BFTP: 8 ways to reduce device damage in 1:1 programs

As a technology user, I have over the years:

• Dropped and broken my phone's screen
• Spilled liquid on my laptop's keyboard, frying the motherboard
• Pulled cord out of a device, breaking off the connection plug
• Pushed a monitor off my desk onto the floor
• Left my computer bag on top of my car's roof, and driven off

These acts were, believe me, unintentional. The costs of these mistakes wound up coming out of my own pocket.

So I had a degree of sympathy when our students brought their Chromebooks in for repair. Stuff happens to even the most careful technology user.

Unfortunately we saw some students whose devices needed repair so often, it cast doubt on just how careful they actually were with their devices. This seemed especially true of middle schoolers who took their Chromebooks home on foot, on buses, and on bikes and into households with siblings, pets, and who knows who. These were, of course, the same middle schoolers whose prefrontal cortexes were still works in progress. Our teachers and techs were often frustrated by the chronic Chromebook destroyers - and it became increasingly difficult to give these students the benefit of the doubt when they claimed accidental damage.

Were there a magic fix to this problem, I am sure every district with a 1:1 program would be using it. To a limited degree, we found these things may have helped reduce damage in our schools...

1. Making training on proper care of the student device mandatory for all kids, every year.
2. Providing cases for devices.
3. Establishing some degree of financial responsibility to students and parents for non-accidental damage.
4. Requiring/allowing students to leave their devices at school rather than take them home (not popular with teachers whose homework requires technology use)
5. Giving older, less valuable but still functioning, Chromebooks to those who show chronic difficulties in responsible use.
6. Counseling with students, parents, and school staff when problems are endemic.
7. Keeping filtering as least restrictive as possible in hope the personal value to the student of the device will be greater if they can use it for activities other than school work. (I want my Chromebook working so I can play a game, check a sports score, engage in social media with my peers.)
8. Another strategy was discussed. What if we we try to use building culture to increase the care which technology is given? Make good technology use a building-wide effort and responsibility? Would a carrot approach help? Let's say we allocated $10,000 for computer repairs to each building and then any monies not used for repair of student devices could be used for elective technology purchases to be determined by the building.

When I taught junior high back in the dark ages, one of the teacher's favorite expressions was "You buy'm books and buy'm books, and all they do is eat the covers." Were that same teacher working today, would the expression be ""You buy'm devices and buy'm devices, and all they do is break the screens"?

I suspect this is a "wicked" problem schools will struggle with for a long time. I don't anticipate Apple or Dell or Acer coming out with a 7th-grader-proof computing product anytime soon. 

How do you improve the care and feeding of the student devices in your school?

Original post 1/4/19

BFTP: 16 memes about empathetic librarianship

In a conversation about personalize learning, I explained to a coworker why I moved from classroom teaching to librarianship. I found teaching literature and writing skills to a large and largely disinterested group of students less than satisfying. No matter how hard I tried or what methods I used, a high percentage of my 16-year-olds were simply never going to find meaning in Macbeth or 1984 or "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." (There were quite a few pieces in the anthology in which I as a 24-year-old teacher did not find much relevance either.) 

As a librarian, I did not have to find resources that resonated with large groups of kids. I only had to find one resource that meet the need of one student at one time. By getting to know each student as an individual, I could be a more effective educator. I eventually figured out how to help individual students combine their personal interests with classroom assignments. (You love horses? How about writing your history term paper on how horses were used in WWII?)

I've been thinking a lot lately about empathy and why our students need to acquire it in order to be successful. In nearly every occupation, the ability to understand the needs and concerns of others is a vital skill in order to be effective. Separating successful from unsuccessful used car salesmen, politicians, social workers, and physicians come down to being effectively empathetic? Hmmm, I wonder if that applies to librarianship as well?

As I look back on being involved in school libraries as a grad student, practitioner, supervisor, adjunct professor, and writer/consultant, the skill sets most emphasized have been hard skills - information literacy skills, technology skills, materials selection skills, ethics, program planning and evaluation, communications, and knowledge of children's and YA literature among others. But empathy? Not so much...

Ironically, perhaps the quote for which I may best remembered by future generations has empathy at its core:

I looked back some of the posters I've made and found that quite a few of them indicate that the librarian owes his/her effectiveness not to hard skills, but to soft skills...

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

 What personal memes might you add? How do you use empathy to better fulfill your mission as a librarian?

Original post 11/30/18

You owe people your opinion. Who knows? Someone might listen.

A respected colleague recently wrote in her blog:

When I’m asked if I had the vaccine or not, my answer is this:

I have stopped answering that question because it is a personal decision and no matter what my answer is, it will create controversy from one side or the other. I do not want to have any more contention in my life than I already have. Asking this question ranks right up there with asking me my political affiliation or my religious beliefs.

So, let’s talk about the weather…

I disagree, although I hope not contentiously. Whether we know it or not, many people look to us for advice and actually respect our opinions. Especially if we have a reputation for being educated, thoughtful, and open-minded ourselves.

Like the writer above, I don't like ugly diatribes over issues that have may have various legitimate points-of-view. I myself have gotten my COVID shots, but if you have not, and have a solid, well-founded reason for choosing to forgo the vaccine, I will listen. I see two sides to the abortion issue, but I believe I can make a thoughtful case for my own stance. I like to think good values, solid research, life experience, healthy skepticism, and an attempt at empathy combine to make my values defensible.

What I do not care for at all are the name-called, snide, sarcastic screeds that too often occur in social media feeds. Once a conversation starts down that path, I believe people are shouting so loudly that they cannot hear others. The worst offenders I've unfriended (not many, luckily) and others I simply know not to react to. 

But many of us - parents, educators, mentors, religious leaders, politicians, writers, friends - should be sharing our thoughts with those who, dare I say it, look to us as role models. Chances are that if you are respected for your knowledge about one area of life, you are probably respected for most of your beliefs. Share your knowledge, share your wisdom, share your conclusions. 

Especially you, Pat!