Two of this week’s readings (Technology to Support Learning by Bransford, Brown & Cocking and Teachers Face Handheld Revolution by Brant) mention the fact that using new technology doesn’t always mean better education. Although many new technologies have many potentially wonderful applications, I think this point is important to consider.
On another completely unrelated tangent, I wondered about the implications of having students each equipped with their own PDAs – ostensibly to record homework assignments, and download library books (as discussed in Teachers Face Handheld Revolution). As I was reading about the 9 year old who said he would use the school-provided PDA for downloading music (rather than the above approved uses) I found myself thinking about this week’s filtering discussion. Will these PDAs have Internet access? If so, will the content be filtered? As technology becomes ever more pervasive and integral for a complete education, these questions about the right amount of access to give kids will likely increase... so I guess it's good we're beginning the conversation now, as library students!
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Natlie,
I also found this week's filtering discussion very interesting. I would imagine that if a public school filters internet use within the school, any other device which students are given by the school that provides access to the internet would also have to be filtered as well. That being said, I’m not sure how you can filter internet access via a PDA. Maybe this is a simple thing to do and I’m just ignorant of it. You mentioned a PDA being used to download music files… Maybe the PDAs can be manipulated so that they can only be used for certain purposes and can access only certain sites. However it is done, any school that filters internet access would have to provide the same protection whether on a school computer or through a school-provided PDA.
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