Instant Messaging for Good, Not Evil
My son left on a band trip this afternoon. He spent the last two days packing and sorting, trying to make sure he had everything he needed.
About an hour before he was picked up to go to the airport, he was online chatting with his bandmates, and it turned out they had one whole chatroom going just on the topic of “What did you forget to pack?” As I looked over his shoulder, there were reminders flying back and forth about black socks, cellphone chargers, and other necessary elements of teenage life and band performances.
It was fun to watch how much this communication technology is integral to their school lives, even though the technology in question had nothing to do with school. Very often my son works on his homework projects with classmates using instant messaging. Sometimes it’s no more than checking what the assignment is, and sometimes it’s actually collaborating on team projects.
I wish we could stop being paranoid about messaging and similar technologies, and figure out how to harness their appeal and real power to the benefit of student learning. The district just passed a new bond, with a significant amount of money for technology. (The first ever!) I’m hoping we will see new communication tools in the district that will allow this kind of collaboration to take place within the school itself!