I will no longer be regularly posting on this blog. I've decided to move mostly to LinkedIn so write my articles and share my ideas as it will be easier to distribute to my followers on those networks.
The idea was a noble one, prohibit the sale of Alcohol in the United States and you can reduce crime, solve social problems and improve health among other worthy endeavours. Whilst there may have been a decline in the consumption of alcohol, the unintended side effects were disastrous, with a dramatic increase in organised crime and violence. Whilst prohibition may not have caused the increased criminal activity, it was certainly an easy place for criminals to turn to to make a quick buck as there were plenty of buyers. There's always a way of getting around prohibition.
The ban on mobile phones has begun! Perhaps mobile phones will be different and schools should ban these devices. The Victorian Education Minister James Merlino recently announced a ban to take effect from the beginning of 2020. There is already a ban of mobile phones in NSW government primary schools. In searching for the purpose for these draconian bans on mobile phones, the main argument rests on increasing incidents of cyberbullying. Now, anything to curb cyberbullying and the sad outcome for some individuals sounds like a move in the right direction. Even Michael Carr-Gregg seems to support this move. However, we need to consider a little more about the fact that the majority of cyberbullying happens when children feel safe and anonymous in their own homes late at night - regardless of whether they name themselves or not. They are far less likely to be a digital bullying during the school day. Therefore, this being the main reason cited, I fear that the policy will be a failure.
Unfortunately, when we take away freedoms, there are unintended consequences that we should turn our minds to. This move to institute a state-wide (or country-wide?) ban on mobile phones in classrooms undermines the expertise that teachers demonstrate within the profession. Surely, the power to allow or disallow phones should lie with the individual teacher, with support from the school to enact their plans for their classroom. Isn't this covered under the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers? Standard descriptor 4.5.2 states that Teachers are to "Incorporate strategies to promote the safe, responsible and ethical use of ICT in learning and teaching" - how can they be trusted to do this with a mandated phone ban?
Teachers do use mobile phones productively in class. There are countless ways that a teacher can engage with students using a mobile phones, whether it is through students creating a video to respond to some content or simply to participate in a kahoot online quiz. It's not all roses though, there are challenges, but with support of the leadership in schools, surely we can navigate these. One of the biggest challenges is students contacting their parents throughout the school day by sms or even calling them. We need to partner with parents to stop this type of communication - things aren't necessarily that urgent.
How will students respond to the ban? The good kids will not have their phones, but I can assure you that many other students will find ways around the system. It doesn't take long or much creativity to recognise that students can take their phones into the toilets to get them away from teachers - potentially the last place we would want them to have their phones!
However, I can't finish an article like this without some advice for families, for what is a serious problem in our society, increasingly in our young people - that of cyberbullying. Schools have a place to educate students and their parents, but parents ultimately have the responsibility given that this usually happens outside school. I can offer two places for help in this area:
eSafety Commissioner has put out some useful resources in Australia on how to stop cyberbullying
CommonSense Media - you can see the video below, but there is a wealth of information for parents on how to be proactive (or reactive if necessary) in this area.
When teachers enter the profession, they are interesting in helping students to learn, having an impact and because they love teaching and helping children develop. Why is that paperwork appears to be taking over our profession? A few statistics from the most recent ASCD Educational Leadership article - (Source: National Teacher and Principal Survey, National Center for Education Statistics)
38.2: Average weekly hours teachers are required to work by contract
27.4: Average weekly hours teachers spend delivering instruction
53.3: Average weekly hours spent on all teaching and other school-related activities
How is that teachers only spend approximately half their time 'working' delivering instruction?
You can watch the full tutorial below to see how to setup OneNote for use with a class. In brief, it sets up a content library that the teacher can add to and the students can, a private space where teachers and students can work together and a collaboration space where the teacher and all students can work.
