In an unsurprising article an old media institution which is slowly withering away (the newspaper) discusses how a law school has to ban laptops in their classrooms because students aren’t listening to the lectures.
“This is like putting on every student’s desk, when you walk into class, five different magazines, several television shows, some shopping opportunities and a phone, and saying, ‘Look, if your mind wanders, feel free to pick any of these up and go with it,’ ” [Professor] Cole said.”
I can’t see how this is any different than these future-lawyers desks are going to be. They’ll be in their offices, having to do work, with a computer, Internet access, cell phones, desk phones, e-mail, instant messenger, Skype, etc, all available for their perusal.
Shouldn’t law schools being teaching future lawyers how to minimize distraction, use modern tools to be better lawyers (like writing a collaborative brief via Google Docs), and embrace what modern technology has done for the legal field? Or perhaps the bigger problem is the modern legal field isn’t moving to take advantage of the opportunities. My sense is that the field is, but the educational institutions training the new lawyers aren’t.
I can’t believe how unwilling educators are to change their practice. You’ve got to get to where your kids are, or you’ll be irrelevant.
Today a colleague of mine and I gave a talk to middle school parents at our school on ways to teach your child about appropriate boundaries and behaviors online. We shared a number of links and I thought my readers (if there are any!) might find them useful for use in your own schools and with your own families. There are a lot, but they are great!
We watched the video, “Do You Know 4.0″
The Pew Internet and American Life Project did a study called Generational differences in online activities which summarizes the different things that different age groups do online – from e-mail to social networking, and everything in between.
David Pogue has a well-written article in the New York Times titled, How Dangerous Is The Internet For Children where he breaks down the myths and truths regarding children online. In that article is a link to the PBS Frontline documentary Growing Up Online, which is well worth your time to watch. You can watch it online for free.
We discussed a New York Times article titled, Sorry, Boys, This Is Our Domain, which discusses how women and girls actually produce the majority of image/video driven content on the web, breaking some of the myths of boys/girls and technology.
We looked at a tremendous parent online safety guide created by Wes Fryer that includes resources/articles/lessons on: filtering, limits, social networking, instant messaging, parent resources and more.
From your questions
A number of you asked wonderful questions, and we told you that we’d include links to resources on regarding those questions. Here they are:
The Dana Foundation has a good primer called Brain Development in a Hyper-Tech World which tells us that little is yet known about the effects of all the technology in our children’s lives. We do know however that “multitasking,” or fast attention switching makes learning much less productive than focused work. The article also discusses social development in the age of Facebook.
We don’t recommend any particular brand of filters for home. That being said, many families find it helpful to block out objectionable content or block certain websites/applications at certain times. GetNetWise has a section that highlights popular filtering tools.
50% of all e-mail is misinterpreted, even that written by the best writers. Know that when you are sending and reading e-mail, and discuss this with your children.
Some people are such good writers, and their blog posts are like micronovels. I love reading them, but sometimes have trouble with reading something so dense, via my screen. Or even worse, via my iPod touch screen. I like blogs that are short, to the point, and easy to digest. When I want to really sink my mind into something for an extended period of time, I pick up a book.
Blogs turning into journal articles, and even books, scare me. What do you think?
PBS Frontline will be airing “Growing up Online” tonight at 9 PM EST. I like Frontline a lot beacuse of their balanced reporting. The fact that danah boyd is featured on the show makes me think they did their homework. I have written here before, and do believe, she is the smartest English-speaking person I’ve encountered on dealing with kids and the online world. Do not miss this program, or if you do, watch it online at their website starting tomorrow.
.