This blog post is a bit different from what I have blogged in the past but this is what is on my mind this week. This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending Kevin Harts comedy show. Laughs were shared and a great time was had. What struck me was the NO CELL PHONE policy that Kevin Hart had in place. I had never seen such a thing before. No individual was allowed to use their cell phone before or during the show, unless you had an emergency. You could make the phone call in the bathroom.
The more that I looked around, in the arena, the more I realized that there were lots and lots of employees checking to make sure attendees were not using the phones. If you were caught using the phone, you were immediately escorted out and were not provided a refund.
I began to think about what might the reasons be for this policy.
- Maybe he has new content that he does not want others outside of the show to know about
- Maybe he does not want his family to know what he shares in his shows
- Maybe he does not want others to record his show
- Maybe he wants attendees to be present
Whatever the reason might be, it forced everyone who was there to just be in the moment. I am sure it was hard for some people to last 2.5 hours without checking their phone or sharing with the world what they were doing at that moment. (In fact, I know that this was the case for some since I witnessed people being escorted out.)
Anyways, I share this story for a couple of reasons. Being someone that helps deliver digital citizenship curriculum at the high school I work at, it is a reminder of how reliant and addicted some people are with the devices in their pockets or pursues. It is also a reminder that all individuals should be asked as to whether or not their pictures can be taken and posted. In our district, parents are asked at the beginning of the year whether or not pictures of their son/daughter can be taken. This way, when staff want to be able to share the learning that is going on in the classroom, they have an opportunity to do just that. In the moment of actually taking the picture, going one more step further and saying to the students, do you mind if your picture is taken for the ______, is just as important (even though parents say it is ok). By doing this, students are in the know of the pictures being posted and won’t be surprised at a later date when checking social media.
This blog post by no means is discourage people from documenting learning that is happening in the classroom with students. Just a reminder of importance of making sure people are ok with their picture being out there.
And that is my Spiel…
Craig M Sheil 