I have used the Content Library quite heavily in my instructional process. I will project the OneNote Notebook on the screen and use my pen to write directly on the page. Students prefer hand-written items rather than text (unless there is lots of text) as it helps to link into one of the fundamentals of teaching - the relationship between the teacher and the student. I have sometimes had students who have had the OneNote Notebook open in front of them on their laptop so that they can zoom in/out and go back to previous parts of the canvas. I'm very glad that it updates with 15 seconds to their screens.
One problem that I've encountered are the different versions of OneNote. I use OneNote 2016 (i.e. the standard traditional PC application). Many students who click on the link (especially if they are using a mac) end up using the online version of OneNote, which means that it has not synced offline for them. Sometimes students end up with the new Window 10 OneNote App, which seems to be working better than it used to.
I have used the Collaboration tool a few times, but have learnt the importance of clear and directed messages to students as it quickly becomes an opportunity for students to vandalise (a word used by one of my colleagues). When in a demonstration session with some staff, I could not resist the temptation to myself get off track very quickly 'collaborating' with colleagues. What I have learnt form this is the importance of having students play with the tool before they need to use it educationally. I would give students 2 minutes to 'collaborate' on drawing making a face or a house, so that they can just play and do silly things and get that out of their system. It then makes it easier to transition to the serious use of the notebook. This is exactly the same as my brother's technique when taking photos of children - this is the serious photo and then we'll take a silly one afterwards.
I'm yet to sufficiently use the individual student parts of the notebook, but have learnt with others that it is designed to sync individual worksheets (eg a few pages) rather than 100 page booklets as the syncing doesn't really work that well.
What a great tool personally for my own organisation, but also to engage students and get them collaborating well.
Through a handy little web portal, you can quickly and easily lock down websites or hours of access to the internet for mobile devices or the home internet. Quick and easy to setup.
It also includes Social Network Protection which allows you to receive alerts if there is possible cyber-bullying, offensive language or contact with strangers.
As reported by ABC News 24 (here), a new report has found that two-thirds of tertiary education students suffer high levels of stress.
Is this a surprise? No!
We have seen students in our Schools with increased stress, anxiety and depression. The responsible body - the NSW Board of Studies, then BOSTES, now NESA - has put into place a system where students who suffer from mental illnesses are not disadvantaged. We give students extra time for examinations, rest breaks, readers and writers if required. Are we setting up students for failure - if not at university, then maybe for life?
Let me be clear, I am not advocating for discrimination against those with disabilities (particularly mental health) but I don't think we've got it quite right that everyone is on a level playing field. Is it fair for an employer to look at a student's Year 12 transcript and ATAR and expect that they are perfectly capable of fulfilling a job position only to find that they need extra time to complete the task? Or finding out that they can only write up a report, if they have a writer for them?
Whilst it is still unknown why anxiety and depression has increased in our youth (yes it is diagnosed more, but it is also more prevalent), the root cause of this remains a mystery. Until we find the underlying cause and problem with our society, we will not fix this problem and we are doing a disservice to the young people in our care and the employers looking for new employees based upon an HSC that doesn't disclose extra provisions.
In response to the video on twitter, @soggyduck has noted that they were stressed in the past. @gibbonwalk expresses concern over the future employment of the stressed uni students.
This is one of the most important issues of our time.
The Hornsby Advocate has written an article questioning undemocratic Schools. Now, whilst I agree that student voice is important and can increase engagement the premise of the article is a bit wrong.
Why should our school's be democratic?
I see this as one of the biggest issues in education today. Educators are not respected by society, parents or students for the fact that they are professionals and they are experts. Everyone has been to school, so surely everyone knows how to teach. Right? Wrong! Students do not have the power (and should not!) to choose the teachers at their school. Schools and leadership in schools are responsible for ensuring that quality teaching occurs and teaching and learning that is most effective may not be the same as what young inexperienced children would choose.
Until society recognises that it takes incredible skill to get students to learn, we will not have an education system or international test scores like the top nations.
