Privacy+and+Safety

On Helium.com in an online forum polling the use of phones in schools, a teacher posted the following arguments against phones in schools:
 * phones are a distraction from student learning
 * there have been situations where students have taken inapporiate photos and posted them online
 * when in school, student safety is the teacher's responsibility, not the student's

Louisa Hearn from The Age argues that "the real scandal (with new ICT's) is the lack of adult supervision and monitoring online" and Mark Russell of The Age reports that the Victoria Police argue believe most students have no awareness of their @Digital Citizenship and how to be Cybersmart, backed by the Victorian Department of Education.

//REFLECTION: The nature of the police and the department's interests are the safety of school students and the community. To a certain extent, there is also the issue of protecting themselves against litigation in situations where student privacy and safety has been compromised. Obviously there are some students who have no idea of the long term consequences of certain behaviours on the web. I do feel that some parents do not really monitor their children's internet use or teach them about the consequences of digital citizenship. At times, it now seems this is yet another thing teachers and schools are being held accountable for, behaviours which began and have not been addressed in the home. Having said that, courtesy of ongoing media attention and public pressure, there seems to be a nationwide focus on digital citizenship and cybersafety. While this is essential,I do feel for those sudents whose digital citizenship has been tainted through no fault of theirs.

Teachers interests are in ensuring students are safe in their care, are engaged in their learning. I undertand teachers opposition to their use in schools on the grounds that not all students have their own phone, so using them in learning will disadvantage some students. I think if we allowed students to bring in their own technologies and schools covered the cost of supplying ones to the rest of the students, it would be less costly and enable equal learning in the classroom. The downside is that this practice would mean an unequal distribution of funds among students and I imagine there would be some parents who would argue this point. From a teaching perpective however, it would provide a level playing field in the classroom as far as access to new technologies.The comment about phones being a distraction, while it indicates negative learning, leads me to ask if students are disengaged because of mobile phone vibations and beeping or is it really because the learning is not relevant to their world? I think that digital citizenship and cybersafety are essential for students in understanding their role in the digital world, but I think it for thei benefit that they are taught to use these in schools and explore, critique and evaluate them in their world.//