Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for May 4, 2008 UNIVERSITY BANS WIRELESS IN CLASSROOM

Hallelujah!

Call me "old school"...

Hey, I've got the bonafides to prove it! The "green hall" reopened for business last week, after being closed for over two months due to arson, uh, accidental fire. One of my colleagues called me on Wednesday and asked "Do you know they've got you in the museum?" Yep, my new location to finish the year is Room 108...a former classroom that was relabeled the "museum" a couple of years ago. So, if you ever want to see the dinosaur...

Speaking of which, I can hear the angst of the students in the article below...being unplugged from their toys. "But, teacher, I was practicing my multi-tasking skills!"

Expect enrollment to drop at the University of Chicago...definitely NOT a "party school". Why would a student go there? Enter a classroom there, and the professors will expect your undivided attention as they have the audacity to try to teach you something!

Reminds me of my favorite quote from a Cairo High School student, interviewed during the teachers' strike of 1994-95. When asked if she was upset about the strike, the student answered very truthfully: "No! I'm glad they're on strike. They try to teach us more than we want to learn!" Out of the mouths of babes...

One of the new buzz words in education..."differentiated instruction". It's supposed to refer to the "fact" that different students have different "learning styles"...some are visual learners, some are auditory learners, some need "hands on" activities. The teacher is responsible for determining the "style" of each of his/her charges and implement a variety of techniques to reach each and every student, under the threat of dismissal if the students fail to meet or exceed state and NCLB standards.

OOPS! Let me rephrase that last sentence!!! Silly me; I know better!

TAKE TWO...

The teacher is responsible for determining the "style" of each of his/her charges and implement a variety of techniques to reach each and every student, under the threat of dismissal if the TEACHER FAILS TO RAISE student achievement to meet or exceed state and NCLB standards.

(Hope no student reads the "first take"...wouldn't want to cause damage to a poor, sweet, innocent child's self-esteem.)

My take on "differentiated instruction"...teachers have varied their methods for centuries, long before anyone created buzz words. So, excuse me while I roll my eyes...

My objection is that teachers, without any regard for THEIR self-esteem, are assumed to be failures if their students fail (strike that) if their students do not meet or exceed state and NCLB standards. The students can skip class, sleep through class because they were up all night "socializing", talk or send text messages on their cell phones, listen to their MP3s, laugh, talk, pass notes, and verbally abuse any adult that tells them otherwise...and it's the teachers' fault.

(If you detect a hint of bitterness...yeah, guilty as charged. But, that's what happens when Friday saw one of your security aide colleagues shoved through the glass front of a trophy case before the school day even began! A couple of our sweet, innocent charges apparently had "issues", although I'm sure it was somehow our fault!)

All I can say is...it's good to be the dinosaur! My days of "differentiating instruction"...and taking the blame for the determined under-achievement of students are numbered.

In fact, if I'm REAL lucky, it's now twenty-one (21) days...and counting!

Officials see internet as a distraction for students

By Dennis Carter, Assistant Editor, eSchool News

To eliminate distractions, the University of Chicago Law School recently banned internet access in its classrooms. University of Chicago Law School officials have a simple message for their students: less web surfing, more listening.

The school announced April 11 that the distractions afforded by wireless internet access no longer will be available during class time, although laptops still will be permitted for note taking.

The move comes as educators at schools and universities nationwide have struggled with how to keep students on task at a time when most have personal technology devices they bring to class. Although many professors have taken steps to block internet access during their instruction, the University of Chicago Law School is believed to be among the first to implement a school-wide ban.

Saul Levmore, dean of the Chicago law school, said the decision was an easy one.

When officials discovered they could turn off wireless access in classrooms, "we felt that we ought to move in that direction," Levmore said.

Professors at law schools across the country said web-less classrooms have not been students' favorite policy, but some University of Chicago students supported Levmore's decision.

"What makes our law school is our faculty," Peter Rock Ternes, a second-year Chicago law school student, said in a statement. "I think it makes sense to encourage focusing on them and on the classroom discussions."

Banning internet access in classrooms, Levmore said, would restore basic rules of politeness and professional etiquette between students and professors.

"When a student visits my office, neither the student nor I would dream of surfing the web or eMailing while communicating with one another," he said. "That is the level of attention and engagement we should expect in the classroom. Our overarching goal is to have a terrific and interesting classroom experience—that is too important to allow diversions."

Levmore emphasized his point in a recent letter to law students.

"We need to think of internet business as inappropriate in the classroom, much as everyone recognizes the need to shut off cell phones and to refrain from ostentatious newspaper reading in class or at business meetings or at Thanksgiving dinner," Levmore wrote.

Many law schools have given professors the choice of banning wireless access or laptops altogether. A professor at Harvard Law School who did not want her name published in this article said disallowing laptops has cultivated class discussion and student participation.

"Students have never complained about it, and if anything, they say the classroom environment is vastly improved," the professor said. "And I find the students listen to each other more."

While internet access opens the door for myriad distractions, allowing students to type notes on their laptop has essentially transformed students into stenographers as they type furiously, "just transcribing everything that's going on," the Harvard law professor said.

"In the midst of doing that, it's like they go on autopilot, and they don't fully listen and they're not fully there," she said. "It goes into the laptop without going into their head—and that's just not how learning happens."

In implementing the wireless ban, Chicago's Levmore said web surfing during lectures was not just distracting for students with laptops, but to anyone around them who glanced over and saw a web site, video, or game that took attention away from the professor.

The Harvard professor said she has seen students send out mass eMails to classmates during lectures, simultaneously distracting more than half the class.

"You'll see everyone smiling and laughing at the same time," she said. "It's just not good."

A spokeswoman for Harvard Law School said the faculty explored a school-wide ban on wireless web access in lecture halls, but the initiative never came to a vote and "nothing came of" the issue, although professors were allowed to institute any internet policy they felt would be best for individual classes.

The University of Chicago Law School joins a growing list of college and universities nixing students' internet access. Suffolk University Law School made national headlines in November 2007 when a professor banned laptops outright in her classroom. Several colleges and universities in New England, including Bentley College in Waltham, Mass., have installed technology that allows faculty to block web access during class.

Last fall, steps were taken at three Washington universities—the University of Washington, Seattle University, and Seattle Pacific University—to limit laptop use during class time.