PCs in the classroom!

After watching a video we watched for Ed. Tech. and Design, I began to think about personal computers in the classroom. The video was made by PBS, and discussed the potential positives and negatives of students essentially living their lives online. Some of the stories that were told in this video were quite haunting. While there were some schools who adopted using personal computers in their classrooms, some of those schools put strict restrictions or "blockers" on what the kids couldn't see, so they wouldn't be surfing the web when they should be doing an assignment for their teacher. The teacher would be teaching out loud to the students, but also at the same time posting things in their virtual classroom that the students also had to respond to. The administrators however, were able to use a camera of some sort, to tap into the students' computers and literally see what they were doing. Some images showed the sites the students were viewing, or their actual faces of whether or not they were paying attention in class. I found this a bit disturbing, because I find it an invasion of privacy. Where I think the teachers and administrators have a right to see what the children are doing on their computers, I also don't think it's right that they are able to spy on the kids as closely as they are.

I think technology in the classroom in the form of personal computers is a wonderful idea! I think it gives the kids life skills early on that they will need being able to operate a computer functionally. I think monitoring of the students is needed especially if the students have access to the internet, and things like cyber-bullying should be discussed with the students before they are able to use the computers on their own.