School Policies on the 'openness' of devices

I've been a participant in quite a few discussions surrounding this topic recently.  Sometimes it refers to staff and their rights install and update software on a provided device or devices in their classrooms.  Other times it surrounds devices given to students.  Chris Betcher posted a pertinent blog piece this morning that articulates the core issue - trust!

If we lock down things for students and staff to such a level that they don't have any ownership - what message does that send?  With the increasing need for updates to be installed - software, plug-ins etc - not allowing the using to have this privelege dictates that some administrator needs to touch the device or control it in some way....is this really what we want? 

Read Chris' blog post here:
http://chrisbetcher.com/2012/05/in-none-we-trust/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+betchablog+%28Betchablog%29

Digital Classrooms and Computer Coding

I found myself listening to this broadcast on ABC Radio National recently.  It details some of the issues many of us are grappling with in the classrooms - one to one; management etc. 

The second half of the broadcast explores whether we are disempowering students when we don't teach them the computer coding we once did.  With all the pull-downs, icons, wysiwyg editors that hide the programing - do users understand how things work? 

Another interesting piece was Sydney University's program for introducing/energising/mentoring female high school students into the world of computer science and the breadth that such study can give you.

Well worth a listen if you have 20 minutes or so.

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/digital-classrooms-and-computer-coding/3969160