Scott McLeod's post, Cell phone cameras in the K-12 classroom: Punishable offenses or student-citizen journalism? on LeaderTalk is well worth spending some time reading, viewing and contemplating. On the post he has embedded seven videos taken covertly by students in classrooms when teachers are, to put it mildly, behaving badly. Scott poses the questions:

Do we want students bringing to public attention these types of classroom incidents? Should students be punished or applauded for filming and posting these?

These are great questions. While plenty of Scott's readers felt otherwise (read the comments!), my first thought was that this just may be the 21st century equivalent of muckraking. Upton Sinclair cleaned up the meat packing industry with the publication of The Jungle in the early 20th century. Is this the classroom's version of The Jungle? Might such citizen journalism result in educational reform?

(And no, I am not so naive to think these students are consciously emulating Ida Tarbell. My guess is that they are just being little buttheads. I see any positive fallout as being more in the realm of unintended consequences.)

However, as a result of enough student-produced hard evidence of teacher incompetence, might we see:

• Anger management classes for teachers who need it?
• An increased emphasis in staff development on creating engaging classrooms and using better classroom management techniques?
  
• Alternative placements for students who are chronically disruptive or non-productive? (Let's let the cameras roll on the other students too.)
  
• More empowered principals who can remove or take steps to improve incompetent teachers?
  

My thoughts on this are colored by some very personal considerations:

1. As a student, I got more than one teacher and administrator to lose his/her cool. And thought it was pretty funny watching some old person turn red and bellow.
   
2. As a young teacher, I had classroom moments similar to what I saw in these videos when the kids got to me. (It's tough to look in the mirror at times.) I needed and should have received help in keeping this from happening. I still feel I need to offer apologies to those poor students I had in my classes early in my teaching career.
3. I do NOT want my grandsons experiencing moments in the classroom like those shown in the videos.

Yes, students have been driving teachers nuts and teachers have been losing their cool since... well, probably since there have been students and teachers. But are we now ready to actually DO something about it?

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In terms of the issues raised about teacher privacy rights: I am guessing the meat packing plants, insane asylums and other targets of the 20th century muckrakers all shouted "This is private!" as well. I think one could argue that classrooms are public, not private spaces. (We put cameras on school buses, yes?)  I would hope students take any evidence of teacher malfeasance to their parents and principals first,  and use YouTube only as a last resort for publicizing - and ending - the problem.

Engage: to hold the attention of : to induce to participate

Entertain: to provide entertainment [amusement or diversion provided especially by performers] m-w.com

It's a fallacy to believe today's students are unhappy unless they are entertained.

In Tuesday night's PBS show, Growing Up Online* (an episode of Frontline) a classroom teacher lamented that given the amount of time kids are spending on line that they now need to be entertained if you want their attention. It's not an uncommon complaint.

But I don't believe it is a valid one. The terms "entertain" and "engage" are being used synonymously. There are important distinctions. 

• Entertainment's primary purpose is to create an enjoyable experience; engagement's primary purpose is to focus attention so learning occurs.
• Entertainment is ephemeral, often frivolous; engagement creates long-lasting results and deals with important issues.
• Entertainment needs have little relevance to the the reader/watcher/listener; engagement experiences most often relate directly to the learner.
• Entertainment is an escape from problems; engagement involves solving problems.
• Entertainment results through the creativity of others; engagement asks for creativity on the part of the learner.
• Perhaps the greatest distinction is that entertain is often passive, whereas engagment is active or interactive.
  

I am not convinced that kids need constant entertainment anymore that any of us do. But they do demand, and should, learning that is engaging.

Just a few random thoughts early this morning as I finish preparing for the three workshops I am giving today at Indiana's ICE conference [today's educators are as demanding as any Net Gen student], I hope I remember the distinction myself.

Is there a difference between entertaining and engaging the learner? How do you make the distinction? 

 * I thought the Frontline program was excellent and balanced. I especially appreciated experts like Anne Collier and Danah Boyd rather than some spooky guy from the FBI. Some good parenting lessons in it as well.

With apologies to author Laura Numeroff and illustrator Felicia Bond. The LWW brought home Mouse Cookies & More: A Treasury this weekend and it started me thinking...

Give a teacher a computer

Give a teacher a computer,
    And he will want Internet access.

Give a teacher Internet access,
     And she'll most likely want an e-mail account.

Give a teacher e-mail,
    And he'll just want learning games and more computers in her classroom. And tech support.

Give a teacher learning games,
    And she'll want streaming video.

Give a teacher videos,
    And he'll insist on an LCD projector permanently mounted in his classroom (with speakers).

Give a teacher a projector,
    And she'll ask for an interactive white board (and training and time for collaboration and resources to use with it).

Give a teacher an IWB,
    Then he wants a student response system, a wireless slate, and a document camera (and more support).

Give a teacher tech,
    And then she wants all her kids to have it too. And the skills to use it well.

We'll that's the theory anyway and it holds for lots of my teachers. I always find it amazing (and even a little frustrating) that some teachers can't get enough technology in their classrooms and give their kids enough experiences using it, while other teachers still grumble at even having to use anything more complicated than an overhead projector. And I don't think it breaks down neatly along generational lines. Perhaps those who are reluctant were frightened by a vacuum cleaner as small children.

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As an aside, this comes from a travel advice column in this morning's Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper when the author comments on the actions taken by a person whose hotel reservations were lost:

I think you handled this grievance pretty well. Call the hotel was an excellent idea, and so was following up with Expedia. But you should have pinged Hyatt again...

Pinged?  First time I've seen this geeky word move from technical to general use. According to WIkipedia, the fellow who wrote the first Ping program back in '83 took the term from the sound sonar makes and only later was the acronym "Packet InterNet Grouper" devised. More than you wanted to know, I'm sure.

If you'll excuse me, I think I'll get the telephone and go ping my kids...