Empower Students to Choose Technology
Isn’t it amazing how choice has developed in our world, particularly in the developed world? You walk into a large grocery store and you are faced with what seems like an infinite set of choices. In some ways, choice has become a bit of burden for our brains. I mean, how many types of breakfast cereal do we really need? But seriously, it is a valued aspect of our freedom – to make choices for ourselves. When our choices are limited or constrained by others in ways that don’t make sense to us, we are frustrated and disengaged. I believe this is the experience for most students in most schools most of the time when talking about using technology. Technology use is usually limited to what teachers prescribe. If and when students bring personal technology to school and class, they are usually asked to power it off and put it away. This seems rather bizarre given the limitless power digital tools exhibit. Shouldn’t we leverage all the tools at students and our disposal for consumi