Bill MacKenty

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Facebook in class isn’t the problem

Posted in Educational Tech on 14 - January 2011 at 04:31 AM (13 years ago). 130 views.

Not quite sure how I can be more clear here.

If kids are spending to much time during class mucking about with facebook, it is not a problem with facebook. It’s a problem with classroom management. If a teacher is allowing kids to “do whatever they want” during class, then they will!

Block Facebook, they will play games
Block games, they will surf the web
Block the web, they will play solitaire
Block solitaire, they will play with paint
Block paint, they will draw ascii pictures in notepad
...ad nauseum…

When I was in 8th grade (16 years old) I devoted roughly 80% of my in-class time to drawing pictures of space battles and writing stories about World War 2. I also enjoyed designing futuristic cities - all with a pencil and paper. Happy my teacher didn’t take that away….