HEADLINES
couple of instances,” said James Bosco, the principal investigator of CoSN’s Participatory Learning Leadership & Policy Initiative and a professor at Western Michigan University. “But typically, bills are extremely restrictive.” He gave the example of Missouri, which drafted a bill recent-
ly that would have outlawed all forms of social networking in the school environment. Te state teachers association filed an injunction, arguing that the legislation unfairly targeted technol- ogy that is growing in prevalence in classroom instruction. “Tose rules were changed,” Bosco added. “Te issue is we don’t
get to choose the world we live in. It might have been a better world 50 years ago according to some people. But the technol- ogy will continue to exist, and the use of social networking will continue to rise. Te question is: how are we going to deal with it?” Bosco said additional challenges arise when school attempt to
prohibit schools from bringing cell phones to school, including how to screen the students. Do schools use metal detectors? Do resource offices pat down individual students? And what about the increasing number of parents who supply these mobile de- vices to their children with the purpose of being able to track them throughout the day? “We don’t have enough resources (to ban mobile technology),
so why not use technology for teaching and learning?” he con- tinued. “You can use cell phones to video bad things on the bus
or on the playground but you can also use it to video something for learning on a field trip. Every technology brings both positive and negative aspects to our lives. Go down the line of any tech- nology starting with fire. Tis is no exception.” Instead, he said the CoSN work group found limiting the use
of cell phones and social networking in school was implau- sible. Rather, he suggested that increased social responsibility of administrators, teachers, student transporters and parents is necessary to better teach children the acceptable uses of the technology in the school environment. “To get someone to write a code of conduct and file it at dis-
trict level or to write a law in the state legislature totally misses the point,” Bosco added. “We have to get the school community to accept responsibility for their behavior and to become stake- holders on what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. Tey become part of the mechanism that helps to enforce this. We have talked about all school districts having acceptable use of Internet resources. Let’s call it responsible use instead.” FirstGroup’s Richmond said knee-jerk responses are “foolish.” “We have to change and adapt with (the technology),” she
added. “From a school bus provider perspective, we have to work with our partners. We have to address this head on, and we also need to educate the students and own kids on how to best use this technology.” ■
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See Us At Booth # 254 36 School Transportation News Magazine July 2012
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