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When Smart Phones Enrolled in School

Findlay McIntosh and his wife have lived in Davis since 1989. They have two daughters and five grandchildren. Findlay studied history at UC Davis. He has taught art in high school for 25 years. 
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The first smart phones at my private high school were met with awe at the latest glowing technological gadget. It was mostly kids from wealthy families who had them and they loved showing off to their friends their access to the internet, especially funny videos of cats not being very graceful.

Most teachers did not have smart phones, their flip phone was all they needed. They had a computer with the internet, a digital camera to snap pictures, and sending out a text by hitting the keypad two or three times to get the right letter was no big deal. Texts were by design meant to be pithy.

Private schools had prepared teachers for years to get ready for the new revolution. Experts came to our professional development days promising a new age of education. One bold claim by a guy who really knew what he was talking about said, soon, before most of you retire, every classroom will have a computer with internet access.

That's crazy talk. There was grumbling amongst many teachers. We have books, classic books, like the Bible and Shakespeare in our rooms and every student has a copy. We don't need any internet. We do pushups and run around the track reasoned the PE folks, the internet will not be much of an aid to getting into shape.

Other teachers didn't like that their laminated lesson plans might just become obsolete overnight. When the experts told us our grade books would be online there was a near riot. So, parents can email me 24/7? I must grade all my papers and then enter that information into the computer?

Between all the emails and what looks like a double load of work it will take away from real teaching. The children will suffer. Clearly, the "experts" didn't understand the classroom, how kids learn and interact, and this was sounding more like a sales pitch for the school to buy more computers and cut spending on art, field trips, and clubs. Teachers can be insightful that way.

Smart phones, by themselves, didn't rock the world of adolescence but the invention of social media five minutes later did. My Space and Facebook seemed innocent enough: a network of people to stay in touch after you left college, a way to promote your yard sale this Saturday or find likeminded people who also love HO train sets.

Social media had this lovely feature of liking what someone had posted. How cool is that! You can send some love to a stranger three states over who also thinks Timothy Dalton could have been the best James Bond if they just gave him a chance. The world was becoming more likable all thanks to smart phones and social media — the twin avatars of a generation.

The charming "Like" button was more like the devil in a blue dress. Kids craved all the likes and cyber friends. When they got on Facebook no request for friendship was denied. Make those numbers climb so anyone could be popular while sitting in your bedroom eating a pint of ice cream. Parents, grandparents were made friends. Aunts, uncles, total strangers were now your friends. People you didn't even particularly like were made friends.

All you had to do was post stuff about your life to get likes and more friends, but what really seemed to bring home big numbers was when you said edgy things or post provocative pictures, especially provocative pictures. Somehow the "www" part of the internet did not, could not, apply to me just having some fun with this new amazing electronic gismo. It made everyone feel so good and loved.

The most powerful hand tool ever invented was now in the opposable thumbs of teenagers. What could go wrong?

Two minutes after social media was invented, some guy convinced his girlfriend to let him take a picture of her topless. No doubt, he assured her, this picture was for his eyes only. Pinky swear. All she had to do was ask him to delete the photo and he would. Miracle of miracles the smart phone had a feature that a photo of his girlfriend's boobies would magically appear on his screen every time his phone notified him. Is there anything these smart phones can't do?

He meant it when he said he would delete the topless photo until he found out she was flirting with some football player at a party he didn't attend. It had to be true because his best friend, who also didn't attend the party, heard it from a good source online who was there and said they were dancing like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers. Well, with that kind of betrayal he really had an obligation to warn other guys what a shameless hussy she really was and the righteous thing to do was post her topless picture on social media. But because mom and dad were all friends with their kids on the same social media, they also saw the photo.

 

And now the school became involved. Outraged parents were demanding the school to shut down this madness. Administrators were in a real quandary: there had always been a certain separation between student life on campus and what they did in their free time. In the handbook, students were expected to maintain dignity and school spirit on and off campus.

However, the WWW blurred the line. What do you do when students post videos and pictures of themselves in varying degrees of buffoonery? Especially when they were wearing school sweatshirts and hats broadcasting just where they went to school. This was a problem; the school brand was being compromised.

So, administrators passed the buck and the job of regulating internet behavior fell on the Dean of Students, whose job it was to maintain discipline. Fortunately for our school, our dean was Tom. He was a real sheep dog who took the job of protecting his flock of students seriously. He didn't let kids get away with anything. He was firm and at the same time humorous. He didn't take their tomfoolery personally, and he didn't particularly care if students liked him, parents too, for that matter.

Parents would call Tom and inform him of what they were seeing on their children's Facebook. He would call students and sometimes parents into his office and layout the evidence of their internet infractions. Mostly students and parents were so embarrassed and red-faced the lesson was learned. There were some parents who vehemently felt Tom and the school had crossed the line and was infringing on their private lives.

The reaction of teachers was similar. Most were glad they didn't have the Dean's job and kept quiet waiting for all the dust to settle on this unexpected twist in the digital revolution. But there were teachers who were equally outraged at the infringement of personal freedom and expression.

At faculty meetings teachers became constitutional lawyers protecting students' rights against illegal search and seizure under the Bill of Rights. Others compared this new regime to Nazi book burners with their Gestapo tactics of spying on the children.

Tom wasn't expecting his fellow educators to turn on him this way, and he was shocked that so many felt it was none of our business that our underage girls were posting nude selfies, others to drink copious amounts of alcohol for the camera, or post where the big party would be this weekend because parents were out of town.

The cool teachers philosophized kids were just being kids and misbehavior has been a part of growing up since Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Ironically, many of the teachers who protested the infringement of students' rights were themselves quite adept with technology, and often had inventive uses of technology in the classroom. They just didn't get the timeless far reach of the WWW. It didn't hurt their popularity with students if they advocated for the kids; they were cool teachers after all. Parents and administrators just don't get it.

One thing you can say for the WWW; it evened the playing field. In the art of revenge, bullying and rumors boys had no advantage over girls and nerds could strike back against their former tormentors. Gossip always traveled faster than wildfire, and the WWW somehow only increased the speed. Everyone had equal access to opinions, allegations and what the cafeteria was serving on Tuesday.

It wasn't just kids that had to learn the hard way about the WWW. Several prospective teachers did not get hired after a brief check of their social media. One applicant was going to be hired until his profile picture on social media was discovered. In it, he was clearly on vacation with an oversized sombrero, a fruity beverage with a paper umbrella, and a broad smile telling the world he was loving life. Unfortunately, he was also giving the camera the finger and so ended his teaching career before it started. Kids may not like researching the economic causes of the French Revolution, but they love to find out juicy information about their teachers on the internet.

Eventually the dust did settle — sort of. Kids found new social media platforms and they learned never ever never friend grandma on your social media. They learned to be more discreet in their postings.

For example, if you were inspired to send a nude picture off into the cyber world don't include your face in the photo. Duh. Many, if not most teachers, put phone snitches in their room which helped curb sneaky texting during class. Facebook fell out of favor and students got a fresh start with new platforms and better ways of keeping meddling parents and administrators in the dark.

Students all have iPads, so access to the internet is still available to them on campus. The school counters this by putting more sophisticated filters on the school internet, and there is an app so teachers can know just what web site the kids are on during class. It is a cat and mouse game and quite frankly I don't know who the cat is and who is the mouse.

~ Findlay McIntosh

 


 

 

 

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