Switching on to the impact of digital age

IT WAS said that children would switch off when they went to school.

They would switch off their phones and personal devices and go through the school gates into an analogue world of books and blackboards.

Outside school — at home and on the bus — young people were having far richer experiences. They were social networking, following their interests on YouTube and in some cases creating websites and blogs.

Thankfully, things are changing.

When you think about the wealth of high-quality content available online — and the positive impact technology can have on motivating young people — it’s not surprising that many teachers are looking at innovative ways to use technology to enhance learning in class.

One response becoming more and more popular is Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD). Instead of schools paying out for devices that many young people already have, the students are encouraged to bring their smartphones, tablets or laptops to class.

Donal O’Mahony, a teacher in Portmarnock Community School, recently asked a first-year class to bring a phone, camera, iTouch or similar device to school for a class. The devices were used in groups to research a topic on the internet and to take photos to record various stages of their work.

“What I was surprised at, was the students in some groups had a great discussion. There was no doubt as to the engagement of many of them,” he said. And isn’t this what all teachers want?

One of the quirks of Ireland’s technology landscape is that children here are ahead of most of their peers across Europe when it comes to owning personal portable devices with internet access. According to EU Kids Online, only in Norway and the UK are there more kids accessing the net on the move.

While this might say as much about our traditions of gifting around Communion, Confirmation, and Christmas as it is does about our use of technology, it undoubtedly presents an interesting opportunity.

BYOD appears to be a very cost effective solution — schools don’t have to buy and maintain equipment and students and other family members get to use them in the evenings. There are some cost issues, however. Users need to be set up on the system, some training and technical support is required, and, of course, software must be purchased.

Look at universities and other third-level institutions who have been implementing BYOD systems with success over the last decade or so. They allow students to use their own laptops and devices to access the internet, use shared applications, and view learning content.

Bringing technology into schools also causes issues around child safety, exposure to viruses, and distraction. Machines that are physically carried into school bypass the firewalls and filters. There are also risks that children will use their device to bully other students.

But all of these things can, and regularly are, managed. An acceptable usage policy, signed by students and their parents, detailing the ways in which the internet, mobile phones and related devices can and cannot be used in your school is the way to go about this.

And, of course, not every child will have a personal device. We need to make sure that any approach we adopt doesn’t compound inequality.

Recent events have drawn the focus on to the negative use of technology by young people but let’s not forget the great opportunities for learning and creativity they provide. We need to create spaces in formal education where children can use technology innovatively and collaboratively to create something that is relevant to their lives.

Enabling young people to express themselves using their own devices could solve the schools technology problem quickly, creatively, and perhaps more importantly, cheaply.

* Simon Grehan is an educationalist who works with the Safer Internet Ireland Awareness Centre at Dublin City University.