The most unimaginable thing is happening in our classrooms today. Teachers and school administrations are consoling the use of cell phones and other portable digital devices. Some believe that it is becoming the norm for children and adults alike to own a cell phone or any of the other portable digital devices out there. Of course, there are some believers that think that allowing such devices in the classroom is giving students a gateway to cheat. Others believers think that this can in fact enrich the technological environment in the classroom. Scott Thompson, Dysart’s school district’s executive director said, “The goal is to try to harness the power of a lot of these Web-enabled devices that kids already have.” “Kids are walking around with smartphones and iTouches and all kinds of devices that have more computer power than most computers we had in the schools 10 years ago.” The article was written by Amy B Wang from, The Arizona Republic. Wang discusses in her article potential pitfalls, digital citizenship, and new ways of teaching using portable digital devices in the classroom. Many of the new teaching ideas she talked about in the article where creative and would foster active learning about technology and the changing way in which children should be taught. George Haines, a technology teacher at Sts. Philip & James School on Long Island said, "The kids that are taught in schools where things are more open, they're going to end up being more different than the kids who are shielded," Haines said. "My guess is that they'd have an advantage, but who knows?"
I believe that we are so depended on digital devices that why not have them as part of the environment in our classrooms. Of course, I believe that the amount and specific times the students are allowed to use these devices should be determined by the digression of the teacher and the schools administrations. For the people that believe that this would foster the act of cheating to a more large degree; maybe the teacher could have the students put the devices in a common area where the teacher knows and has control of such devices. I don’t think it’s right to limit the knowledge of technology in the classroom because there could be a chance that a student or two would choose to cheat, cheating happens without technology involved anyways. The new ways of teaching that the article discussed were interesting to say the least. I like the idea of incorporating portable digital devices in the classroom because so much of what we want out students to take away from our teaching is new and creative ways of doing things through their education of technology. We have come to a technology generation that if we are not careful our students and children for that matter will know more about digital technology than us. In other words, our students will be teaching us instead of the other way around!
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