Monday, February 16, 2009

The Best Of the Fischbowl


I chose to read the blog posted in November titled "Why Wireless". I found it very interesting, but a little scary at the same time. Scary because, as a parent, it is my job to keep my children safe. I know Fisch mentions that we should "have high expectations for our students, to educate them to behave ethically, responsibly and safely and then expect that they will do the right thing." However, to be realistic we must admit that children are curious and sometimes curiosity can result in dangerous things. I did not notice anything in the article that mentions any sort of parameters for where the students would be allowed to go or not go. There was nothing said in the post or in the comments about any kind of software, such as netnanny, to prevent students from viewing sites that are inappropriate. Assuming that students will act mature and police themselves is just asking for trouble, and as a teacher responsible for these students could we afford to make this assumption?

In a positive note, I think wireless with the right parameters could be a good thing. It would be helpful to students who might want to use lunch time to work on a research paper or project. It would be helpful to teachers who have to "float" from class to class to have access to the Internet during their planning period when they might have to hang out in the cafeteria. So much good could come out of this idea, IF the right safeguards were there.

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