Self Management of Students

Over the last few weeks I have been thinking a great deal about the way schools let go...and let students take greater control of their own learning. I am not saying the role of the teacher is dead, just changing. It takes teachers who know their craft to support learners to grow their own learning, and it takes time. If you want to find out more about my thoughts in this area, read my latest article on Student Self Management: Letting Go... My particular interest is in leadership so I am thinking about what school leaders need to do to enable student self management to happen...and they need to let go too!

What I want to specifically blog about in this post is the use of cellphones as one example of how schools could encourage self management. Wesley Fryer's Guidelines and instructional applications for cellphone use at school provides many resources and links to get you thinking about this. Toni Twiss has also undertaken some interesting research into the use of mobile phones.

Mobile technologies are pervasive and a wonderful tool to enhance school learning. While I understand why leaders might try to limit their use in schools, I don't agree with it. It's the same old issue of removing 'toys' because there are one or two problems...the card collections, the marbles...whatever the latest craze is. Schools that react by imposing blanket bans are not supporting self management, they are dealing with a symptom and hoping that if the temptation is removed the 'problem' will go away. Yet if we want to encourage self management, aren't we better to take part in real dialogue with students, to use the tools to enhance learning, and to help students use the technologies safely and powerfully? And because my work is with leaders, I would encourage them to explore the possibilities and...let go...