For the past four years, Apple has been my biggest competitor in teaching. Steve Jobs nearly destroyed me with all his gadgets. The iPhone and iPad are the class clown, the smart alec, and the child with attention deficit disorder all rolled into one.
When I first started teaching essay-writing at an after-school centre in 2005, my biggest competitor for students' attention was apathy. Bored and aloof, my students would trudge into class, annoyed that they had to go to additional 'school' after school. But as they listened to me, they started sitting up straighter. Their eyes got wider. They started getting into it. For some, it took 45 minutes. For others, three lessons. But, gradually, I won over my students. As it turns out, apathy, even in the most apathetic of children, was just no match for great teaching.
Then the iPhone came along. Students started pouring into my class with thumbs on screens, plugs in ears. The iPhone, with its countless apps, attractive graphics and web capabilities, meant that when students came to my class, I was no longer the main point of their attention. Rather, I was a point. So were Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and a million other apps and sites all a quick tap and swipe away.
At first, I was angry. I tried to ban the devices. I told students that if I saw them using their iPhone in class, the phone's mine. I racked up five in two days, and a lot of guilt.
I started doubting myself. Maybe I should just let the iPhone win. If children want to update their wall or tweet about their sandwich, who was I to stop them? So I gave the children back their phones and focused on doing what I do best - teaching.
And then, the unthinkable happened. The iPhone forced me to be a better teacher. Having a dozen iPhones in the room meant that the minute I opened my mouth, my students would google what I'd just said. So my facts had better be right. I also had to prove that learning is still the ultimate 'entertainment', which meant I had to be as informative as the TED Talk app and as funny as the YouTube app. I don't have an app. I am the app.