There is a quote in an article I’m reading for my inquiry project that seemed to fit in quite well with some of the impressive words we learned about in class today, such as sociocultural homeostasis, and institutional isomorphism. Just try saying those five times fast.

The article is entitled The Innovative use of Personal Smart Devices by Students to Support their Learning, by Anne Nortcliffe and Andrew Middleton.

“… the ‘strong’ disruption that results from the advent of ubiquitous, personally owned mobile technologies and how the ‘long-term consequences must be to challenge the authority of the curriculum’ and dominant thinking about the nature of formal learning.”

While I disagree about bring your own device (BYOD) on many levels, including the creation of the haves and have nots, trying to get everything running on multiple platforms, lack of common or shared apps, devices not running at full operation due to battery drain or damage, alright, perhaps I could go on for longer… however, I do believe that the much more affordable portable devices that can readily access the world do create the need to challenge the dominant thinking about formal learning.

If schools are institutions brought to life by those who learn in them, those who work in them, and the community, should not the institution reflect the lives of those souls? When I first typed that sentence I had only included those who work and the community… perhaps my brain associated students with working in the schools, but I felt the need to be more explicit. Marc Prensky creates the image of students as digital natives, in comparison to most teachers as digital immigrants. In reflection of my teaching experience, I think he is for the most part correct.

I like to try and argue otherwise for myself. I had a Commodore 64, and waited 30 minutes for Donald Duck’s Playground to load. I had an Atari, and Intellivision, and argue that Super Mario Brothers 3 is still the best of the Mario games. I have multiple blogs, have created web sites, use facebook, tweet, and get my news from websites as opposed to newspapers. However, I’m still not in league with my students who were born after the internet was available in many homes. I remember how exciting it was when our school was connected to the internet in 1996… but we didn’t know what to do with it. While I may feel a level of comfort, I was not born to it. The disparity is even greater for many of my colleagues.

However, we are strong voices regarding decision making that affects our classrooms. Do we each continue doing our disparate practices? Do we rise as a group and advocate strongly for change? The only certainty I have is that we certainly must not do nothing. We owe our students much more.

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