The papers are full of the story about how a group of parents in Simcoe County in Ontario is taking their school board to task for using Wi-Fi internet connections. I am sure that all Ontario school boards are or will be facing a challenge about the safety of Wi-Fi in schools. I blogged recently about how I think great it is that Wi-Fi was being used in this school and how proactive I think the school is in setting an example. Any attempts to respond to students’ need to operate in a digital age is welcome. I still think that connectivity is a key element in keeping our students ready to participate in the global classroom.
If you visit safeschools.ca, the website of the parents who are complaining, you will get a completely different view. In a nutshell- Wi-Fi is making our children sick.
So there are two topics that arise from this subject. First the safety of Wi-Fi and second the ability of parents to come together, make a statement and have the world sit up and pay attention.
The debate about the safety of Wi-Fi will go on for years to come. Note the recent comment to my previous post. I don’t have the expertise to make a comment for or against using Wi-Fi in schools. I hope that it is proven wrong. I can, however, comment on the ability of parents to make a difference in their schools and how important it is for parents to have the same access to information and tools to examine and present information about schools and about students. Whether you agree or not about the Wi_Fi issue you can’t deny that people are listening.
Can you shed more light on the subject of Wi-Fi? If you are using Wi-Fi are you seeing the behaviour of your students change since you started using W-Fi connectivity? Are your students demonstrating the signs of illness?
You have to give this group credit for creating an online presence, gathering together experts on the subject and getting their message out into the media. I wonder though about at what price? Not every parent group has access to these people or resources. How best do, parents who have limited resources, share their concerns and get attention – resolution to their issues?