Waiting for Extinction

Something happened at a summer trainging session yesterday. I was in a classroom with other teachers, and I heard a senior high English teacher say, "I don't let students use the internet in my classroom."

We have to wait for the dinosaurs to retire because we aren't going to change their minds. 

Really, is this still happening? The same teacher rationalized her approach by accusing students of cheating when they have open-access. Through the same fear of cheating the students in this particular classroom could not take their written work home because then they could get help from their parents. 

There are, of course, several problems with this rationale. 1) What you call cheating, I call collaboration. If students or parents or tutors are helping other people write then learning is taking place, and the student is becoming a better writer. 2) How does one have an authentic audience if everything is written on paper for the teacher's eyes only? 3) No internet allowed in my classroom?!? serious... Do I even have to comment.

If one classroom like this exists in an Alberta high school I would guarantee that more classrooms like this exist. Education is barely even the same in my classroom and a classroom where, "the internet isn't allowed."