2007-10-07 13:07:00
I'm researching some high school maths projects online, for Statistics 1. In a few cases some actually useful stuff pops up on YouTube. However, when following a few of the YT links I quickly stumbled upon movie on movie of kids misbehaving in class.
It's not the usual tomfoolery like wisecracking or being allround noisy though. No, it's the constant mucking about with cellphones that gets to me. Snapping pictures of each other and messing around with the video camera, trying to be as silly or cool as possible. It's horrible how distracting those gizmos can be!
If I can find the time I'll try and read some teachers' fora, see what how the pro's handle cellphones in class. If it were up to me I'd build an EMP box and just fry the lot.
Then again, I should also keep in mind that not every class is going to be like this. It's only the silly, annoying kids that pop up on YouTube :)
kilala.nl tags: other tech, teaching, school,
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Posted by Kanako
I can understand that it's not all that nice to have all these potential "voyeurs" in a class, but it's part of the new wave of technology.
I mean, you will want to let them use a calculator, 40 years ago, that was a very big no no. It's not really fare to fry all their electronics, just because you don't like them ;) besides they are necessary these days (think about DigID you need to be able to receive an sms, I can't do that on my regular phone.)
And as a pro, the fact that they can tape everything also means that they can tape dysfunctional teachers (like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwcbiWX-qvM ) not that I expect you to be like that ^^ but I can imagine that the lack of insight like that will also be on other schools and seriously, if 12 people out of your class disappear and you don't say/do anything with it, you're seriously lacking.
Perhaps the only thing that can be done about it is what the Italians did when they found out that those camera's also work under skirts: Make it a law that everyone of those cellphones makes one hell of a racket if they try to tape/photograph anything ^^
Posted by Kanako
*forgot one thing* What you can also do, it setup a camera in class (don't let it roll though, that's illegal) and tell them you're taping this to put it on Youtube for educational matters, but that if they don't behave they will get (the usual) punishment. This will get at least most of them more carefull ;)
Posted by Thomas
I've discussed the matter with some of my classmates. Apparently their schools have no-cellphone policies.
You either leave them in your locker, or in your backpack. You're not allowed to make phone calls inside the school building and any phone seen in class is confiscated.
Seems like a good deal to me.
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