Since I have shifted my news-junkie habits from print media to my computer, I find myself screen-screaming more often than is good for my health. The object of my screaming is often educators who think they are properly taking a stand against the evil encroachment of technology into the education system. For whatever reasons, Tech, and the internet specifically, cause disruption of what, according to many educators, should be a highly controlled environment.
Educators must now deal with distractions from students’ cell phones. Students are texting during class. Students are playing video games during lectures. The cyber bullying is getting out of hand. Kids can be lured from the safety of the school or home by child predators. They can even search for answers to tests on Google or Bing. An even tougher issue to deal with is the children’s ability to access porn. These are some of the problems that educators and parents need to deal with in the 21st Century. Whether real or imagined, if these problems are negatively affecting our children they need to be addressed. There is no question about their existence, only a difference in approach to the solution. As I read the text on my screen of proposals for solutions by education leaders, my dog runs from the room in fear as I expel vocal outbursts of profanity. Will these Education leaders choose to deal or not deal with the problems?
In order to address these problems, we need to understand the role of technology in the lives of children and not adults. Any of us, over 25 years of age, (I am considerably more) have had a choice about our technology involvement. The older one is, the more choice of technology involvement one has had. Children today have no such choice. Their world is all tech. They use it at home, in school, at the Library, and in the supermarket. They have been in front of a computer of some sort since before they could talk. Toy manufacturers know this and create Social Media platforms to engage children. They recognize the power of social learning. Check out Webkins or Club Penguin. For these children it is an easy transition to MySpace or Facebook. Educators have two choices. Either they acknowledge that kids are doing social networking and teach them to be appropriate and responsible online, or they can ban it from the school, ignoring to address any skills. Education must take place from the age that these kids are beginning their technology involvement. Ask what choice your school has made. I hesitate to ask for the sake of my dog again running away from the din of expletives not deleted.
Cyber Bullying is a real problem. Bullying itself has been an issue that we have always dealt with. Now however, with the use of technology, it can have devastating effects in a short period of time. This is another issue that needs to be addressed with education. Even before Columbine, we recognized the horrible effects of bullying on individuals. We cannot expect it to fix itself without someone stepping up and addressing the problem with education. The other choice is to ignore it until there is a problem and then bring in counselors and psychologists to the school to help everyone deal with the consequences.
Distractions from texting or game playing are another problem for some. This is especially an issue in Higher Ed, since many secondary schools ban laptops and cell phones. Accessing inappropriate sites is another issue. The inappropriate use of technology is a social issue that must be addressed through education. The consequences for abuse or misuse of technology must be taught to our children at an early age. Maybe after we educate them we can attend a play without needing an announcement to turn off all cell phones. People will know, because they were taught.
We do not need Acceptable Use Policies for technology. We do not have Library Use Policy, Cafeteria Use Policy or a Playground Use Policy. The misuse and abuse of technology is behavior and requires a common sense conduct policy. Any such policy will define the infractions and also the consequences of the poor decisions. Technology is not outside what we do in Education, it is a big part of what we do in education. If it is integrated, then it should not require a different set of rules to govern it. We educate and test people in driving and our laws cover traffic infractions. I do not remember agreeing to an automobile use policy.
The biggest obstacle we have in Education in regard to technology is the parent perception of child safety on the internet. I am not going to say that there is not a safety issue here. We are driven however by the high interest “gottcha” programming of nabbing internet child predators on TV. We need to educate children and parents how to safely and responsibly navigate the internet. The elephant in the room however, is the fact that if a child is going to be a victim of sexual abuse, it is most likely to come from a family member or friend, or someone they know, and not an internet predator. We all need to be educated.
If we choose to view technology in our society as a problem and not teach our children safe and responsible use, then ban technology from school. That plan will not work however, if you do not ban it from your home, and your neighbor’s home, and your other family members’ homes’ and the library. I am sure I left someone out.
Our educational leaders have a choice; Deal with the issue with education, or do not deal with it by banning it. A ban will leave the problem for others to deal with after it becomes a larger issue. In the not too distant future, when technology is a ubiquitous tool of education, people with cooler heads will look back at this time and question the leaders. “What the hell were they thinking?”
My final thought on this subject is a mystery. If schools ban and filter the Internet for “Student Safety”, what is the rationale for filtering and banning the teachers as well? Are they not responsible adults? Leaders Deal, or No Deal?
