“In less than five years, we can expect it to be a requirement for all teachers to have a Web site… Communicating online with teenagers will be as important as face-to-face conversations and in many cases the preferred form of contact.” (p. 78, 2007 Philip)

Adolescents seek excitement, novelty and risk. Computer technology caters for adolescents’ needs, and I agree that it engages students, facilitates learning process, elicits interactions among students and teachers, and provides many benefits for adolescents. However, I wonder how teachers and parents make sure the adolescents could make good use of it, considering the “self-control” of adolescents. Here is a story in my previous worked school in China. My principal set a rule that teachers should not assign homework that involves using computer or cellphone out of class. If students need to use computers, they could use the school’s computers. The principal made such a cruel rule because he found that when students used computers for study purpose, they wasted so much time browsing social media and shopping websites, watching videos and playing computer games without knowing that hours had passed. He also found that because of having the “good reason” to access to computers, some boys stayed up till dawn playing computer games and came to school exhausted. I can’t say it is a reasonable rule, but it did work especially in China where secondary school education is almost totally test-centered.

Actually, rules like this are not random in China. Some senior students in high schools are not allowed to use cell phones after school by their parents. However, there is no doubt that such harsh rules have many negative impacts on adolescents’ development. For example, teenagers may become rebellious towards these kinds of school and parental authority. Thus, as Dobbs suggests, parents and teachers can guide the teens “with a light but steady hand, staying connected but allowing independence.” I wonder how teachers and parents could find the balance.