Alberta School Opens the Door to Ipod and Smartphone Use

This morning CBC is reporting on an Edmonton area school which plans to experiment in the fall with allowing students to use Iphones and Ipod touches to access the Internet.  Students will be expected to disable the actual phone and texting capabilities of their Iphones and connect via the school's wireless network.  And the school plans to block certain web sites to rein in some types of connectivity.

I will be curious to see how this experiment pans out.  I have to confess that I'm somewhat ambivalent to the enterprise as it's being proposed.

On one hand, it makes one giant leap toward a concept that I have often advocated, something I've referred to as ubiquitous computing or, at other times, uneventful computing.  To me, this is the ultimate goal for technology in the classroom: to reach a state where technology and its attendant connectivity are omnipresent and taken for granted.  In this ideal world, teachers and students would incorporate technology into teaching and learning as the opportunity arose or as needed.  No more special, scheduled trips to the lab.  No more treating technology as a subject that needs to be taught for its own sake.  In this world, using technology would no longer be treated as an event, any more than pulling out a textbook or looking something up in a dictionary is an event.  In fact, technology might replace both those traditional resources.  That's uneventful computing.


But, while this experiment makes significant strides toward this goal, it also raises some significant questions.  Certainly equity is a concern.  Admittedly the school has made a commitment to purchase thirty Ipod Touches for those students who may not have one of their own, but I would guess this doesn't come anywhere close to providing equal access for everyone.

Secondly, I would question the rather narrow choice of using only Apple Iphones and Ipod Touches.   What about other smart phones?  Netbooks?  In particular, the choice to purchase Ipod Touches seems a curious one to me.  First, schools are purchasing a device with little intention of making use of its primary function as a media player.  Second, even the cheapest Ipod Touch runs $220; for a mere $80 more, schools could purchase a full-fledged netbook which would provide much greater function and flexibility, albeit with a loss of  "pocket" portability and some of the glam factor of the Ipod.

Finally, I will be eager to find out if allowing students continuous access to these devices will turn into a classroom management headache, as some people often predict.  Will teachers be able to convince students to use them only in ways which are appropriate for the classroom, or will students spend their days playing games and downloading inappropriate apps?  I think much will depend on the general atmosphere of the school and the way in which the project is presented to students.

My reservations aside, I believe this is an experiment which bears watching.