Tom,
One of my takeaways from your article was “We do not need Acceptable Use Policies for technology. We do not have Library Use Policy, Cafeteria Use Policy or a Playground Use Policy. The misuse and abuse of technology is behavior and requires a common sense conduct policy.”
I certainly agree with that. When we hear in the news that a group of students have set up an inapproariate facebook page people are quick to jump on Facebook and that being the problem. Instead we need to be looking at the students, and working with them as to why they did something inappropriate online.
Students also need teachers to be good models of online social ettiquette. That won’t happen if the technology and social media is banned.
It’s unfortunate that many (if not most) schools are slow as dinosaurs to adapt to changes.
In this age of transitions, when we are all dealing with a fluid Web environment within the context of rapidly-changing technology, one thing is certain: Uncertainty.
Thank you for the post.
I enjoy reading your insight that you share in your blogs. Especially your comment on needing an acceptable use policy on Tech. Very good thought!
I do wonder about how you feel regarding the protection of younger children while surfing the web. Without filtering to some degree, we can damage the innocence of the very young.
I know how quickly one can get from a .com to a .net and end up in another world completely.
Thoughts?
“In order to address these problems, we need to understand the role of technology in the lives of children and not adults.”
I could not agree more with you Professor. All children in highschool at this point have had no choice but to be involved with social media/technology from a very young age. Individuals need to stop making education about what methods work for teachers and more about the best ways students will learn *which is what it should always have been.* Students are teaching THEMSELVES everyday when they use these resources in their homes.. it should be part of our job/requirement as educators to teach them about all the positive ways to use the internet.
The students have already spoken.. it is our turn to start listening.
That’s a no-brainer in my opinion. As educators (not just teachers, not just administrators), we need to deal with it, not simply ban it.
As Nicole said: “it is our turn to start listening.”!
Great, great post.
“The elephant in the room however, is the fact that if a child is going to be a victim of sexual abuse, it is most likely to come from a family member or friend, or someone they know, and not an internet predator. We all need to be educated.”
So true. The attack on technology and kids has always bothered me. It’s no different than when man discovered fire. The first Neanderthal kid to burn himself did not start a movement of his elders to ban fire all together. Instead, they taught him how to use fire, how to behave around the fire, how to appreciate its value. We should be doing the same.
Thank you for a straight-from-the-hip post. I teach 4th grade in a 1:1 environment. My 28 students are on the web daily, working with global partners, researching various topics, and learning interactively. While our access to a number of sites is restricted, we are reviewing policies and discussing the very things you enumerate.
With regards to cyber safety, I have never had an incident of a students accessing an inappropriate site. Part of that reason is that I have previewed the dozens of sites we use. Links to those sites are listed in my Moodle. If a student were to access an inappropriate site, it would most likely be willful, not accidental.
We are very close to allowing student access to Twitter. I hope to help my students develop their own PLNs.
We do hit an occasional naughty picture in a Google search, but we have a procedure for that and it provides a good opportunity to reteach a cyber-safety lesson.
These digital kids have never known another way of communicating, but they have also never been taught how to navigate safely. Their parents don’t know either. There was no one around to teach them. Therefore, the responsibility for that instruction falls to me, to you. It is our job to educate both child and parent. If we don’t do it, who will?
Rick
Tom,
Great Post… my thoughts… learning is social no matter where that learning takes place. As educators I feel we have an obligation to model and apply and talk about appropriate behavior not just face to face but in the virtual world of the digital landscape that our students are spending more and more time in. Many students lack digital citizenship skills because there is a lack of good role models in their online communities that are leading, guiding, talking and holding others accountable regarding appropriate or inappropriate online behavior. In a classroom, if someone is bullying, its right in front of us and we stop it. Cyberbullying is right in front of us too… We need to be active coaches in student learning in the classroom and online.
Lynne
Great post, once again! I always look forward to reading your thoughts on the most important issues in education. Thanks for being such a great leader of our PLN and having such a great voice for education in the 21st century!
Every administrator, teacher, and parent that has school aged children should read this or material that proposes similar ideas. You accurately describe issues that face educators across the country.
Thanks for the insight. I am going to pass this along to the powers that be.
