Journal #3 (NETS IV)

This journal covers the topic of internet safety completely. It explains about how to promote and Model digital responsibility and what happens when it is not done. There is a cultural understanding and awareness that needs to be communicated, especially in the United States, and this Journal covers that. 

"Keeping the Peace"
 Laptops are a wonderful invention. They are great to get work done while traveling. They are light and easy to carry to take from place to place. They are cheaper and have less things required to be with them than a normal desk computer. But what age should students be able to bring them to school? This article about keeping the peace had middle schools that allowed thier students to have laptops in class and the issue was, that the students were using them for entertaining purposes rather than what they were allowed in the classroom for in the fist place. Students were abusing thier privelages, using the computers for ichat and IM during class discussions. The teacher revolted against this and banned the laptops in school at this age. Some students, teachers, and parents were upset with this decision and made pprotests while others greatly appreciated the efforts to stop the use of laptops in class. There were other options that the schools chose to follow rather than bringing laptops to help the students learn what was needed to be learned. For example, there was a "Boot Camp" for 6th graders s that they could learn how to use the internet and programs on the computer appropriatly.

What age should laptops be allowed in classrooms?
I think that middle school age is way too young to have laptops in class, I even think that high school aged kids are not ready to have laptops in school. As a college student i don't have a laptop that i bring to school because of all the social distractions that are easily accessable on the internet. I see kids in my own classes on facebook and myspace in the middle of lectures. It's hard to multitask, I've tried it, so i think that banning laptops in the middle schools was age-wise appropriate.

What would you have done in this situation of you were principal?
Well, after hearing both sides of the argument, both for and against laptops in the classroom, i think i would have stuck with the same decision that was made. Laptops are great tools of information and help, but at that young of ann  age there are other resources that can be used to help the students learn the same things that they couuld on a laptop. I think that the boot camp idea was a wonderful idea.