Disconnect[ed]: Confessions from the Zombified-Black-Hole

Disconnect[ed]: Confessions from the Zombified-Black-Hole

by | Jun 25, 2013 | Blog, Disconnect[ed]

Our summer series Disconnect[ed] is a collection of blogs, articles, and videos examining what we’re not doing right with technology in school.  Less about what software or hardware a school should be using, Disconnect[ed] examines what constant exposure to media, apps, texting, etc, is doing to the way we think and interact with each other, and what schools can do about it. Last week I came down pretty hard on how undisciplined technology use is rotting the soul of our society and especially our students and children.  Concluding that if only we could develop a Tech-Control curriculum for students and parents, we could successfully develop the well-rounded students we speak about it in our school mission and vision statements. I still stand by those statements, but I have a confession, it’s really hard.  As a parent of an almost-2-year-old I’ve been amazed by how quickly our daughter has learned to love the all powerful iPad.  Truthfully, I think iPad was one of her first 5 words.  At the time it was cute, and seemed harmless to let her sit in our laps and scroll through the screen for a few minutes every other day.  Eventually she’d start demanding it, and looking in my bag for it.  I found myself hiding it, and placing it out of her reach.  When my wife or I needed it we’d ask each other questions like, “Have you seen the i.p.a.d.?” or “Where’s the device?” In a hope that speaking about it wouldn’t attract the attention of our perfectly content daughter.  We’d sneak around the house with it behind our backs, or hiding it...
Disconnect[ed]: Avoiding the Zombified-Attention-Span-Black-Hole

Disconnect[ed]: Avoiding the Zombified-Attention-Span-Black-Hole

by | Jun 10, 2013 | Blog, Disconnect[ed]

Our summer series Disconnect[ed] is a collection of blogs, articles, and videos examining what we’re not doing right with technology in school.  Less about what software or hardware a school should be using, Disconnect[ed] examines what constant exposure to media, apps, texting, etc, is doing to the way we think and interact with each other, and what schools can do about it. “I’m returning to the United States.”  There I’ve said it.  Yes, the guy who created a blog around international education is returning to the USA…well kind of.  Does Hawaii count as the USA?  Probably, but it’s not the mainland, and it seems to reflect the unique mixture of Asian and American culture my family and I have grown accustomed to.  Despite spending the majority of my life in the USA, in many ways I feel like an outsider looking in on a culture that is familiar, yet different at the same time.  I’m sure if you’ve spent time away and then returned you’ve felt the same. As I mentioned in my last blog, while in the Philippines, I’ve managed to avoid the change smartphones have brought to modern culture.  This is mostly because I’m too cheap and the network was too unreliable.  Of course that doesn’t mean that others weren’t using this technology.  The truth is I shouldn’t refer to smartphones with such distain, as it’s likely I’ll have one in a few short weeks, and they do provide a lot of convenient perks. However, I do have some frustrations and concerns as an educator and new repatriate that I need to get off my chest: Ok,...

by | Jun 7, 2013 | Blog, Disconnect[ed]

$5.00.  That’s the average expense for my mobile phone per month while living in the Philippines.  As you might easily guess, unlike most of my students I don’t have a fancy smartphone.  Not that there is anything wrong with iPhones or any of the other various pieces of technology many of us use to “stay connected.”  Nowadays, if you’re working at a tech-savvy school you’re expected to know your way around an iPad, laptop, smartboard, maybe even an Apple TV.  In fact in some international and independent schools, in addition to being allocated classroom keys, teachers are given new laptops, iPads, and other devices, which for many have become the tools of the trade.  Many schools have clearly embraced technology, moving beyond the days of computer class as the sole opportunity for utilizing IT. Of course it wasn’t always like this.  I remember just a few years ago, when the cool kids (and drug dealers) had beepers.  Once students started bringing phones to school, as teachers we were supposed to crack down on phone use like prison guards confiscating toothbrush shivs.  Then came iPods and MP3 players, texting, and then, for many of us we gave into trying to regulate, because heck…we wanted to check our smartphones too. Clearly technology is revolutionizing the way we do pretty much everything (just step into a bathroom in Japan and you know it’s everywhere), and as educators we must embrace this wave or be swept away.  Yet, I wonder if in our willingness to accept and embrace change, we missed something. Today, no one can deny that we must be equipping our...