Helping Students Manage Technology (or It WILL Manage Them)

The Presenters: Barry Lawrensen, Rachel Dewey - Teacher ITGS and Design Technology - Gyeonggi Suwon International School, Suwon, South Korea

The Gist:
Technology in multiple forms is ubiquitous to our modern lives. Is it possible to develop critical thinking skills when concentration is on the technology?

• Some teachers prefer to check the laptops and smartphones at the door, while others are embracing the technology with 1:1 laptop programs and required participation in blogs and social networking.
  
• The presenters met online a year ago just met face to face yesterday!!
• 187% mobile phone connectivity in HK these students cant remember a time without technology....if schools spending $ on technology we need equal amount on training teachers as to how to use it.
  
• Behaviour rules are same as for other classrooms and the school eg respect don’t have a list of rules eg you cant do this and that
  
• It is important to talk about ..ethical use of technologyeg how to get around firewalls etc. use and show them a behaviour code for business and talk about consequences- eg if you are at work you can get sacked for unethical behaviour
  
• Use students to teach the class....use twitter to chat in class no talking...use a wireless keyboards so can use them in the classroom
  
• use msn...students can use mobile under the desk and send teachers the answers to questions quickly
  
• they share ideas on google documents using their laptops
  
• tell students they have 20 mins to present the information to teacher - how you do it is your choice- be creative

My thoughts: These teachers are using laptops in their classrooms in creative ways. It is important to teach appropriate behaviour when using collaborative teaching and online learning.