Dear Hilliard City School District Administrators,
Last year (December 4th, 2015), the officers of the Darby Computer Club issued a statement outlying our concerns about the removal of the Messages app from school issued iPads. Even though I am now a student at OSU, the arguments made in the previous letter are still valid. Below contains a updated version of the original letter addressing the newest removal of the Messages app.
Until Monday (12/5/2016), all student iPads had the capacity to send and receive iMessages, an easy to use platform for students to ask questions and receive help from their classmates. Today, students and parents received the following message:
Recently we have had an increase in students using iPads as a social tool during school. Our teachers have concerns that, at times, this interferes with students being able to concentrate on academics. Because of this, we have disabled the use of iMessaging for our students. It is our hope that our students will refocus and continue to use the iPads as an educational tool in the classroom.
The general understanding was that these iPads were designed to not only be a classroom utility, but as a networking platform for the students. One of the most important use cases of this iMessage platform was the ability for students to ask questions and receive quick help from their peers.
With the iMessage platform, students were able to receive help almost immediately after requesting it from friends and classmates, instead of waiting for an email from a potentially busy teacher. If students could help each other in class, they should be able to do the same at home.
There is an unintended consequence introduced by blocking iMessage. Students have already discovered alternative applications to continue their discussions. Sadly, many of these are already blocked by the district. The only alternative I see left for students to utilize would be Twitter, a tool the district will most likely not block or remove due to the large amount of teachers and administrator using the platform.
While I am unable to experience this new connectivity fostered by the iPads, I still hope that this policy will be reversed. By reversing this policy, we would be able to preserve this social and collaborative environment that will benefit motivated students in the years to come.
Sincerely,
Alex Shafer