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A teacher’s experiment with cellphones

I am reposting something interesting I found on Facebook. A teacher by the name of Chris Rousey (I won’t link anything for the sake of privacy) conducted a technology experiment in his classroom. I’m attaching his words below. I think this is simple and brilliant. Enough said. Enjoy.

If you don’t think cell phones are a distraction in school, please check out the experiment that I conducted with my classes. Please note that I do not allow students to use their phone in my class. They are not allowed to have them out at all. For one day only, I had my students turn the sound on for their notifications. Every time they got a notification, they had to walk to the board and put a mark on the board under the appropriate category. The pictures are the results of my 3 regular math 8 students. Each class has between 25 and 28 students. After the first class, I had to color code the chart. Black was friends in this school, orange was family, and blue was other. (Ignore Lindsey’s data, she told her dad to send her messages all thru class. She was being funny.) Overall, it was a huge eye opener for my students, staff, and parents.

Chris Rousey

Facebook Overlords

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Facebook recently unveiled a new device that takes FaceTiming to a whole new level. It’s called the Portal. And if you’ve never heard of it, the product’s premise is to have its camera follow you around as you talk on video chat. Now as an avid FaceTimer (yes I just made a verb out of that) I tend to find myself in sticky situations — sometimes literally — while on camera. I’ll be cooking, someone will ping me for a video chat, and I find myself trying not to burn my dinner on the stove and still be in the frame so I can talk properly. So I understand the need for something like this.

However, as much as it might sound great to have a hands free device while you clean, cook, exercise?, and muck about while videoing with your friends and family, I can’t help but feel totally violated by the thought of a camera following me around the room.

Yes, I understand the average person is probably recorded, spied on, or watched digitally more than we can imagine. I’m not a conspiracy lover, but when you come to terms with the amount of data (especially location services) that is on your phone — tracking your likes, dislikes, photos, and more — you can’t be naive. Think about your info; it’s not just for you anymore. But it seems as if Facebook has brought out something we see in futuristic movies that inevitably causes our downfall.

I wouldn’t mind trying out a device at least once. They run the cheapest model at $200, and the largest at $350. So I’m not running to the store as we speak. It’s an interesting, nevertheless creepy, concept that intrigues me. Maybe I’ll wait and see what private footage gets leaked on the internet in a few months before I pull out my cash.