Cell Phones: Tools for Learning? Or Weapons of Mass Distraction?

The other day I received an email from a recent graduate of our Teacher Preparation Program. He was helping out in a school at home, since Commencement is long past for us, but classes are still going in K-12 schools. He saw this sign hanging up at a high school teacher's door:

With thanks to my (anonymous) (former) student for allowing me to post this...

Knowing that I am fascinated by educational technology, and the way we often use consumer technologies as educational technologies in schools, this prompted a question from him:

Hmmm...I use my phone to find a lot of information, more than my computer even. Maybe though in study hall high school kids "waste" too much time on it? Or should study hall be their choice of time once in high school? Your time, use it as you want without disrupting the class? 

Is Technology Really Making us Antisocial?

I saw this tweet from History In Pictures yesterday, and it made me laugh:

"All this technology is making us antisocial." pic.twitter.com/b2u9xhVmDA
— History In Pictures (@HistoryInPics) October 27, 2014

What do you think? Is it really all that different than this one?

Image by Susan Sermoneta [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]

I'm not saying there isn't a time to put the devices away...that would be like saying there was never a time to put the newspapers down, which is obviously ridiculous.

But I think we are quick to demonize the influence of digital technologies, and somehow think more idyllic thoughts of yesteryear without them.

Yes, we (I) need to be mindful of being "present" and putting the phone down. But is technology really making us antisocial? Or is it just more socially-acceptable to be "antisocial" today because we carry phones (which are really pocket-sized computers!) everywhere we go?

This is the Future, and it is Now

My mom recently shared this article on Facebook. Here's a picture that was used to illustrate:

Image came from here, credited to Fisher-Price

So now we expect babies to use iPads? I mean, seriously people...

It reminded me of this clip from the Pixar film Wall-E (which I find a slightly-disturbing, all-too-accurate commentary on our cultural trajectory, cloaked as a kids' movie...)

This is the future, and it is now.

What does this mean for schools? I think we need to take a long, sober look at the way we are using technology. Don't hear me wrong--I'm no luddite and I'm not technophobic. But I think we need to be very, very thoughtful about how we use technology, and why we use technology.

A Guitar and a Vacuum Cleaner: All You Need to Teach

Okay, in my defense, I had to get these things out of my house, because they were cluttering up the entryway from the kitchen into the garage. But...I did carry a guitar and a vacuum cleaner into the building as I headed up to my office this morning.

And no less than three colleagues commented on the odd pairing.

The best quote of the morning:
"Dave! A guitar and a vacuum cleaner? I guess that's all you need to teach!"

He was smiling as he said it, so I know it was meant well. Also, I taught his kids as a middle school science teacher in a former life, so he knows the (sometimes non-traditional) angle from which I approach my classroom practice.

By now you're probably wondering just why I would be hefting this odd pair up the stairs toward the faculty offices. Fair enough...

I'm very accustomed to teaching with a guitar close by. One never knows when the right moment will pop up for that perfect song! Now that I don't have a classroom of my own (really), I'm planning to hang my first guitar (20 years old now...yikes) on the wall of my office. Call it "art"...but there's also part of me that can't quite imagine not having a guitar at hand when I need one.

And the vacuum...well, that's a little harder to explain. It was time for us to invest in a new one at home, but the former middle school science teacher in me can't bear to throw out a possible piece of lab equipment. An old vacuum cleaner? So much potential! Maybe I'll take it apart and it will become a model wind tunnel, or maybe we'll use it when we talk about teaching meteorology (gotta create some wind!), or maybe I'll just keep it in the back supply room for when we make a real mess of the lab in the Methods for Teaching Science course I teach.

My colleague's comment got me thinking though...what do I need to teach? What is preference, and what is essential?

Do I need a SMARTBoard to teach well?
Do I need an iPad?
Do I need high-speed Internet access?
Do I need an overhead projector?
Do I need a chalkboard?
Do I need pencil and paper?

I am a techie teacher, after all. I have a pretty strong preference for teaching with technology--assuming the tech tools actually enhance what I'm doing.

But do I need them?

I'm blessed to be in a teaching situation where I have a whole lot of great tools close at hand. I know of many colleagues in education who don't have the same blessings.

I'm picturing a school I know of in a nearby town--a friend's kids attend there--where they have about a dozen computers that are shared by the whole student body of K-8 students. That's a different situation.

I'm picturing a school I know of in the Dominican Republic--a former student is teaching there--where they are happy to have any cast-off colored pencils, crayons, notebooks, etc. American kids are ready to toss out at the end of the year. That's a different situation.

I'm picturing a school I know of in Nigeria--another former student teaching there--where they have Internet access...sometimes. They have electricity...sometimes. That's a very different situation.

What qualifies as a "necessity" for teaching in 2012? Is it dependent on the surrounding culture?

Time for more reflection...

The Loving Resistance Fighter

I want an iPhone.

I really want an iPhone.

But I don't need an iPhone. Oh, sure, they have their uses, and I'm sure it would be a lot handier to have my calendar, camera, iPod, and phone all in one device, not to mention all the useful apps I could have on it to make my life easier or more enjoyable.

But...
Basically, it would be another toy, another gadget that I'd fiddle with in my downtime.

Here is my current phone...

It is a TracFone I bought for 10 bucks at WalMart, and I pay for my minutes upfront on an as-needed basis.

You can probably imagine that laughs I get from this phone. Especially when people make the connection that I'm the Technology Coordinator at school. "You don't have a smartphone? And you're the tech guy?"

Nope.

I do not have a smartphone. I have a dumbphone.

But here's the thing...this is *really* all the phone I need. Sure, it's inconvenient to text on this rotten thing. (T9Word is akin to the 3rd circle of Hades.) But it does it's job--it allows me to communicate with my wife and few other family and friends with whom I share my number.

The old TracFone is getting pretty weather-beaten. My daughter accidentally closed it in my recliner a couple years ago, leaving deep gouges in the face of it. The screen is getting hard to read from getting scraped and scuffed for several years now. The back cover plate is loose and sometimes falls off, though I have yet to lose the battery when this happens, thankfully.

I'm going to need a new phone sometime. Probably in the next year or so even.

Will I get the iPhone? Much as I'd love to have it...I probably won't. I don't really need it. It's just one more thing that will get in the way of my face-to-face, meaningful communication with others. I'm not going to let Technopoly win. I'm a loving resistance fighter!

Plus...I already have an iPad. Do I really need an iPhone? :-)