Sunday, April 6, 2014

Too Much Work?

Some time last week I woke to NPR news like I do every day and listened to a report about Germany.  The report informed me in my half-awake state that Germany is prohibiting managers from emailing or calling staff members after work hours.  The report continued to inform me that the reason was stress.  Workers felt compelled to check the messages, respond and continue to "work" even when they were at home.  The report also said England was also thinking of adopting this policy.

This made me think about the commercial played during or around the super bowl.  This commercial (for Caddilac, I believe) boasted about America's push for more productivity, forgoing relaxation or vacation so we could claim that we were more innovative and hard working than the rest of the world.

This, naturally, led me to reflect on education and how "connected" we've become and what that means for our lives and the way we approach the education of our children.  We have some amazing ways to be connected and stay connected.  The question that has been popping into my head since I heard the report is this:

Are we expecting our children to remain connected in the same way as we're connected to our jobs?

Personally, I check my email every time the phone dings at me.  Often I respond to or "switch" into work mode at all hours of the day.  I don't really think of it any more as working after hours, I rather have evolved into this as part of my life.

As I've worn Glass for the past month I guess I've been failing to think of this aspect of Glass.  We've got 1:1 and BYOD initiatives in place not only at NPSD but in schools around the country.  This is not only giving our students access to technology and resources, but it's also giving them a connection at just about any time of the day.  Would the inclusion of Glass add to the stress already present or provide a tool to allow less restrictive access?  Another question I don't have the answer to, but one definitely worth thinking about.

Tomorrow I turn Glass over to the sciences.  I'm excited and curious to see what direction it takes as an in-class teaching tool.  I know Ann will have wonderful activities and provide outstanding observations.

This weekend I went to a fundraising banquet at a casino.  I chose to leave Glass at home but I talked with some of the other guests and as soon as they realized what I was talking about the idea of privacy came up again.  Most of them felt Glass would be a deceptive way to take pictures or record video.  Granted, it was an older crowd, but the sentiment was universal.  If we get to the point where we allow a device like Glass to be part of education, or at least when students start bringing any kind of wearable technology into the building I'm sure there will be discussions that are similar.

If we have one person in the school who doesn't want to be filmed will we ban the device altogether?  Will Google ban under 18 from having it?

I'm going to predict Glass will provide the world with the next evolution in privacy expectations.  Most people I know already take picture after picture with their phones and post them in some public forum.

Tomorrow I'm going to try and make a page attached to NPSD Glass where I can blog about issues related to technology in education.  I will try my best to make these connected to Glass but I already think some of it will stray a little into other types of technology and education.

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