Project Tomorrow

I went to the web page of project tomorrow and I chose the “Mobile Leaning Report” (http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/MobileLearningReport2012.html).

Of course, one of the topics that teachers, administrators, parents and students need to address is the internet access: “How much is too much?”:  In some schools there is wireless internet access just in the library and there are many firewalls that don’t allow students to have access to many websites, like you-tube, those fire walls limit teacher’s access as well.

On the other side, there are schools with a campus 100% wireless and with open access to all the resources. Even teachers create Facebook accounts for their classes.

If parents are providing with Internet access to their kids: “...in 2011, two-thirds of parents of school aged children (67 percent) noted that they have a personal smartphone; an increase of almost three times from 2006” (project tomorrow – mobile learning report), by buying tablets and smart phones, why are schools limiting the access? (In Internet closed campuses), and are we teaching our students to be self-conscious of the risk on the use of the Internet? (In Internet open campuses)

I saw the video “Is anyone listening to students?” (http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/IsAnyoneListeningVideo.html) where three High School students presented their opinion about the use of Internet in their classrooms. The argument presented by the second student makes me reflect about the what I don’t like about the Internet: It that it is making us less patients; now if we hear about something new, we just jump into Wikipedia and we want to become experts in that subject. But the student had a point... jumping into Wikipedia will satisfy a curiosity that otherwise, if you need to wait, and come home to learn about the topic that cached your attention, by the time you are able to do that, you will probably forget about that topic.
Also the opinion of the third girl surprised me, because she expressed something that I don’t like about the open use of the Internet in campus: texting during class. It was surprising that a student pointed that and complained about that.
The problem that I see is that the two situations come together: the benefit of being connected, with the texting-gaming situation. I think that educating our students on the use of the Internet is the solution, but we are not yet prepared for that.