![]() ![]() But is it really an education when the teacher becomes a disembodied voice at the back of the classroom, a relayer of information to the processers hunched over their screens, rather than a person who attempts, according to the root meaning of education, to draw out from students their real selves by encountering them? If we accept the former scenario as true, there is no purpose to the classroom at all. This method helps stem the tide of finger-swiping to emails and ESPN and role-playing games that are inevitable when the subject matter doesn’t hold their attention. Good teachers, in such environments, quickly learn that they must roam in back of the room while they speak, so that students always suspect that they’re lurking over their shoulders, privy to what’s on the glowing screens in front of them. I can only imagine that in a 1:1 school this is what occurs in every class, all the time. My school isn’t a 1:1 school, but in my experience dealing with personal technology use in the classroom, I know that very quickly students become accustomed to flipping open their devices upon sitting down in a class and getting “in the zone,” focused on their screens while their teachers yak away at the front of the room, trying desperately to distract them from their glowing pads. Such schools often refer to themselves as 1:1 schools. Overall, though, I’m wary of requiring all students to use a screen for every school activity-notes, e-textbooks, writing, etc. Each subject area requires a different toolbox, so to speak. ![]() ![]() Such a rule might serve well for an English literature class, but a Biology or Business class might call for students to access the internet more frequently during class time. One reason is that I don’t think it’s a good idea to have a blanket rule such as “students should not be allowed to use internet-capable devices at any time during class.” While I’d argue that conversation should be the ideal for all Catholic classes, different subjects call for different kinds of access to information. Though I tried to focus my article in the reality of the classroom (as opposed to politics and boards-of-education) I purposefully didn’t make practical suggestions as to specific guidelines that Catholic schools should adopt concerning the student use of things like iPads, tablets, smartphones, and laptops. In my recent article in America I talked about what Catholic schools are facing as they seek to keep themselves grounded in the teaching example of Christ while best utilizing the technology of our times. ![]()
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