I've been using the laptops a good bit in my classes recently.¹ Students often stray off the assigned task to check their MySpace, Facebook, check their email, or one of many other options.
I realize that it may be a rare and wonderful activity that captivates my 14 year old students' mind more than reading comments on their MySpace page, yet I feel students need to learn to focus on an activity when there are other options available.
How much censoring should I do of their wanderings? Currently I keep a close watch: If they quick check an email, the boxscore to last night's game, or their profile page and flip back to the assignment, I don't say anything. After all I function much like that when I'm working. If they're lingering a little too long or falling behind, then I ask them to stay off all other sites.
I don't want to block everything, but I also don't want to put my students in a situation where they can choose to fail via social networked distraction. Sometimes I catch myself wishing the school would block these sites; thus saving me the hassle.
But who am I to require students to focus on only one thing?
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¹ I'll share some of what I've done this week on this blog soon.
Image: Screenshot from my work computer
We've been struggling with this issue at my school too. I am kind of with you. If its short and the sort of off-task behavior I would do (check email, etc) I am cool with it. I figure they should be trusted to get things done as much as I want my principal to trust me. However, there are moments when I can tell the "other activity" is more important than the curricular one at hand. During those times I usually pull the student aside and talk to them privately. It seems to work most of the time with my 8th graders. I'd hate to block everything because I think you lose by-in with the students. If they feel everything is off limits then using a computer is no different than using a textbook - and they will show their interest accordingly.
I'm for as little filtration as is possible. Our students are going to have to learn to work with all the distractions the wonders of the internet bring them.
It just requires much greater vigilance on my part to be aware of how 24+ students are spending their time online in my class. It prevents me from being able to spend much more than 3 minutes paying attention to something other than what each student is working on.
This is a good thing I think, since I'm much more engaged in their learning process if I'm constantly paying attention to what they're doing. If filtering was more strict, I could get lazy and sit on my computer surfin' the tubes all hour. 😉
[...] The world of my students teaches them they should be doing 5 things at once. They don’t need that reinforced at school. Perhaps we should be teaching them focus. [...]