As a casual teacher, I try and encourage the students to use
the laptops for their learning. With many youngsters wired up to technology, it
is fair that if they enjoy the technology, that should be utilized to allow
them to learn. As teachers, we do need to focus on student interests if they
are to learn effectively. Obviously there are some who want to opt for more
traditional means of learning and I try and accommodate that too.
However I find that using the laptops in the classroom can
cause students to disengage from learning and end up off task. This is a common
issue that has been raised with colleagues that I work at in the various
schools that I am employed at. This becomes more challenging if you are a
casual teacher.
For instance, some will end up surfing the web, visiting
websites not related to learning. They will listen to music from youtube and/or
have music stored on their laptops, some of which contain offensive content.
Gaming has emerged as another challenge. Some have
downloaded games or simply can access a website that contains games.
I have found that the only way to control the class is to
effectively stand at the back of the room where the screens can be seen and
moving around regularly. At the front of the room, you cannot see them so there
is little point in remaining down the front at all and ensuring that they
remain on task.
Then some will want to test my expectations relating to
appropriate use of laptops and that of the school’s e.g. play music aloud or
simply not comply with instructions even though those expectations were firmly
provided.
Taking away the computers from the students may be a short
term solution but then the student cannot learn. A few years ago when training
as a teacher and even in my first year of casual teaching, I did that and at
the end of the day the situation is not really resolved. If the task requires internet
research, to sit there and doing nothing will not work. They do not learn at
all and miss out on learning the information and communication skills that they
will need as part of curriculum requirements.
Will conventional punishments such as a “work” detention
(where the student stays back to finish the work) work? Maybe that is the
effective way. If a student wastes their learning time doing recreational
activities on the computer, maybe sacrificing some of that time after school
might do the job. In the workplace, if we waste our time, don’t we have to make
up for the time lost at some point, either directly (staying back at our desk)
or doing it in our own leisure time.
I plan to answer this further in my next blog post.
