Webcam on school-issued laptop spies on students at home

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Posted on 19th February 2010 by Judy Breck in Mobiles | Obamaschool | Schools we now have

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“Student claims school spied on him via computer webcam” is a headline today at the Philadephia Inquirer. Click on the image above for the local news video report. From the same video, in the smaller image below, a student from the high school is pointing to the webcam on her school-issued laptop. The school security set-up made it possible for the webcam to grab a shot of what she was doing or what her screen was displaying — wherever she was with the laptop.

It is interesting to listen to the interviews of high students and parents on the video. It does not seem to occur to them that students should or could be be trusted to own, take care of, and control their own mobile device. The mentality remains stuck in the notion that the laptops belong to the school and the school should control them.

Why? Let’s look at own, take care of, and control.

Own? It is intellectually better for a student to own his/her own laptop — like, long ago, I owned a 3-ring notebook in which I organized my high school life. How would you feel if you knew that in a few months you would have to return the computer you use for writing and browsing to someone else who owns it? How much would it curtail your creativity if you knew that at any time the real owner of your computer could look at what is in it? Over years of education, a student’s cumulative drafts and projects become rich resources — and having someone from the outside peek at them is embarrassing. A student’s learning is enriched when it can extend freely into a personal mobile. Where else can a sophomore in love keep his emerging poetry?

Take care of? Laptop mobiles cost less than $500 now, and the price is dropping. This is a far cry from the “wire the schools” times in the 1990s when shared computers costs thousands. I would also bet my iPod that high school students will take far better care of mobiles that they own, than the school-issued sort.

Control? Ah, and it is here that the education phoenix must set its nest afire and let the flames consume the old control freak bird. The generation now in school is already connected online — and every generation that follows will be too. The new schooling for connecting is about teaching the young explorers how to travel the open networks of knowledge in the online commons. Controlling and curtailing brief sorties is very 20th century.

Why focus on realigning schools when we can connect kids directly?

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Posted on 13th February 2010 by Judy Breck in Mobiles | Schools we now have

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A major Carnegie Corporation report titled “Do school differently” was announced this week in eSchoolNews.

The left side portion of the illustration above is from a slide presentation that is part of the report’s The Opportunity Equation, described in an Executive Summary and attachments. The scope of the school realignment that is proposed is sketched in the excerpts at the end of this post.

On the right side of the above illustration is a little girl using her mobile to connect into the global online knowledge commons. She is learning from the Why Files, following her own curiosity. She is learning by using handschooling.

Like most of the goals set out in the Executive Summary this one is not doable before the little girl is past school age: For the United States, the “opportunity equation” means transforming American education so that our schools provide a high-quality mathematics and science education to every student.

Getting a mobile internet browser to every school age student is doable within a year or two. The global knowledge commons is online and begs for educators to engage it.

Focus people! Today’s student underclass is problem #1. How will all of our youngsters today actually be able to learn math and science? How can they have real and equal access to that math and science? The answer is in your hand. Click in your iPhone or Blackberry on whyfiles.org and learn a bunch of new things about science in the next few minutes. That’s how.

Nonetheless, expensive, long-term planning continues to explore goals and options:

Excerpts from the Executive Summary of The Opportunity Equation:

Our nation needs an educated young citizenry with the capacity to contribute to and gain from the country’s future productivity, understand policy choices, and participate in building a sustainable future. Knowledge and skills from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—the so-called STEM fields—are crucial to virtually every endeavor of individual and community life. All young Americans should be educated to be “STEM-capable,” no matter where they live, what educational path they pursue, or in which field they choose to work.

For the United States, the “opportunity equation” means transforming American education so that our schools provide a high-quality mathematics and science education to every student. The Commission believes that change is necessary in classrooms, schools and school districts, and higher education. The world has shifted dramatically—and an equally dramatic shift is needed in educational expectations and the design of schooling. . . .

The Commission has crafted a comprehensive program of action—one that will require commitments from many quarters, including the federal government, states, schools and school districts, colleges and universities, unions, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropy. A detailed set of recommendations lays out a practical, coordinated plan, and describes what each constituency can do to raise mathematics and science achievement for all American students. [four priority areas are described]