You make numerous compelling points, Tom, yet isn’t it wise to proceed with caution here and let out the rope slowly? After all, we are talking about managing students’ use of technological resources that most adults in the school do not understand. Banning the use of the internet in school is clearly not the answer but limits and filters set by tech savvy educators makes good sense. (Not to mention…we DO have rules for library use and cafeteria and playground behavior.)
I love Chris Lehmann’s quote – “What if schools were not preparation for real life, what if they were real life” (or something close to that). Technology is like electricity, we just need to stop talking about it because it is not an add on. Instead it is something that needs to be integreated wherever possible.
In schools we spend too much time trying to control things we really have no control over. I agree with you whole-heartedly that schools need to teach kids how to use tech tools responsibly and effectively. If we don’t do it, no one else will. Just talk to some kids at schools where technology is being infused across the board (i.e. Van Meter, Iowa). They are so excited to be in school. In fact you can see some of their comments here http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/whygo1to1.
We just need to do this! Now!
You are absolutely right, the problem MUST be dealt with, at school, home and society in general. Education is of paramount importance and an absolute necessity in dealing with it but it is not sufficient. Children must be protected from extremely harmful content (pornography, hate speech, gore). To expand on your analogy, we DO ban alcohol, cigarettes, hate speach and guns from school. Education alone will not keep a curious 13 year old from exploring pornography, and the danger of psychological trauma and addiction to that material is very real.
I advocate in my own school for as little blocking as possible so as to not restrict the ability to teach the application of these emerging technologies, however there must be some controls and definitely a good plan to deal with education, prevention, supervision and responsibility in the use of technology, and this plan must include buy-in and collaboration among all stakeholders.
Thanks for this post, Tom. I am even more compelled to talk to my admins about dealing with all of the issues you mentioned. It’s too important NOT to talk about it at school. I am also going to pass this along!
I agree with you when you say “The misuse and abuse of technology is behavior and requires a common sense conduct policy.” Most of the “harmful” content available on the internet is also available on prime time television and video games. Violence, pornography, hate speech, etc. are aspects of popular culture. Banning technology so that students are protected from popular culture doesn’t solve the “problem.” It doesn’t address the need to teach judgment (evaluating the safe and responsible use of the internet). Judgment is a necessary skill in the 21st century.
Keep up the good fight Tom.
Are you really suggesting that we don’t block adult sites in schools and at home?
Douglas W. Green, EdD.,
I apologize if I wasn’t clear. My point is that banning technology will not ensure the “safety” of our children. I believe that judgment is how we address the “problem” of our hyper-sexualized popular culture.
In “The Porning of America: The Rise of Porn Culture, What it Means, and Where We Go from Here” Carmine Sarracino and Kevin M. Scott, claim that when porn went mainstream, mainstream went porn. They suggest that the once marginalized porn culture is now a dominant theme in popular culture. If you are skeptical, just watch MTV whose target audience is 12-17 year olds. If you are still not convinced, tune into NBC, ABC, or CBS during prime time. There are plenty of sexual references on air. The internet is just another medium. Therefore, banning access solves nothing.
Critics who are outraged by the prevalence of porn, fail to acknowledge that porn culture is part of our everyday lives–whether we like it or not. Sarracino and Scott explain that “Before this outing [of porn], we could look away, culturally speaking, and pretend not only that porn didn’t exist, but that the universality of sexual desire, the reduction of women and men to body parts, the no-strings ideal of uncommitted sex–none of this existed.”
To the disappointment of many, porn, like technology, isn’t going to disappear. We need to confront it. Even if we don’t want to.
Teaching the proper use of technology boils down to a couple of factors.
1) If access is blocked, the kids will find a way to get to it. It is dangling a carrot in front of the horse. Restrict the cell, they text in the bathroom or under the desk. Take away internet, they find a proxy.
Unblock it and let us teach the proper use and monitor the resource using the nets as a learning tool, research source and communication highway.
2) The classroom is not only about educating the mind and learning how to think, it is also about molding young people with character, a trait that will be so important throughout their lives. The ability to make decisions based on values not only needs to be taught at home with an open internet but at school also.
We take away their ability to make these character building decisions by taking away the things inside of our schools they have and use outside of school on a daily basis.
Another thought provoking post. The digital natives sitting in my lounge room in front of me (Mr 3.75 and Miss 0.5) certainly live in exciting and scarey times.
