Last week I attended the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI)’s European conference in London. The primary theme was “Every European a Digital Citizen.” There were so many interesting discussions and issues raised, such as dealing with the known masses of underage kids in social networks, the challenges raised by growth of mobile web access, and concerns of privacy. I’ve provided a link below to an excellent summary by Tia Fisher. The keynote was provided by the always challenging and effervescent Dr. Tanya Byron. During her brief remarks and later, during a panel discussion, Dr. Byron made it clear that she’s frustrated by school policies blocking the use of technology and allowance for kids’ mobile devices in the school environment. As Ms. Fisher summarized in a microblogging post, “Give. kids. technology. In. Schools.”
(L-R: Dr. Tanya Byron, me Stephen Balkam of FOSI)
Currently most schools limit or block the use of cell phones and web access at school. News stories about sexting describe the rights of schools to “frisk” kids or search backpacks for contraband phones. When your children sit in the computer room or use their laptops at school, they are bound by school filters and blocked from most social media sites. The big concern a few years ago was that kids would access inappropriate material and kids would be corrupted, or the learning environment harmed. A few years went by and then schools had to contend with the eruption of online cruelty, sometimes in the form of embarrassing photos and videos of students, teachers and administrators. The cry went out to the IT departments of school districts to “lock it down” to prevent such abuses. The reality is that despite these best efforts, many parents, students and teachers tell me that kids regularly know how to defeat the filters and the only ones being blocked from their online destinations are the teachers.
There are other emerging arguments about the positive and powerful use of technology in schools to enrich the educational process. Some of our younger or just more technologically savvy teachers are adopting tech in their lesson plans in creative ways. Teachers can meet together in their evening hours to discuss teaching issues and challenges via microblogging sites by using “hashtags” to find each other. You can search yourself with terms like “#edchat” or “elemchat” and see what the conversations cover. Other teachers are using wikis and live chats during the classroom hours to encourage otherwise quiet kids to participate. (See the link to a New York Times article below.) Kids who are having difficulties with a lesson can access on-line tutorials or even review the teacher’s lectures via mobile devices without delaying the rest of the class’ progress. And there are heart-warming stories of autistic children who benefit from innovative learning methodologies only made possible through the use of technology.
Social networking gets people nervous, especially the issue of whether teachers should “friend” their students. At my children’s high school some of the teachers and administrators have “friended” the kids but I should point out it is a very small school with some creative educational policies. Nevertheless when I talk to the teachers about it, there’s a very mixed feeling about whether it’s appropriate or not. The kids don’t seem to share these concerns, feeling if you don’t want to friend your teacher, just don’t do it. It’s much more typical for schools to forbid teachers and kids to be online friends. Should those policies change? There’s growing evidence of successful engagement of kids and educators in social media if done with care and use of appropriate settings to maintain privacy.
How should parents be kept in the social media school loop? Would it make you uncomfortable for your teen to chat with a teacher in a social networking page? What if it’s a group and open and visible to you and other community members?
And then as social networking groups respond to concerns of cyberbullying, some have added reporting tools that allow community leaders like teachers and other trusted adults to receive reports of abuse or bullying. Unless we allow some form of approved use of social networks like official class pages or groups, those reports will have nowhere to go but to parents. Will kids ever overcome their reluctance to report bullying to parents? Only 10% of kids are willing to trust parents in a cyberbullying situation because of concerns that parents will take their computers or internet access away.
Additional reading:
Tia Fisher of eModeration (@eModeration)’s summary of the FOSI conference.
Facebook for Educators guide for “teaching in a digital age”
Ronnie Burke’s blog with tips for educators to safely use social networks
FacingIT group – a group of online educators sharing information and advice
New York Times article on teachers and microblogging, “Speaking Up in Class, Silently, Using Social Media.”