(class)
After our session 8, I started to think about social and ethical issues that arise when using technology in the classroom. She started her lecture with a simple example: a group of school girls using computers given by the school during the school holidays to bully one of their classmate. Who is liable? The school or the parents?
A class discussion brought us to the conclusion that the school was liable. Why? Because teachers should educate children about cyberbulling, because they used the school's computers, because the whole school was implicated. We also agreed that the parents had their part in the drama. Students probably signed a contract where parents had to give their approval for their child to use the school computers. In conclusion we learnt that as teachers we have a duty of care when we use technology in our classroom.
I understood why so many websites were blocked in my prac school. Because not only Facebook or other websites that we don't want primary school students to used were blocked, but nearly everything that included a world that should be seen by primary school students. For example, a search on butterflies was resumed to 2 pages as the other ones were blocked because the word butterfly can also be used by big companies.Moreover, a website that I wanted to use that is referred to in the federation of education was blocked for some mysterious reasons. At first I was surprised, why overprotect students that will obviously go back home and see those things by watching TV or by other devices. But now I understand that it's to protect the students as well as the school.
I also learnt what digital divide means. Some of my classmates came up with some interesting ideas about what it could mean: different identities, a division between older people and young people, etc. The one that interested me the most was how students within a classroom have different access to technology, for financial reasons or others. It never occurred to me that students could have a computer but could also have 5 brothers that had to use the computer for work or other reasons. The following question was raised: Should teachers give more time/technological equipment to students that don't have access to technology at home. We all came up with some solutions which included special workshops after school, different tasks for different levels (like literature groups).
In conclusion, this session opened my eyes on some interesting problems that I have never really thought about and how carefully we should handle technology to use it in the best possible way...
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