Wifi in the World!

     Now the WIFI had been treating me well, attendance, emails, basic research, I was impressed.  However the true test was when my students discovered the unlocked WIFI.  This discovery happened about 8 seconds after they arrived in the room on the first morning the WIFI was operational.

     I estimated that approximately 50% of my students had access to some sort of wireless device that they regularly brought to class.  So I planned a lesson where about 50% of students would need to do some in class research.  It was not necessary, and if unable to get online they would not suffer academically but I wanted to see where two of my English 10 classes sat in regards to wireless handheld devices.

     Students were divided into groups of 2 (the partner they were sitting with) and were given a poetic form (Epic, Haiku, Balled, etc.).  While a basic definition was provided to all students, the assignment was that they were instructed to ‘teach’ the rest of the class about their assigned form.  This meant coming up with a correct definition, creating or borrowing a correctly cited source from online, and explaining the purpose of their poetic form.  While all of this could be done without the internet, some types were more challenging and the internet was a welcome resource.  My estimate that 50% had wireless access was pretty accurate, and the group presentations went off without a hitch.

     However I am getting ahead of myself.  I think the most startling moment was when I told the students to look up the information online.  There was a visible pause where they all just sort of looked at me, unsure if they were truly supposed to take their devices out or not.  Even when walking around checking on the progress of the various groups it was funny and a little troubling to see that they still operated their wireless devices from a lowered position under the tables, where they are used to trying to covertly access information. 

     What I really liked about this lesson was the exposure students received to various types of poems, especially the famous examples, and the fact that I saw numerous groups lending wireless devices to other groups to check a definition, or look for a source. 

     Overall the WIFI proved to me on this day that it was an invaluable tool, with a much broader reach than simply doing attendance.