Who Needs Good C&I? I've got Apps!

This Thanksgiving, I'm blessed to be spending time with my family, including my 4 year old nephew, Miles. While it's always a joy to hang out with my little pal, I'll admit that this time I have ulterior motives in our time together. I brought along one of the fifteen iPad minis that I bought for our Lower School students and I needed a guinea pig. I've spent the better part of the morning having Miles test the apps that I've loaded up on my test machine. Some of the apps are a hit, some are a miss - this is not news to you. Overall, I am amazed at what apps can do. Let's face it, before the iPad we didn't have a technology that we could drop into the hands of a four year old and have them start learning effectively and independently.

Man, those birds sure are angry...

The problem is that Miles is happy to play with apps whether they are academically effective or not. I feel like we are at a place in education where it is becoming very easy to look like we are being academically effective, even if we aren't.  A class of students who are on task, quietly working on "educational" apps can be very compelling. Unless we have strict academic oversight of these devices, I worry that iPad enabled classes can devolve to nothing more than high-tech busy work.  To prevent this, I think the following components are necessary:

1. Vision - Without a global vision for integrating apps in curriculum and instruction, their effectiveness will be hit or miss.
2. Belief - Buy in from both faculty and administration on the vision for apps in the classroom.
3. Standards - Create a set of academic and technical standards that apps must meet for approval. 
4. Implementation - An articulated plan of implementation promotes realistic expectations in all parties.

I understand that no one in education needs more added to their plate, but the only way to effectively move these components into place is by committee. Administrators can't push it alone, the IT department can't drive the train and it can't be left to the individual teachers. However, if all of these folks come together and we leverage their expertise to vet high quality apps and integrate them into the existing curriculum, I believe that we might just change the face of education. 

photo credit: aperturismo via photopin cc

That's What Friends are For?

Don't let the title of this post fool you. I won't be tossing out nuggets of relational wisdom or penning a scathing commentary of one of my friends. See, this year has been an eye-opener for me. I learned that corporations are actually "people" and today, on my way to work, I learned that TV shows can be your friends. Ok, so the actual quote from Danielle Mullin, a marketing executive for ABC Family, is:

"We act like a friend to our fans," she says. "And friends don't only talk to you between nine and five. And friends don't use a corporate tone of voice when they talk to you. So they actually do think they're speaking to their friend. And that's really an incredible opportunity for marketers."

Part of the ABC Family story on NPR centered around the show Pretty Little Liars which is aimed at females aged 12-34. Many of them in our classes. That really struck me. The idea that teams of people devoted to marketing a TV show are out there "acting" like friends to our students is disturbing. There is an enormous marketing machine operating 24/7 on information about our kids. I believe its goal is not only to change their purchasing habits, but also to change who our kids are fundamentally. The marketing machine wants to create good consumers, not necessarily good citizens. 

I am a child of the 70's and spent A LOT of time parked in front of the TV (I know, shocking - a tech guy who didn't get out much as a child) and ingested a massive amount of kid-centric marketing. However, I was never under the impression that I could build a relationship with characters on a TV show. 

Well, there was that one time I thought I would marry Josie, 

from TV's Josie and the Pussycats, but I was like, five. 

The point is that kids today are at an unfair advantage. Media marketers are using our kids' desire for relationship to manipulate them, but who is explaining this to the kids? We focus so much on internet safety, but with the sheer volume and complexity of media messages kids are dealing with these days, I really believe we have to beyond safety and teach them how to manage media. How does your school or district handle this? Is there a media literacy program in place?