No, I’m not talking about swordplay. I’ve been thinking often recently about two contradictory forces that are affecting our decisions in the world of technology.
FORCE 1: Expansion
The principle of web 2.0 is open communication. It is hoped that these tools can help move us and our students from passive consumers to active participants and content producers. The insular world of the office or classroom is passing and giving way to open models of digital communication.
As teachers we want to engage students in this brave new world. A class is not limited to rooms of desks for five hours a week. More than any time in history, education is available any time and any place. I’m hearing exciting examples here and elsewhere of teachers conducting on-line discussions, encouraging student blogging, and even having students use tools like Twitter and instant messaging. Some of these efforts are amazing. Some are poorly devised and unsuccessful. But all of them are important steps in expanding the definition and realities of education.
FORCE 2: PROTECTION
Just as we have never had so many tools for communicating with students, we have never been as concerned with safety and liability. The actions of the irresponsible and reprehensible have made schools and teachers rightly obsessed with safety and liability. This force takes several forms including sheltering students from age inappropriate materials and giving them tools to avoid cyber-bullying. However, it also relates to communication in social media. When I hear about exciting examples of teachers using these tools, my teacher enthusiasm is always tempered by my administrator sense that this is a potential liability for the teacher and the school.
I’m not sure what the answer is to this. I know that we can build some of these tools into our own servers so we will have greater oversight and teachers and students more protection. But I’m not completely sure whether we do students good or harm by building up walled gardens when they will be spending their lives in a wilderness.
A student learning how to drive a car may spend a very short time working on a training course, but as soon as the basics are mastered, the student has to navigate city streets and freeways. The reason for this is not that we want to put students at risk, but because there is no point in navigating a protected course…it’s not where they are going to drive. Similarly, while we need to teach students skills and safety before they go out on the digital highway, this is going to be where they drive….uh, surf.
I welcome your comments.
Perhaps I am being overly cynical but what are our concerns about safety when students are working on the internet? If they are being cyber-bullied or people are preying on them, how are they at risk in any different way while doing school-related work (especially in High School) than when they are at home on MySpace or Facebook? Of course, if they were being introduced to the Internet by us at MDHS first, we might need to teach them more about how to be safe out there but (to extend the metaphor to the breaking point) I think that we are just getting drivers who have had their licenses for the last 4 to 8 years and are now in their 20s driving (perhaps on longer trips than before?).
I think that I may have mashed up two different types of concern.
I don’t claim that we have responsibility for students’ online activities outside of school time beyond our care for them as persons. I do see this concern as a challenge that we are facing and one that can cause some parents and teachers to take a “the Internet is bad…period” stance.
We do drift into responsibility when we assign a student to participate in a social medium. A teacher who sets up a site for class discussions has responsibility for what is said and the behavior of all involved, the same as in a classroom.
From a school perspective (and I am not talking as a lawyer here, just “logic-ing” it out) activities in the classroom are the school’s responsibility. Recognizing that absolute vigilance (read omniscience) is impossible, there is an expectation of reasonable monitoring and awareness of what is going on. Because of this, a teacher would not be allowed to meet with his or her students at a restaurant or at a home because reasonable monitoring could not take place. In the same way, communication between teacher and students on a non-school website without the possibility of administrative oversight has the potential of creating liability for teacher and school.
This was (I think) the real dilemma that I was examining…even if I muddled it a bit.
I agree completely with your extension of the driver metaphor. I was speaking globally there, not suggesting that high school students are new to this. I do think that there are age levels that can learn better in this sheltered environment, but this is more important for younger students.
I agree with your ideas of Web 2.0 (or what remains of it) as being a good resource. I see tons of potential in the use of netbooks and wikis. I’m also an excellent (or poor, seeing as how you look at it) example of a student who blogs (http://alexguichet.com) and twitters (http://twitter.com/cptcobalt). I do, however, think that students blogging and twittering will not be a good school resource.
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For example, on twitter, your updates are limited to 140 characters. Here are a few example tweets I expect students to make: (the @name here is twitter’s own reply format)
1)”@gdhuyvetter Do students have spirit dress today”
2) “@cptcobalt Can you help me with #4 on tonight’s math homework?”
Now things like this, by virtue, are good at first glance. But look and see how this can go wrong:
1) No school administrator would want to be pummeled with hundreds of messages like this. This explains itself.
2) Now this is the tricky one. At first glance, this is clearly a good use of the twitter service. But messages are limited to 140 characters. And that even counts for any reply statements or #materdei voodoo we may have. So in reality, we’re limited to 120-130 characters. Lets try to answer the question in that same 120 characters:
@twitter To solve number 4, first try multiplying both sides of the equation by three. This will leave you with 4x = 120. Now divide both sides by 4. This will give you your answer.
FAIL. Now that was an excellent use of the service, but it had 181 characters, 41 too many. I’m pretty sure students will feel discouraged or impacted by this limit (I know I would) and simply just send the answer.
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I think class blogs (read: not only one student) and wikis would be an excellent resource. For example, in Mrs. Rydjeski’s Junior British Literature class (blk3), we have a review tool called “The Log”. The log is our way, that if we have missed a day of school, to go back and look at that day’s notes. A student does the log, and if the log is up to par, Mrs. Rydjeski will grant pardon on one unpreparedness point. This encourages students to not only do the work, but also do a fine job of it too. You can go into her class, open up the binder that contains the log, and easily see what EXACTLY we did that day in class.
This would be a much better tool to have online on a wiki. For example, anyone in class that day can contribute articles and info to the wiki. If we talk about a kenning (running joke) in a class, a student can show what page and line we found the kenning on in the kennings page of the wiki. And at the end of the semester, Mrs. Rydjeski (or any teacher) can go through and view the entries or revisions students have made, and then distribute points or other prizes for it.
It is, without argument, the best way to “upgrade” a daily log or to take notes in class.
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But you do bring up a good point. You cannot, in good thought, implement any of this without being absolutely sure your students are safe.
MySpace and Facebook are definitely out of the question. The messages and conversations exchanged on there are private and unreadable for anyone except the intended recipient. You have no idea to track what a teacher or student may be doing.
Twitter is slightly better on this regard because all messages are public. You CAN protect your updates, but there is no way to selectively distribute updates to any one person. Even the @replies are viewable.
But a blog or wiki blows everything else out of the water. All of the edits can be seen by everyone. You can easily track the joker student who blanks a page and replaces it with an inappropriate word (a la wikipedia) and give him the proper consequences. Nothing can be hidden from a blog or wiki.
And ironically enough, blogs and wikis, which have to be school sponsored (to an extent) are definitely the safest to use.
These are just my thoughts based on my “enlightened” student point of view.
Alex Guichet
Grade 11