Wearable Tech Policy for School

At Berkhamsted, we are committed to pupils using mobiles devices to support their learning through appropriate use in school and at home. Alongside this, we believe that we have an educational responsibility to help young people manage how and when they use new technologies and thus have always taken an approach that we would rather 'educate' than 'ban',

So working within this context, the Senior Leadership Team this afternoon grappled with the thorny issue of how we approach the issue of 'Wearable Technology' (such as the Apple Watch) in school. It was a thoughtful and lively debate:

On one level, it would appear that there is little difference between having a fully connected mobile device in one's pocket and on one's wrist, so why the fuss?

Well, we decided that there are two reasons why a watch poses additional issues:

1. First, from a teacher's perspective, wearable technology is very difficult to police.  When necessary, it is relatively easy for a teacher to say 'your phone needs to be in your pocket/bag', it becomes much more difficult to ask the class to remove their watches.
2. Secondly, from a pupil's perspective, wearable technology is less easy to ignore. The buzz of a phone on vibrate mode in a pocket or bag is out of sight and sometimes earshot - whereas the temptation to catch up on a text/ or social media update is almost impossible to ignore when it's on your wrist.

So, we took a middle way: not banning, but discouraging wearable technology in school: our mobile device policy now has an additional paragraph as follows:

Berkhamsted School Wearable Tech Policy:

1. If Wearable Tech is worn in lessons or in public areas around the school, the ‘Do not disturb’/’flight mode’ should be activated.
2. Wearable Tech must not be worn in exams as this will result in disqualification. Exam Regulations do not allow any device capable of mobile communication. 
3. Our strong advice is that pupils should not bring Wearable Tech devices to school, because they are likely to be a greater distraction than other mobile devices. 
4. If a Wearable Tech device is deemed by the teacher to be causing a distraction around school, it is liable to confiscation until the end of the school day.

ICT and its impact on Schools Infrastructure, teaching and learning

Keynote speech at the haysmacintyre Schools' Conference at Drapers' Hall, 30/01/2013

 

ICT as a catalyst for change in Pedagogy

I have recently written (jointly with Laura Knight) an article on 'ICT as a catalyst for change in Pedagogy', which has been published in the ISC Bulletin, 29, June 2012, pp.30-34

'Each change in technology in schools makes us revisit and re-evaluate how and why we do what we do in the classroom. New technologies no longer just automate what we did in the past but they open up new possibilities. Mobile Devices, Cloud-based documents, iTextbooks and a whole new generation of educational applications have placed learning much more firmly in the control of the student, giving them scope to work and collaborate with whom they want, whenever they want. These developments are not going to do away with the need for teachers, but they are going to call for a new pedagogy. In this article, Mark Steed and Laura Knight outline how new technologies are changing how young people learn and suggest some ways in which teachers can support them in their learning.'

Co-author: Laura Knight, Head of eLearning at Berkhamsted School @elearninglaura

Education and New Technologies

Education has always been quick to embrace the latest technologies and to harness them to its ends. Wax tablets, books, film, sound strip, video, PowerPoint, YouTube Clips et al have been enlisted to the service of education. Throughout this process, the introduction of new technologies has changed the way in which teachers present information to students. To date, they have had a much greater impact on teaching than they have on learning. In most classrooms, the relationships remain the same: the teacher is at the front imparting information and explaining concepts to students who sit before them. Likewise, the fundamentals of independent learning remain unchanged with students still working from printed textbooks, completing tasks set by their teachers, both in and away from the classroom setting. The introduction of ICT into schools, thus far, has had minimal impact on this process – notes may be held electronically, research may be on the Internet, assignments may be word-processed, pupils may put together a PowerPoint presentation which can be emailed to teachers, but fundamentally little has really altered. But this is about to change . . . . the “Mobile Learning” revolution is here.

The Martini Generation and Mobile Learning

Increasingly we are used to being “connected” every minute of the day. Smart phones are changing the way in which we live. We use them not only to communicate by voice, text and email, but also to keep our calendars, to tell the time, to access the Internet, to navigate, and so on. Mobile Applications (Apps) allow us to do almost anything. For those of us who are educators this is very exciting – smart phones are unbelievably cool - but for those whom we teach, this is normal – they have never known any different. Young people expect to be “connected”.

This is the “Martini generation” (“Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere”) – they conduct their social and working lives on the move. Being “connected” with friends and the Internet is a given. They take it for granted that all they need and want to know is literally at the tip of their fingers. “Sharing” ideas, YouTube clips, webpages etc is not only routine, but, collectively, it defines what is cool and fashionable. Collaboration is just part of the way young people are wired – they may be physically sitting alone, but their world is far from isolated – it is played out with their peers in cyberspace. All of these factors mean that the way in which young people learn is set to change quite markedly. Rather than attempting to retrain (and constrain) young people to the forms of pedagogy that we experienced thirty years ago, schools are going to have to rethink how lessons operate, if they are going to get the best out of their pupils.

Schools would be wise to focus on two areas. First, schools should look to provide as many opportunities for students to collaborate with each other particularly on homeworks. The use of Google Docs shared between the class is an excellent vehicle for this. Secondly, schools needs to consider how they are going to incorporate mobile learning their whole school Independent Learning Strategy.

e-Learning and reading books the way forward in the Internet Age?

"When we go online, we enter an environment that promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning."

"The Internet is literally rewiring our brains."

"Hypertext distracts and does not aid understanding."

These are just a few of the findings of psychologists, neurobiologists and educators outlined in Nicholas Carr's excellent new book, The Shallows.

Carr's argument is that we use the Internet and read hypertext-type differently to how we read text in books. This is developing new different skills of assimilating lots of information very quickly, which on one level is very positive. Because of the plasticity of the brain these new abilities become hard-wired through new neural pathways. The down side is that high Internet users are losing to read documents deeply, and to reflect and appraise them fully. Reading books in an undistracted environment is essential to be able to learn what is being read and to exercise the important skills of reflection and making connections. If we don't practise these skills we will lose them as our brains adapt accordingly. Carr's conclusion:

"The Net grants us instant access to a library of information unprecedented in its size and scope and it makes it easy to sort through that library. What the Net diminishes is the ability to know, in depth, a subject for ourselves, to construct with our own minds the rich and idiosyncratic set of connections that give rise to a singular intelligence."

So what are the implications of this for education?
All the research outlined in Carr's book points to a balanced diet is being the way forward for the Digital Generation.
There are clearly implications here for e-learning which will need to focus on providing an undistracted and reflective user experience if there is going to be sustained learning and deep understanding. e-Learning environments may have to look and work differently from the typical webpage, playing down the hyperlinks and channeling the range of media available to reinforce the same learning goal.
Above all, I believe that this research means that it is more important than ever that schools and parents encourage young people continue to read books in the printed format both as part of their studies and for leisure. This will develop important skills and abilities that we need for the deep thinking and reflection that are essential for creativity and problem-solving.