Here is the problem
One of my standard lines in presentations on Web 2.0 is that as young people increasingly use the internet to learn, to communicate and to create, education systems and institutions are at best bewildered and at worst downright hostile to such activities.
It could not better be illustrated than by a recent post to the Becta ICT Research list serve:
“Can researchers point out how to stop students/pupils using hand-held devices in the classroom ? Recent THES article on texting while there’s a lecturer speaking point to this being perceived as “mildly rude” - Even on a one-to-one situation nobody seems to have any problems with ring-tones, etc.
Is there a pro-educator device, like the mosquito, that we can switch on to block cell phones/blackberries/iphones ?”
It seems that half the time institutions and teachers bemoan the lack of access to technologies - and then spend the other half working out how to block learners from using their own devices and applications for communicating and sharing knowledge!
