Individual Learners' Blogs

Tuesday 11 March 2014

From the Principal Week 6 Term 1 2014

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Friends,

“Technology giveth and technology taketh away" wrote Neil Postman a number of years ago in his book The End Of Education.

This is both obvious and important for us to think about. The car has had huge benefits but it also has brought pollution and created a sense of independence from each other that walking to the shops or church did not create. It has also sped up our world. And yet we wouldn't deny its benefits. We just need to think carefully about what we lose with technology and how we can still achieve a sense of patience, peace and community - and have cleaner cars for better air quality.
What does computer technology give and what does it take away? And how do we address the issues created by what is taken away?

At MCS we acknowledge that computer technology CAN:
-reduce healthy communication between people
-create another obsession for some people
-provide a place for bullying and abuse
-enable people to see and read material that is unhelpful or even dangerous
-help children forget how to write manually
-stop children thinking critically
-create a consumer culture rather than a creative culture

Therefore, we have put in place the following to help our learners grow in a more balanced way:
1. Providing safely monitored communication channels within the school community. Edmodo is fully monitored by staff, accessible to parents, and builds community between our learners. Blogs are monitored by staff, accessible by parents, and encourage staff-monitored comments from the outside world on student posts, therefore building an audience for their writing.
2. Teaching children to Be Still in a range of ways - through quiet reflection, individual silent prayer, art, hands on independent activities that connect them with God, and through having Technology Free Days regularly
3. Teaching children about bullying and cyber safe and digital citizenship. Bullying happens sometimes in any playground as children establish their own identities, and sometimes this is unseen by the teachers. However, in cyberspace it can be even more hidden. Having staff monitoring what is written on blogs and Edmodo can help staff uncover things and have good conversations early, helping the children to learn.
4. We have strong restrictions in our school to keep children as safe as possible from unsuitable material
5. We still teach children to read and write and compute offline, and do handwriting lessons.
6. We actively teach children to think creatively and critically
7. We are trying to have children do things on the computer/iPad that they couldn't normally do elsewhere.  This is often researching, often creative and often collaborative in ways that we could never have done in the past
So, given the new environment in which we live, we are excited about what technology giveth, and genuinely seek to try to remediate in areas that technology taketh away.  Please read the Keeping Kiwi Kids Safer in Cyberspace brochures sent home today.

We are holding a Parent evening about Connecting through Tech on Wednesday 16th April.


Helen Pearson

No comments:

Post a Comment

We welcome your comments on our blogs. Thanks!