Post #6: Opening Up Social Networks

First, a personal note about this blog.  In addition to the reading references, I interviewed a high school technology teacher and student (my son Kevin).  They both deal with this issue every day and I found their perspective a valuable addition to my comments.

I am great believer in personal responsibility, and I’m not a controlling type of person.  I do not believe in restricting internet content.  However, when it comes to children and classrooms, the rules are a bit different.  We have an obligation to keep certain types of information and images out of the classroom.  For example, I don’t think anyone would argue against restricting adult sexual material.  I see the problem being the level of restriction.  Too many good educational sites are blocked in schools.  Getting them unblocked is a procedure that is often too much of a burden for teachers (Mower).  So the sites continue to be blocked.

All of the schools in my area use content filtering software.  But it’s of little use. And all the students know how to bypass it using proxy servers (Asciutto, K.).  The net effect is that there is no filtering.  Young people, just like adults, find ways around obstacles.  Young people also have a way of policing themselves.  The overwhelming majority of them do no visit inappropriate web sites in school (Asciutto, K.).

I believe schools should be less restrictive and open the walled gardens including MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.  The global reach of the internet offers our students a chance to become global communicators, to learn and interact with people in other parts of the world.  Our technology can enhance global learning by building relationships between students and teachers from different parts of the world (Reed).  Digital storybooks and digital storytelling are good examples of students exchanging information about themselves (Reed).  They can visually share information about when they live and their culture.

Another example is microblogging.  That is the ability to exchange short text or graphics within a restricted group.  Most students are familiar with sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. Microblogging also offers a more personalized experience for the students (Picardo).  They can get individualized attention, feedback and support beyond regular school hours (Picardo).  It offers students and teachers greater flexibility on managing their personal time.

References:
Reed, Julene Global Collaboration and Learning
http://www.edtechmag.com/k12/events/updates/global-collaboration-and-learning.html 

Picardo, J. Microblogging: makng the case for social networking
http://www.boxoftricks.net/?p=1727

Personal Interviews:
Mower, Veronica; Technology Teacher, JFK High School, Paterson, New Jersey

Asciutto, Kevin; Sophmore, Hackettstown High School, Hackettstown, New Jersey