Vexing or controversial issue aside, the Keynote Speaker at the opening ceremony of the 25th Biennial Caribbean Association of Principals of Secondary Schools (CAPSS) Conference, Dr. Francis Severin, opines that Information Technology and social media as part of the learning environment needs to be institutionalized but in a controlled manner.
Dr. Severin, who is also the Principal of Open Campus sites at the University of the West Indies said it is “the basic and irreversible fact is that we can no longer run away for the reality of IT’s impact on education and the learning environment…if we attempt to, the world will leave us behind and at any rate your students will not accept it.”
“The use of social media in the classroom has for a long time been a vexing and controversial issue. Many parents as well as educational leaders have expressed much trepidation and consolation at its prospect,” he noted. “We know of the infamous cellphones and smart phones being banned from classrooms and schools and the simultaneous blocking of several popular social media websites. In my opinion these measures have only made the student’s resistance stronger. The truth is students would be using social media so we might as well institutionalize their use in a controlled environment.”
“To do otherwise is to be naïve,” he added, saying that as leaders, teachers must demonstrate to their schools and their society, “the positive educational uses of social media.”
He said one way to begin is to train students in social media literacy and encourage students to use it in the exchange of ideas and for scholarly conversations.
Meantime Minister for Education, Petter Saint Jean, said while it is true, that technology has enhanced students’ ability, it provides an added burden to schools when learning is administered.
“It also allows a minefield of hazards for learners,” he stated. “The mobility for learning has made students much more vulnerable and consequently, requires a much greater degree of adult supervision which extends way beyond the school’s walls.”
He continued, “This evolving learning environment has necessitated greater efforts by the educator in ensuring adequate provisions for pastoral care and behavior modification techniques as students are more exposed to social challenges within their classrooms and indeed within their communities. This has placed an added burden on the education system since in addition to educating students, schools now have an assumed an added role of law enforcement and rehabilitation. Consequently an aggressive and proactive pastoral care interventions are required as part of the normal functioning of schools.”
Representatives from the Bahamas, Jamaica, Barbados, Belize, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos and Dominica are taking part in the conference and it is being held under the theme: Making the principal’s, leadership relevant in Supporting the rapidly evolving learning environment .
PASTORAL CARE, is the ministry of care and counseling provided by PASTORS, CHAPLAINS AND RELIGIOUS LEADERS to members of their church or congregation, or to anyone within institutional settings with a focus on healing, reconciling, guiding sustaining
I have witnessed and reprimanded students for using social media during lectures and even during exams, which I tried to control. Even if you aggressively invigilate the exam, some of them would conceal their cell phones, send photos of answers to each other and even seek answers from the internet, including plagiarizing. This practice does not engender thought, critical and analytical thinking and hard work. While students should be encouraged to use social media to access information and to use it critically, they ought not to have unfettered access to the use of the technology that would stymie their development as they move on to tertiary level.
Social media to learn what nuh?
Must be learning how to become more narcissistic by taking more and more irrelevant selfies of the mundane and repetitious things in one’s life which apparently are just too important for the world to miss out on.
Steuuupppssss.
what about these young men who made the app Dominican are the worst set of people other countries are adoring this dudes whilst you guys criticizing bah boy
While I am not averse to the use of technology in the classroom, I am calling for proper control.It is well known that students are demanding their way for unfettered use of their gadgets/technological devices. We need principals who are in charge, otherwise, teachers will have a real stressful time .
but if u talk against dem fellas on social media they sending virus at your system
Understand one thing. Education is only one of many “systems’ within the larger System. The purpose of the System is to perform unconscious indoctrination and conformance. In other words, it makes you a slave without you even being aware that you are a slave. Think about it.
Finally someone gets it….