The Flipside to 1:1 Education

NU High is planning on implementing a 1:1 system next year through a very generous donation. Evidently, students will be receiving either a Mac laptop or an iPad, although it seems that students and teachers don't know the specifics as of this time. Since we discussed this 1:1 computing program during class, I thought about the video that was posted in the Ed. Tech. blog and immediately recognized that something was wrong.

Although this school district is located in the Bronx, it reminded me of another school district: Lower Merion. I knew I'd heard about it from somewhere on the internet, so I googled the name and found that my assumptions were correct.

If you watched the above video and thought "1984", you're right to some extent. The issue here was that, back in 2010, the district decided to remotely track students without their knowledge or consent. The Huffington Post wrote an article about the district and the lawsuit that entailed, actually using a screen image from the video above. Does this look familiar?

If you said: "Yes, that's the girl combing her hair from the video about the school from the Bronx," you're absolutely correct. I found this to be fascinating that the Huffington Post would choose to use this exact image in their article, considering the schools are not geographically-related to one another.

However, the article and the photo do lend themselves to an interesting point about the use of remote spying and the dangers of 1:1 implementation if used incorrectly.

Unfortunately, realistically, students may be using their laptops for purposes other than education, or they may even damage their laptops. But, the fact that someone can access computers remotely to "see what students are doing" and to "keep them on task" is scary. The fact that schools can inadvertently monitor social activities is scary. The fact that schools can engage in voyeurism, breaking the barrier between home life and school life, is scary. This was a very poor move on behalf of both school districts and it is extremely wrong, solidifying the "us vs. them" mentality that plague so many school districts, especially in regards to secondary schools.

While "net nanny" programs that block web sites are ineffective, wouldn't it be more valuable to students to teach them the 21st century digital citizenry skills in class that address these issues? Teenagers are hormonal creatures, just like the rest of us when we were in our teens. We made mistakes. We still make mistakes.

I hope NU High can create a positive atmosphere through the use of these computers. Kids need the opportunity to learn about safe, smart technology usage. They need the opportunity for empowerment, to feel like they can be trusted and that they're important. A group of adults breathing down their backs isn't going to solve anything.

- Mr. G