Digital age is testing North Jersey teachers
SUNDAY DECEMBER 2, 2012, 11:44 PM
BY LESLIE BRODY
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
Spend a while at Pascack Hills High School in Montvale, one of the first in New Jersey to hand every student a laptop, and you’ll likely hear a teacher tell students to “forty-five it.”
That means closing laptops halfway during a lesson — to a 45-degree angle — so they aren’t tempted to surf the Internet, check email or shop for shoes. It’s one of many techniques savvy teachers are adopting to keep the attention of a generation easily sidetracked by an unprecedented bounty of technology.
As a growing number of schools let iPads, laptops and cellphones enter the classroom, some teachers say they’re shouldering a new role as electronics police. Teachers warn constantly that abused devices will be confiscated. Some continually roam behind the back row to see who is watching what. And in a step that smacks of Big Brother, some have programs that monitor all their students’ screens at the same time, and shut off the computer of anyone goofing off.
https://www.northjersey.com/montvale/Digital_age_is_testing_North_Jersey_teachers.html
They want to embrace technology but the reality is that many (most) students will take advantage of the situation and go on social media. The “big brother” technology is needed to prevent students from focusing on the internet.
Technology is a double edged sword in the classroom.