So far my observations are going really well and I am really impressed with the school culture at Esquimalt. All of the staff and students have been very friendly and welcoming.
After the first day we got to go to a staff meeting at the end of the day and one of the big topics up for discussion was whether or not facebook should be banned from the school network. At the present time, the students are not allowed on facebook during class time but they are allowed on during lunch break or after school. At the meeting the teachers came to the consensus that it is actually very difficult to block facebook all together because there are many different ways to access it. They also agreed that they are not having very many problems with it overall, but when they are having issues with it they feel that it comes down to a greater issue of respect and whether students are respecting the rules or not. They decided to have an assembly that dealt with the topic of respecting rules and teachers in regards to technology specifically.
I thought that this was a really good conclusion to come to because by banning facebook all together, it creates an even bigger divide between the schools and the world that the students live in. Also, I think the idea to hold an assembly about respect really deals more with the real issue. Honestly, students should be able to respect the rule that they don't go on facebook during school hours and that they need to save it for lunch time or after school. That is not an unrealistic expectation to have on the students. I thought that it was really interesting though, that facebook was already being brought up as an issue on my first day of observing!
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Colquitz has banned facebook for both students and teachers. Also students are not allowed on youtube.com or a few other video streaming sites. The sites are not actually blocked so I am not entirely sure how they monitor to make sure that the students aren't going on these sites whenever they want except that a teacher is "suppose" to be present whenever a student is in the computer lab.
ReplyDeleteI came across a teacher who used facebook brilliantly in her Lit 12 class. The kids essentially used facebook to have a virtual book club and the discussion was deep, constant and really effective. The teacher herself was extremely responsible and used facebook ONLY as a teaching tool, but she had amazing results. I think it's neat when schools can add a little more work for themselves (at this point teaching the issues that surround technology and respect) and thus possibly increase the learning opportunities 10 fold.
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