A rock in the hands of a monkey is either a
tool (to crack open nuts) or a weapon (to crack open the head of another
monkey) or a toy (to roll or toss for amusement)! Our focus in the Life
Orientation department at Bishops is on the “monkey” and not the rock….. While
we may naively believe that students use technology primarily to aid their
education, reality may be that they use it far, far more often as a toy or even
a weapon.
The internet and technological gadgetry in
general, provide a particular danger to young men. The exploitation and abuse
of girls via the internet has received a fair amount of publicity, and schools
and parents routinely coach girls in preventative action and the dangers of
meeting “people” in chat-rooms or via websites. Little, if anything, is done to
address the unique problems of young men. They may no longer be first targets
of pedophiles, and they are probably big enough to defend themselves from
physical threats which may arise from ill-advised contacts made via the
internet. However, their very own personality and make-up is often their
greatest source of danger. The irresistible attraction of competitive games,
the sweeping storms of hormonal changes and their lack of emotional awareness
conspire to make them victims in an entirely unexpected way: they often, inadvertently, perpetrate grave misdemeanors
as a result of their tendency to recklessness, or in the heat of the game or as
a result of perceived threat to their ego. An otherwise sensible and kind young
man may suddenly find himself guilty of the distribution of child pornography,
when he forwards a picture or video he thought “funny”. When crossed or
betrayed, his instinctive reaction may be anger and revenge and, before he
knows it, he has made comments or threats he can no longer retrieve. All his
young, ill-considered adolescent trials and errors are indelibly printed
somewhere out there in the ether, and any hope of redemption of his image is
lost, as it “goes viral” and spins out of his control.
The second category of dangers lurks about
in his still-forming value system. It is alarmingly easy to cheat with
technology. Answers are bbm-ed. Assignments are cut and pasted. School “work”
is churned out at a speedy rate – without ever having passed through his brain
and thought processes. Google has become the new Oracle of Delphi, and our own
attempts to solve problems and create novel solutions have been hijacked by the
plethora of opinions available at the press of a finger. Who would struggle
through the process of thinking when a few finger-clicks can have a wonderfully
neat “task” ready for the English teacher in a flash?
The last of the IT Horsemen of the Apocalypse
is the one called Addiction – to gaming and to pornography. Increasingly
research is showing that these two addictions are far more prevalent and
dangerous that we had hitherto considered.
As a school which insists that our boys use laptops in the classroom, I
feel strongly that we therefore have a burden of responsibility to provide a
clear moral compass and an awareness of the inherent dangers of this choice, as
well as the IT skills needed to make maximum educational use of the medium.
In grade nine we take a term to look at
these issues in the following ways:
- We use interactive webpages to show boys how to manage their on-line brand and social media presence
- “Tagged – what you do online can tag you for life” is a valuable video, with interview clips from the characters, discussing the implications of hasty posts
- The boys create a poster of Top Ten Tips regarding an aspect of internet safety – emotional and reputational
- Nick Hall, a lawyer, visits each class individually to discuss plagiarism and legal aspects related to internet use
- Each boy does an audit of his time spent on the computer or gaming, including a discussion on the opportunity costs of this
- We take a brief look at transferable cognitive skills (or the absence of them!) and the necessity of a reality-based conceptual framework to the development of maturity and appropriate relational skills.
- We introduce the mechanics of process addiction.
Next year I plan to add ways to avoid “brain drain” and to encourage discrimination when choosing content. Plagiarism remains a perennial problem to be addressed. In short, we must aim to foster an appreciation for human dignity and reinforce the benefits of creativity and original thought, while building a solid moral and value framework within which to use the ever-present technological gadgets which have become so fundamental to our lives.
Bev Kemball
Head of Department: Life Orientation
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