Zoe Nailed It

Like most people, I was aghast when the discussion broke on Twitter.  I think I actually caught it when a cadre of educators from Hamilton-Wentworth were talking about the story “Ontario teachers’ union votes to ban cell phones in classrooms“.  Interestingly, the original story I read is no longer available at the source and the more gentler “Elementary teachers’ union updates electronic device policy” can now be found in its place.

As one can imagine, the original message raised a large concern among educators.  There was outrage from people who have used technology effectively in the past; there were shots directed towards the Federation leadership; and, of course, everyone with a keyboard felt the need to chime in by commenting on the article and talking about the good ol’ days or 21st Century Skills or teachers these days or kids these days.

I waited until I had confirmation from another source about the story before I got concerned.  Then, what do you do these days?  Write a blog post, of course!  In the middle of writing something, there were still thoughts and ideas flowing through – even from teachers who had been at the meeting itself.  Then, in a post from Andrew Campbell he shared the entire motion.

@acampbell99: CBC is ‘interpreting’ a lot with the#ETFO “Cell Phone Ban”. Here’s the actual resolution #OntEd pic.twitter.com/D9361azcrv

Within the resolution is a great deal of common sense – including putting the onus on school boards to develop policy.

So, I had the blog work in process – how to wrap it together?  If nothing else, it’s another great exercise in media literacy, truth in reporting, more than one side to a story…

But Zoe Branigan-Pipe beat me to it.  In an extremely detailed, passionate post, she takes on the issue and absolutely nails it.  There’s no way that I could ever match her passion for what she does.  It will definitely be in this week’s “This Week in Ontario Edublogs” but it’s too good not to share right now.

Please take a read.  Well done, Zoe.

I know that a lot of great technology using educators are right with you.

Related articles, courtesy of Zemanta:

• Ontario Teachers Union wants cell phones turned off in the classroom
• Ontario teachers’ union votes to ban cell phones in classrooms
• SUE-ANN LEVY – ETFO mulls election strategy
• Count on a warm and fuzzy school year: Wynne
• Hammond re-elected as president of ETFO
• High school teachers urge local boards to finalized deal
• Greater Essex Teacher Adelina Cecchin Re-elected to ETFO Executive – OurHometown.ca