The Importance Of Students Using Their Own Digital Kit

Replied to The Importance Of Students Using Their Own Digital Kit by Mal Lee, Roger Broadie (The Digital Evolution of Schools)

Critical is that digitally empowered students can use their ‘own’ suite of digital technologies largely unfettered within the school walls, and have ready connectivity.

That carries with it the school’s and teacher’s appreciation of how best to build upon that ownership to grow the learners and their learning. It entails a willingness to trust students to use in their everyday school learning the technologies they already use 24/7/365, the need to empower them, recognise, to value and build upon the students being digital, while understanding how they can take advantage of that capability in their teaching.

It obliges the school to understand this is a digitally empowered generation, with a digital mindset, ever rising expectations, who have long taken charge of their learning with the digital, who will do so lifelong, who have grown being digital by naturally using the apt technologies in near every facet of their lives and knowing how best to take advantage of that digital skillset.

I am all for handing over control and ownership to students. Agency is not my concern. I just wonder how much agency students can have when rather than schools (or education departments) making critical decisions, it is the market?

The way that you describe the take-up of technology it becomes about what was learnt when three? If you asked me ten years ago if I would recommend Facebook, I might have said yes, it is where everyone is, why not. Now, I would definitely say no. Thankfully no one I worked with agreed with me back then.

I have similar concerns about ‘devices’ and software. Although I like the idea of digital agnostic, especially Matt Esterman’s idea of a toolography, I just wonder about position we put students in following this path? Who is responsible for any data breaches in this circumstance? Even more so if that compromises a whole network?

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