Shifting Sands

To educators caught between old world new world, it must feel like shifting sands. It is difficult to find firm footing these days as so much of what we thought important dissipates, leaving feelings of uncertainty. Which way to move? Ten years from now, it will be obvious, but for those who grew up in a pre-digital world, there is fog.

I was standing at our QR Code bulletin board during lunch break demonstrating QR Codes to a group of students and a teacher. I held an iPod up to scan the code which then linked to our You Tube Channel and the instructional video created by two students on how to create QR codes. As we peered in wonder at the screen, another teacher came by with confiscated devices in hand. Students are not to use them except for school appropriate activities. A few had had their devices out during break and had been texting. The teacher on duty, following school expectations, had taken away the devices.

The teacher, a colleague I admire a great deal, stopped, looked at the confiscated devices in hand and then in wonder at how we were using our device,  "I think we need a new policy," she stated. Indeed.

There is a broad range of practice at this moment in educational time. There are schools that remain locked down, under "control", no internet here! There are schools that have fully accepted devices, where a device is akin to a pencil - a tool that a teacher would never consider removing, unless said student was using it to write on the desk or the wall, which I suppose is the equivalent of texting at inappropriate times.  And then, there are the schools like my own that have wireless and the capacity for BYOD and are exploring boundaries while attempting to come to terms with this new world of anytime, anyplace, anyway, with anyone communication.  It is not easy making this transition. Please allow us time to experience being lost in the desert. Eventually the oasis will appear, but we're not quite there yet!