We have to embrace technology and not run away. It is so frustrating when admin decides to shut it all down when there is a problem instead of looking at ways to educate students and parents on usage. Great blog, I believe all the education leaders need to read this!
Could not agree more with most of the sentiments on this blog. One thing has become quite clear, students are always fighting back against the establishment that bans the use of technology other than that which is meant to be used.
Mobile phones for instance. A seminar I went to 3 years ago simply put this to the people, turn it around and use it for lesson content. Maths have it there, as a not too bright class learning Pythagoras’ Theorem had the students use their mobiles to capture all manner of shapes from around the school, home and wherever they could get an image from. Then loaded them onto the computer and screen and used the images to show all kinds of mathematical stuff, (I’m not a maths teacher so don’t know the lingo).
As a senior computing studies teacher I use technology every day, but I’m always hindered by those who make rules that belong in the 20th century. Social media is being use by the children all the time, so why not us use it in class with an educational slant and show the youth it is a tool for learning as well as social content.
Think around the square, at 56 I’m always trying to make my lessons more interesting, but am thwarted by those who know best…best my foot…keeping children from the world wide web is keeping them in cotton wool, and if they are kept thinking it is all bad then it’s not being used to it’s best advantage.
I can remember as a kid taking all kinds of risks, playing in dirty gutters, spending hours making billy carts and getting grazed knees and elbows, falling off my push bike at 60km and hour, but I’m still here. Same is for us what technolgy is for the youth of today. Hecks sake, take away the cotton wool and let them learn that not all the world is a bed of roses, that delivers choice and knowledge.
My rants…gee I love a great piece of work like tomwhitby’s as it gets the blood going on an issue that is not going away any time soon.
Hi Tom
i am very torn between using and abusing the technology you mention in your blog. i recently posted an article from the NY Times, where a school took away all texting and social media sites for 2 days. the results were startling – most of the kids felt more focused, less distracted and more connected without the technology. so what do we do to enhance teaching and learning utilizing technology?
Tom,
If we as educators take ourselves out of the loop of social media then we give up the ability to influence its positive use in education and society and also give up the needed teachable moment (should be more then that) to help students understand the less desirable impact it can have if used improperly. Social Media is a reality, it all depends; Do we want to be a player, or will we just observe from the sidelines. If we do chose to watch, then someone else will eventual take over the role we should have played. Thanks for your thoughts and insights! – Mike
This reminds me a lot of the direction sex ed has taken over the years. There was one year when I wasn’t allowed to teach it to my Grade 8 class. The first time the soccer team had me in the school van, the girls pummelled me with questions.
The idea at that point was that if we educate the kids and inform them of the issues, then that will only encourage them to do “bad things”. We’ve since discovered that it empowers them to make informed and educated decisions (mind you they’re not always the right ones).
I set up parental controls on my computer to keep my 7 year old from seeing things I don’t think she needs to or is ready to see. However, she only logs in as herself when I’m not here. I don’t let her out of earshot when she’s on line. I think classroom management has a huge role to play in all of this. That, and informing teachers of some key things to look for as many I’ve worked with are completely unaware.
Lastly, I wonder where the lines of responsibility are? If a student does something inappropriate online, when is it my responsibility and when is it the child’s? I know I need to provide a safe environment, but what types of behaviors fall where? Thoughts?
Thanks for the post, Tom!
I have to say that I although I agree with your post and the idea of families banning Facebook is ridiculous, I’m not sure the best way to teach digital manners and anti-bullying resources in a school where most homework should be done with paper and pen i.e. where there are not technology resources in regular use.
I have the same issue in my school; the only computers in the room are my school desktop and my MacBook I bring in every day (plus a few iPodTouch/iPhones which technically have to be off). The filter is so ridiculous that I couldn’t access most of the sites (or blogs that talk about the sites) if I tried to reference how they can be hurtful and how to react to examples of hurtful interaction.
Another comment–it’s amazing how exposure changes one’s perspective. Until I realized that I could use Twitter for professional interaction, I thought it was fun but pointless time waster. Now, I have to figure out a way to share the resources with my colleagues at school where Twitter is blocked. Getting someone only 5 years older than me (I’m 23) to see the value of social networks is FAR more difficult than I thought. Getting parents of students to see the value is going to take much longer if we keep having parents like the Principal in NJ.
