We’ve turned a corner, maybe. “The National Association of Secondary School Principals is looking to change the conversation about mobile computing and social media in schools,” TheJournal.com reports. This week the NASSP released a statement encouraging their use in the classroom to help “prepare students to be active, constructive participants in the highly connected world in which they already live and will soon work.” Among the NASSP board’s 12 recommendations were these top 3 for school leaders, district leaders, and policymakers, respectively:
- School leaders: “Encourage and model the appropriate and responsible use of mobile and social technologies to maximize students’ opportunities to create and share content. [I’m so glad they included “model,” suggestive of a whole-school-community approach to responsible use.]”
- District leaders: “Articulate clear technology policies that have sufficient latitude for schools to connect electronically without fear of retribution or undue consequences.”
- Policymakers: “Provide a funding stream to ensure broadband infrastructure and mobile learning devices for all students.”
I was delighted to see the references cited at the end of the NASSP report: Middle school administrator Matt Levinson’s book From Fear to Facebook: One School’s Journey (see this author interview at Spotlight on Digital Media & Learning); educator Howard Rheingold’s “New media literacy—Lesson 1: Vision of the future”; the US Department of Education’s 2010 National Education Technology Plan; Pew/Internet’s 2010 research on “Teens and mobile phones”; and the National School Boards Association 2007 study “Creating and Connecting.”
Related links
- “Social Networking as a Tool for Student and Teacher Learning” in DistrictAdministration.com
- “Social Networking: The Essential Balancing Act in Schools” in TheJournal.com
- And in NetFamilyNews, “Students learning with digital tools in spite of School,” about the latest SpeakUp Survey of administrators, teachers, parents, and students, and “School & social media: Uber big picture” in 2009
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