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Teaching responsible cell phone use could prepare students for the future

“I think we have so gotten beyond banning that we ought to be talking about ethical use of technology, not blocking technology,” Superintendent Will Schofield said.

In the UK the changes in equipment provision is already happening, and in the US it's going to follow really soon: the image of students locked to their laptops could change to a more human image of students talking to each other face-to-face, and using their mobile phones for research, reference and recording.

“They’re preparing us for the real world — not a place where you’re not allowed to use anything.”

A special advisory group is expected to propose a new blueprint by February, based on such input as a tough-talking missive from the Toronto District School Board that called the curriculum "a series of overly robust subject-based documents which are disconnected, overwhelming and full of content reflective of 20th century knowledge. "The curriculum does not engage students within their own realities, nor does it integrate the skills society hopes to see in a 21st-century learner," said the recent submission by a group of principals, teachers, superintendents and trustees.

Karen Grose, the board's system superintendent, said it no longer makes sense to try to cram piles of facts into young minds.

Our kids live in a world where they are immersed in content through things like Twitter and Google, so we don't want them memorizing facts they can access easily, but we want them to think about how to apply that knowledge, and how it affects how they live as citizens and workers," said Grose