Tom,
Thank you for your posts and passion for education. I am a parent of three school aged children, 8, 12, and 15. I am also married to a high school principal.
While our family is very active in technology, to include having our own daughter take classes in her high school as well as online, I am not yet ready to give them the keys to the technology castle without knowledgeable guidance. That being said, frankly, my 15 year old is more savvy with the technology opportunities at her fingertips because of what she is learning at home.
I probably missed a link or a tweet, but would be interested in discovering what protection the schools/teachers/admin have if they were to remove the current Acceptable Use Policies for technology. More specifically, who would be on the hook if and when a student found a porn site at school and the parents are not as understanding as others who see it merely as a growing pain? I am stunned at the amount of time my husband spends in court, preparing for court, or preparing to be prepared in case of a lawsuit because so many folks want an easy fix for today’s complicated issues.
Thank you again for your posts and your request for feedback.
Tom
In my view the focus on Cyberbullying is actually driving some of the issue. Many school leaders only interaction with social media is when a students posts a stupid video on youtube or calls a peer a poo-head on facebook. School leaders conversations with students and colleges is negatively focused. Our only conversation with young people are when something wrong has happen. This is creating a dispersive understanding in the roll of social media.
Rather I think we should be flipping it to the positive and talk digitalcitizen. Lets stop telling students not to bully and start to model and show students how to have positive and respectful digitalrelationships. Let’s stop telling them don’t post anything dumb stuff online and start showing them how employers look at a future employees digital footprint for evidence of social skills. Lets stop talking about the boggy man and start showing students what information is and isn’t appropriate in what spaces.
You said their is no acceptable Library usage policy. I agree lets learn from the successful harm-minimisation approaches of drug and sex ed in countries like Australia, Switzerland, Iceland and Denmark.
If systems and schools relax filtering it is useless and will not change the status quo of cyberbullying. Unless supported with curriculum supported learning around how to be a citizen. And leaders who support it.
Ben 🙂
@benpaddlejones
The schools I consult with generally block FaceBook but not Twitter. About half the teachers have FaceBook pages, mostly for keeping track of their own kids. Very few have Twitter pages. Facebook for me is all social and a bit of a time waster. Twitter can be a time sink as well but for me it is all business. I having done enough searching in the adult side of the Web to know that it is no place for kids. It is a far cry from my childhood experiences of flipping through a Playboy magazine. The number of free adult videos feature every conceivable niche of sexual thought and content and are very easy to find. I believe that it is irresponsible not to block it in schools and homes. Sexual abuse is mostly likely to come in the guise of mommy’s new boy friend but we do need to educate kids and parents. Professors should allow laptops regardless of what the students use them for during class. The students are the paying customers and any student who tries can make the learning experience richer and more individualized if they can take notes and search for information to scaffold their learning. We also need to experiment with the use of handhelds and twitter for students of all ages. Students will be more engaged in their learning if we can tap in to their passion.
Douglas W. Green, EdD – blog DrDougGreen.Com
Filter away, it doesn’t matter in the long run. I wish I had a dollar for every post I see our kids make to facebook during the school day. They are using cell phones with full data plans. They use them all day long. Instead of fighting them, I decided to join them and teach them how they can be used effectively. I now offer my students the opportunity to text me their responses. It’s a necessity really because they don’t bring pencils and pens to class; they always have their phones. They love it! I am now getting responses from kids that would normally do nothing. I am also lucky enough to have the use of a laptop cart in my class. Once you begin to use laptops in a 1:1 situation it becomes seamless, a part of your pedagogy. When we need the technology we use it and when we need to do some deep reading and focus, we don’t. It just real life.
[…] a bit more about each of them. In his blog, My Island View, Tom Whitby put up a post he titled, Deal or No Deal. He hoped that his post would begin a focused dialogue on Social Media in Education. He has his […]
Nice article, Tom. Since I teach adults, I do not run into some of the situations (predators, bullying, …) that you described. I do have experience with the “lockdown” mentality though.
Our college library blocks access to Facebook and Twitter. When I pressed the issue there I was told that before those sites were blocked, too many students were monopolizing the computers for non-educational purposes. The students that needed access to a word processor, or needed to do online research, could not get on a computer.
I still use Facebook groups in my classes because my students are able to access them off campus, but this policy makes it less convenient.
