I love the passing notes example. I found myself recently referring to the idea that using a dictionary in class would’ve been taboo but eventually became the act of a true scholar, in reference to use of AI in school. But you wouldn’t want a student using a dictionary in class if it wasn’t for a task, never mind a book,
Dictionaries; computers; the Internet; AI. Phones contain the first, are the second and use the third to access the fourth…. Unfathomable magical portals in their pockets to all the world’s knowledge and distractions.
Smacks of the frog still in the boiling water that they are in school at all for me.
Haidt didn’t ask him outright about phones in schools but Tyler Cowen would, on the basis of his conversation, probably approve. He seemed more concerned about limiting opportunities for the most able than he did about their impact on the median student:
We banned them in Melbourne state schools a few years back. There was the same bleating at the time about putting the genie back in the bottle and digital divides and student revolts and all that. And then they just did it and it was both great and very easy. Kids are very used to following rules in schools.
Great read. I've given Haidt's book a wide pass, as I never saw any evidence that adding in phones or online resources actually improved student learning. What I believe is that these new ways of learning are a very poor resource, actually they're lazy. And if we know that to be true, why do we insist on keeping them in classrooms?
As a middle school teacher, I can tell you that our school has students keep their phones turned off and in their backpacks. We are a phone free school. Do students ask to go to the restroom, take their bag and use them in there, probably. The phone free zone was the school's response to students using technology to bully other students, and send messages during classes and lesson, so we banned phones during school hours. It's better-not perfect.
In the context of higher education teaching I am making a conscious effort to ask students to put their phones away during lessons (I can't see any way a university can have a ban, or that it would be appropriate). But there will be some activities where I want them to use their phones, so it is a case of using them for the correct thing, not being there as a permanent distraction and temptation.
I love the passing notes example. I found myself recently referring to the idea that using a dictionary in class would’ve been taboo but eventually became the act of a true scholar, in reference to use of AI in school. But you wouldn’t want a student using a dictionary in class if it wasn’t for a task, never mind a book,
Dictionaries; computers; the Internet; AI. Phones contain the first, are the second and use the third to access the fourth…. Unfathomable magical portals in their pockets to all the world’s knowledge and distractions.
Smacks of the frog still in the boiling water that they are in school at all for me.
Haidt didn’t ask him outright about phones in schools but Tyler Cowen would, on the basis of his conversation, probably approve. He seemed more concerned about limiting opportunities for the most able than he did about their impact on the median student:
https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/jonathan-haidt-anxious-generation
We banned them in Melbourne state schools a few years back. There was the same bleating at the time about putting the genie back in the bottle and digital divides and student revolts and all that. And then they just did it and it was both great and very easy. Kids are very used to following rules in schools.
Great read. I've given Haidt's book a wide pass, as I never saw any evidence that adding in phones or online resources actually improved student learning. What I believe is that these new ways of learning are a very poor resource, actually they're lazy. And if we know that to be true, why do we insist on keeping them in classrooms?
As a middle school teacher, I can tell you that our school has students keep their phones turned off and in their backpacks. We are a phone free school. Do students ask to go to the restroom, take their bag and use them in there, probably. The phone free zone was the school's response to students using technology to bully other students, and send messages during classes and lesson, so we banned phones during school hours. It's better-not perfect.
In the context of higher education teaching I am making a conscious effort to ask students to put their phones away during lessons (I can't see any way a university can have a ban, or that it would be appropriate). But there will be some activities where I want them to use their phones, so it is a case of using them for the correct thing, not being there as a permanent distraction and temptation.
Well, you can do stuff like this on a phone: http://koda.nu/arkivet/9848290