what everyones policies are Charby Christian Charbonneaux District Technology Coordinator 400 S 16th Street Sac Community Schools Sac City, IA 50583 --------------------------------------------------------- Archived messages from this list can be found at: http://www.mail-archive.com/tech-cord@aea5.k12.ia.us/ --------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------- Archived messages from this list can be found at: http://www.mail-archive.com/tech-cord@aea5.k12.ia.us/ ---------------------------------------------------------
