As much as I feel connected with the latest developments in the ed tech world, there is much that passes under my radar. I can’t understand how I missed the The National School Boards Association’s report Creating & Connecting//Research and Guidelines on Social—and Educational—Networking which was released in July, 2007. There is much we can learn from this survey of students, parents and school district leaders.
Almost 60 percent of students who use social networking talk about education topics online and, surprisingly, more than 50 percent talk specifically about schoolwork.
This means that the majority of our students are already using the Internet as a social communication tool. What we need to do is take this activity and carve out the school niche. If there is a student conversation about school assignments and projects wouldn’t it help to have a teacher’s voice added to the mix? I’m not suggesting that we storm Myspace and facebook, that’s not our place. But if we create a school-wide social network, designed for school work, infuse it with energy of active student and teacher participation, we will create an active learning community of untold benefits. The merchandisers and marketers are already taking advantage of the Webkinz revolution, why shouldn’t we?
I can’t come up with a reason why we shouldn’t, though I see many reasons as why we aren’t. Focused, directed and informed administrative support is the first necessary ingredient. Active teacher participation are modeling are the second necessary ingredient. School-wide social network learning environments will not spontaneously generate in the same manner as Myspace and facebook. The raw material of adolescent gossip, banter and bravado easily scale to those environments. This study has shown us that schoolwork just gets caught up in that stream. We need to find a way to take that conversation about learning out of the flotsam and jetsam of social networks and give it the respect it deserves.
60% of schools prohibit the sending and receiving email in school
How many working parents and business leaders know how the misuse of email in the form of poor writing, nonexistent “subject” references and “respond to all”s are harming the economy? These school districts, guilty of gross negligence, have decided that their fears of discipline issues regarding email are insurmountable. Who do they think will teach children how to use email?
Do I need to hunt down the statistic that proves the ubiquitous nature of e-mail in the modern workplace? Why are we still having this conversation?
Students and parents report fewer recent or current problems, such as cyberstalking, cyberbullying and unwelcome personal encounters, than school fears and policies seem to imply.
Take a look at the survey result details that support this assertion and you will find more and more evidence of a disconnect between the fears and the reality of online safety. It has much less to do with the distinct and unique qualities of the Internet and much more to do with irrational fears. It’s like the difference between the fear of flying and the fear of driving. The mathematical probability of injury does not match the level of concern.
However, just like flying, a school district only needs one accident and aggressive lawyers to suffer overwhelming harm.
This does not mean however, that school districts should be excused for insisting on a restricted, blocked, and antiseptic learning environment. What it means is that teachers, administrators and decision makers have to participate in these social networks to they know how they work.
While a significant percentage of educators require their students to use the Internet for homework, school policies indicate that many are not yet convinced about the value of social networking as a useful educational tool or even as an effective communications tool. This may indicate that their experience with social networking is limited.
I’m convinced that anyone who creates their own learning/working environment online will discover its overwhelming advantages. An expanding library of bookmarks, collaboration with a network of professional colleagues, and the daily reading of a personal RSS newspaper make a better informed, better skilled and more effective educator. Any educator who immerses themselves in that world will work to move students into that world as well. I’ve never known of anyone who has not.
Students have already moved into that world socially, we now have to show them how to use that world academically and professionally.
Excellent addition to the discussion on Internet Safety, School Policies and Fear. You sum up the argument very well in my opinion. The problem is that our entire country lives in a sense of fear. The discussions you have go further in regard to many social issues. We live in a very fearful society!
I am still dumbfounded and outraged that I can’t get my students to use email for school work. Students are learning about the inappropriate aspects of the web on their own time irregardless of their education.
The biggest misconception I find myself fighting is that kids are “Tech Savvy”. Students are not “educationally ‘Tech’ Savvy”!
Great stuff… look forward to following your work further!
Thanks Scott. I may have to eat my complaints about student blogging if there are still teachers who can’t even use e-mail.
I’m preparing a tech symposium for our district and came up with a way to approach the security issue.
In our school of about 780 students, there may be as many as 100,000 separate student to student conversations in the building every day. What is the percentage actually heard by teachers? Maybe 5%.
Of all the e-mail in our system (FirstClass) that is sent between students and between teachers and students, what is the percentage that could be “heard” by the teachers? 100%
Student activity in a school network is more safe and monitored than their activity in the building. And those who want to keep networks closed because of inappropriate student activity should get themselves into the hallways and listen to what goes on there too.
I included your article in the Active Learning Blog Carnival available after Jan 12th at http://activelearningcarnival.blogspot.com/
I agree w/ all that you said and your comments really hit home. I have been extremely frustrated at our school b/c kids can’t even email an assignment they are working on back and forth btwn home and school. It’s one or the other – they can’t work on the same assignment in both places.
True, do students take advantage of time in the computer labs and do I catch students pulling up ESPN to find the score of last night’s game? Yes – can I deal w/ monitoring my own students, give them a minute to find the score and then get them back on track myself…yes. Do I need a school policy that blocks numerous websites – sometimes some that I want to go to to use in the classroom? No. I agree there has to be some form of security in the school, just as there should be at home, but it shouldn’t be as restrictive as I’ve had to deal w/.
I really liked your last statement re: “…we now have to show them how to use that world academically and professionally.” High school students are 4 years max away from entering college where they may need to rely on student chats for discussions, to evaluate the credibility of a variety of different types of websites, etc. They need to tailor those skills during their high school years under the guidance of teachers educated in these areas, not teachers and administrators who are afraid of the technology and whose answer is to simply restrict everything.
Thanks Shari. Those students will be tempted to catch up on their sports at the workplace also, do you think employers will be as forgiving as us? Should we ignore the temptation that will all face, (spending hours and hours flipping through the internet to discover all the really neat stuff, like the pictures at EnglishRussia for an AP Euro lesson on Russia) or train them how to still be productive?
Over the weekend, I got a chance to look at some of my boys’ homework (2nd and 3rd graders) and both of them have a “parts of a letter” lesson. Why not teach them how to crank start a Model T for goodness’ sakes?
Who is going to teach them “parts of an email? If you did get more email from your students you would marvel at how many just put “Hi!” in the subject line.
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