We'll as predicted Facebook and its improper use has become a little bit of an issue as we move into our 1:1 computing environment. Let's give it some thought.
First the ongoing issue in any school environment is engagement. Engaged students learn more and misbehave less. Good teaching leads to high levels of engagement and poor teaching leads in general to boredom and the host of issues that are attached to it. Students for years have found ways to disengage from doodling on their desk to passing notes. The issue is not the lack of complete focus but rather the new medium. Talking in class is fundamentally no different than sending a friend a message on Facebook during class. The problem is engagement the medium is rather irrelevant.
So where are we at with FB and appropriate vs. inappropriate use at school. We'll the tech guys have been crunching the numbers and low and behold some students have been on FB during class time. Surprised? The fun part is of course I've gotten a few emails about and rightfully so. My favorite one was the call from a gal at work who saw her daughter posted to FB during class. I asked her how she knew and she said she saw it on FB at work. I asked if her boss knew she looked at FB during work and the line went eerily silent.
Well anyway in an ideal world we could count on our students to avoid FB in class and only use it before school, after school, and during advisory. But alas we don't have a perfect world. But maybe just maybe our students don't understand that we know they are on FB at inappropriate times. So the way I see it we have five options.
1. Who cares: This option involves saying if you zone out you zone out and your only hurting yourself so enjoy the rewards of your labor and enjoy repeating your classes. But then again part of having a 1:1 environment is to boost our academic achievement so this doesn't seem like the best of all plans.
2. Warn them and Move on: Perhaps step one should be an initial warning. We could treat our students with dignity remind them of their obligation to work hard and focus on their learning and see if that solves it. Maybe it will maybe it won't. Time will tell. We can always deal with the super offenders on an individual basis.
3. Block FB during school except before school after school and during advisory: Pretty simple on this one and barracuda allows it to be done. The only downside would be in some classes a creative teacher can actually come up with creative educational uses for FB.
4. Block FB all the time: We'll this is a fun idea. Sounds kind of draconian but hey most work places seem to do this so why not. But then what else do we block? Of course we block the evil sites but where would this lead?
5. Facebook Detention: You heard it right. We can actually track usage individually and then just block offenders out for a long period of time. It's a nice natural consequence but a managerial pain. But then again it would be differentiated instruction. Kind of.
Anyway we'll be taking the issue up during the house leader meeting this week. We'll let you know the route we'll go. We might gather some feedback. Leave your comments below.
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6 comments:
I'm so impressed with your willingness to throw this out to the world, even in the early stages. I'll be interested to hear what you all decide to do and how it goes,.
Very glad to see your words again.
Here's my take on FB: it does not belong in the classroom.
Maybe I'll jump in again later--school's starting soon.
@ Jenny
We are always willing to share. So far so good.
@ Doyle
I'd agree with your take. In general our teachers tend to only befriend other adults on their facebook pages. I'm all for nurturing the learning relationship but adults who desire friendship from fifteen year old probably have other issues.
In our case it has to do with the 1:1 program and whether kids should have access during school.
Thanks for discussing the process your school is going through with Facebook. It is helpful to many, I'm sure.
First, if you decided to have Facebook open, there were obvious reasons for it. What are those reasons? Were you encouraging students to use it when they had "down" time? Were you leveraging it as a learning object/network that students and teachers would use together and apart?
Second, those students that were using it during class time raise interesting questions to ponder. What was occurring in the classroom at the time they posted? Was it academic, social, or both? Did s/he feel they were leveraging as part of their learning or were they finding "better" ways to engage?
Third, your point about appropriate vs inappropriate is excellent. Do students understand responsible use? Do teachers? Who framed what is or isn't responsible use?
Fourth, it sounds as though the majority of students are respecting whatever guidelines have been established (hopefully with student insights). Thus, I'm reminded of some words of wisdom from a professor at Illinois State University. He said there was going to be a moment professionally where we would want to "punish" the whole group for the acts of a few because it seems to be less complicated. However, don't - instead, turn it into a positive and focus on the opportunity for growth for the few.
Good luck and I'm anxious to see how it goes.
@ Ryan
Thanks for your comments. I've always enjoyed following your work and your words give me some points to ponder.
As a school we've used FB to share information with our community. A few of our teachers have used FB for class to communicate or to document a project. For example our art students in 2009 teamed with a local artist to create a project that highlighted the scarcity of water and pump a local clean water celebration. The goal in that case was connecting students to the broader community and giving them an authentic audience for their work. Used in this way I have no issues.
Most of the FB hits according to the stats from the Barracuda filter are tied to social use. That's where I'm of the thinking that the issue is really boredom and disengagement which have been the enemies of high school learning every since we decided to take the Prussians advice and adopt factory style learning.
Alan November has a great piece on the difference between using technology to make automating or informating changes. Those that tack it on to make poor pedagogy inefficient as opposed to pushing for transformative change still risk boring their students to death. Not that a teacher need be always charming and entertaining but good teachers create engaging environments. We're getting there. An unexpected side effect of our 1:1 program has been seven full school days without a single discipline referral. Now granted we've never had that many discipline issues as a Catholic high school but although I believe fully in the efficacy of God's grace I have to believe the switch from passive to active learning that technology enables is a primary culprit. We'll see how long that streak can stay alive.
Your comment about the temptation to punish the whole sits well with me. The option I tend to lean towards is warning and then using a natural consequence for those who can't seem to follow the rules.
The only pressure that makes me consider the block during academic times is really pressure from the parent community. We have a very supportive group who has embraced the 1:1 with open arms and courageous hearts. But I fear the vast majority don't understand the educational uses of social networking tools. I've used examples but I think I also need to admit honestly if the bulk of the use is inappropriate and a mere distraction from learning.
@ Ryan
Thanks for your comments. I've always enjoyed following your work and your words give me some points to ponder.
As a school we've used FB to share information with our community. A few of our teachers have used FB for class to communicate or to document a project. For example our art students in 2009 teamed with a local artist to create a project that highlighted the scarcity of water and pump a local clean water celebration. The goal in that case was connecting students to the broader community and giving them an authentic audience for their work. Used in this way I have no issues.
Most of the FB hits according to the stats from the Barracuda filter are tied to social use. That's where I'm of the thinking that the issue is really boredom and disengagement which have been the enemies of high school learning every since we decided to take the Prussians advice and adopt factory style learning.
Alan November has a great piece on the difference between using technology to make automating or informating changes. Those that tack it on to make poor pedagogy inefficient as opposed to pushing for transformative change still risk boring their students to death. Not that a teacher need be always charming and entertaining but good teachers create engaging environments. We're getting there. An unexpected side effect of our 1:1 program has been seven full school days without a single discipline referral. Now granted we've never had that many discipline issues as a Catholic high school but although I believe fully in the efficacy of God's grace I have to believe the switch from passive to active learning that technology enables is a primary culprit. We'll see how long that streak can stay alive.
Your comment about the temptation to punish the whole sits well with me. The option I tend to lean towards is warning and then using a natural consequence for those who can't seem to follow the rules.
The only pressure that makes me consider the block during academic times is really pressure from the parent community. We have a very supportive group who has embraced the 1:1 with open arms and courageous hearts. But I fear the vast majority don't understand the educational uses of social networking tools. I've used examples but I think I also need to admit honestly if the bulk of the use is inappropriate and a mere distraction from learning.
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