I just read the excerpt below and had to write about it. The piece is from The Power of Pow! Wham! Children, Digital Media and Our Nation’s Future, Three challenges for the coming Decade by Rima Shore, PH.D.
“In the realm of digital media, researchers (like most other adults) are hard pressed to keep up with children. They follow along somewhat breathlessly as kids make seemingly effortless leaps to new platforms. As children explore the possibilities of Web 2.0 applications, cell phone programs, and podcasts, researchers are debating the impact of decade-old digital games. University of Wisconsin professor Kurt Squire has written, “SimCity is more than a decade old. A generation of youth has grown up with edutainment. Yet, we know very little about what they are learning playing these games (if anything)” (Squire, 2002, p. 4).
In today’s public schools, students are powering down upon entering the school walls instead they should be powering up. They shut off their ipods, cell phones, and if they have a laptop, they can’t get online without a secure proxy. Schools should be tech havens for our students. They should be able to sit in front of the building 24/7 and surf the web. Instead we worry about our signal bleeding through classroom walls. I’ve been in classrooms where the students are huddled under the wireless access point in their room so that more than 2 computers can get online. At some point, we have to stop worrying about policing student’s internet activities and actually teach them how to be responsible and accountable web purveyors.
tecdiva
