I remain bemused (saddened? not surprised?) by stories in which schools actively reject new technologies on spurious premises. Why can't they see the value of these new tools? Why is there such a lack of creativity?
This week's tale of bureaucracy comes from a colleague of mine in the special education legal world. One of her clients is a 10th grader with auditory processing dysfunctions. On the recommendation of a neuropsych, his parents bought him a LiveScribe pen and he brought it to school to assist with notetaking and reviewing the lectures later on at home. (This, by the way, is precisely one of the ways that the LiveScribe pen is SO AWESOME. This is EXACTLY in line with best practices).
The teacher, however, told him he couldn't use it because it was "illegal". Now, there is one potential legal issue at hand. Some states prohibit you from recording conversations without the other party's consent (these are "two party" states). Other states have no such restriction, and you can record away (these are "one party" states). Apparently, this kid was in a one-party state, so the teacher was flat wrong. I love how people make these things up.
Now, turn your legal brain on to the next logical question: would use of the LiveScribe pen be illegal in a two party state? After all, you'd need the other party's consent to record. Well, really, what thinking teacher would refuse consent to the student's recording? What about the other students - would schools need to get consent from each and every student, if one student wanted to record a lecture (in which the other students are presumably participating)? I would argue no. Students don't have a reasonable expectation of privacy in what they say in a classroom, vis a vis the other people in the class. Now, maybe you'd want the student doing the recording to agree to only use the recording for educational purposes, and that seems reasonable. But again, nothing about the use of the LiveScribe pen is illegal.
So, back to the example. What was the teacher's real concern? Well, maybe the teacher was nervous that if the kid recorded her lectures, his parents would find that that she really couldn't teach! Or maybe the teacher just didn't understand the potential of the LiveScribe pen to really help the student learn. I really have no idea, but this really reinforces the principles I posted about earlier. In sum, the coolest and best technologies for learning will be entirely useless if teachers don't know how to use them and if schools don't support their inclusion in the classroom.
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