Can math be made fun???

Banning Student Containers

The hesitance on the part of many schools to allow student access to mass media instruments can be understood.  In fact I believe it is a lack of understanding as to how to "manage" new technologies which prevents their classroom introduction.  Change can be difficult and often occurs over long periods of time. Yet in each instance of change there was a first time, an initial experience that was different than each previous.  I think as educators we can all agree there are numerous benefits and endless possibilites we have yet to explore through technology.  I think the question is how does one initiate this change?  Am I the only one who thought Dan was a more productive young man when he was home than he probably was when he was in school?   

Teens' Bold Blogs Alarm Schools

The use of blogs and social networking websites by school age children has grown exponentially over the last decade.  With technological advances often comes knew and unforeseen dangers for its users.  I am familiar with the efforts certain private schools have made in order to dissuade students from misusing blogs and posting obscene material to facebook.  I taught at a private, catholic Long Island school that monitored its student’s profiles through “dummy” accounts.  For the deans of discipline it became an invaluable source of intelligence.  Several students were suspended due to violations of our school’s “moral code.”  I myself am undecided as to where the school’s boundaries begin and where they end.  Do under-aged students have privacy rights that are being violated daily?

            The first amendment to the Constitution protects a citizen’s freedom of speech.  However this protection does not extend to individuals whose words could create hysteria (ie. Screaming “fire” in a crowded theater or saying “bomb” on a plane is an arrest-able offense.  Does a student’s right to privacy supersede a school’s need to protect its population?  Is it the place of a school’s administration to police its student’s web-pages, or would it be better suited to educate its students on appropriate internet usage?