We also have a cell phone ban in our classrooms that I largely ignore. I do have a concern for test security, so my students cannot use any communications device during an exam. One advantage of teaching at a college is that students are responsible for their own learning. If they choose to spend an hour texting a friend instead of participating, that’s their choice as long as it doesn’t disturb other students.
With a 1:1 school we deal with this all of the time. I started the year pushing to have facebook and twitter open for all students. We ended up deciding to only have twitter open. I then monitored student access and who they were following. Many of my 9th graders (here in Texas) were following prostitutes in NYC and L.A.. Many of these people had avatars with moving pictures of people engaging in sex. By Christmas I was advocating blocking twitter as open for all and limiting it to classrooms/students using it with their teachers.
There were many teachers who couldn’t believe what I was saying and they said “how can you see who they are following when you aren’t following them?”
About the same time my niece, a senior in college, was trying to get into law school. I noticed that some of her friends, who were lesbians, had posted some “interesting” photos on her wall. I told her that there might be a conservative law firm or law school professor out there checking her background and they might not want to see that in their prospective employee/student. To her credit she removed the pictures.
I bring up these two instances to make a point that it takes adults in our students lives; teachers, mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, et al, to ensure we are educating them in what is and is not proper in social media. We can’t block everything, everywhere and expect our students to be able to make sound judgements later in life.
As always, Tom, great article to make us think. The comments are really great too.
Thanks for a great post. It’s very reassuring to know that I’m not the only one ranting in this way!
Please excuse me, though, if I rant – just a little – at your response to the advent of social networking.
These aren’t the only choices, and they omit the most important response. When new technologies come along, it’s important not to just see them as offering ways of doing the same things we already do, but perhaps more quickly, or more efficiently. We need to ask whether they enable us to do new things that might help us achieve our educational objectives in new ways.
By default, people usually layer new technologies onto old thinking, and use it to do the old things. It can take a long time for their thinking to move on, and the new possibilities it enables to be identified.
That’s the stage we’re now at with social networking. Bringing it into school so that we can teach children to use it safely is using it to support something we already did; teach internet safety.
The really important thing we need to be doing is thinking about, and starting to test out, what new possibilities it enables for improving learning.
For example, some years ago, research into improving learning in our district identified an opportunity to avoid “reinventing the wheel” if only teachers could see what their colleagues in other schools were doing. That led to increased web publishing of learning activities, via WordPress MU blogs, which proved popular with staff, parents and students and helped build up a networked community.
People were reporting difficulties in keeping in touch with blog posts and comments across the 40-school district; with finding blogs and knowing who else was involved.
BuddyPress social networking software now enables anyone, anywhere, to see what’s being published across the whole district (at http://edubuzz.org ), and initial feedback suggests it’s proving a powerful tool in enabling new types of communication and collaboration between staff, students and parents across the county.
Even though it’s still early days, the level of enthusiasm we’re seeing suggests that social networking is going to be a key enabler of new types of highly-connected learning communities everywhere.
“Educators have two choices. Either they acknowledge that kids are doing social networking and teach them to be appropriate and responsible online, or they can ban it from the school, ignoring to address any skills.” When I read this passage, it reminded me of Harry Jenkins’ assertion at TEDxNYED that our continued attempts to block access to Web 2.0 tools in schools is resulting in “feral children raised by the wolves of web 2.0.” We need to teach students how to safely and appropriately use the resources of the web. I equate this situation to that of extremely strict and overly protective parents whose children tend to run amuck as soon as they go to college and are no longer under the control of their parents. As Alfie Kohn said, “Children learn how to make good decisions by making decision, not following directions,” a corollary being, we learn from mistakes by making mistakes. This is NOT a case of ignoring something and it will go away.
My only disagreement with the post is what I consider a bit of historical inaccuracy. People over 25, people over 50, whatever, have always been, essentially, forced into a specific technology – or at least that has surely been true for the past 250 years (or “the latter half of the Gutenberg Era”). Books (a very expensive, very controlled communications technology) have been pushed on children for years – in homes, in schools, in libraries, in (non-Catholic) churches, at work. Those books have pushed straight-line thinking and the unchallenging concept of text as expressed by John Calvin. They have taught social and intellectual hierarchies, and have framed the way our society communicates.
Today, the structure of information and communication have changed. Not really to something radically new, but, in my reading of it (and read about it I do), it is really a return to the pre-Gutenberg humanity of communication, a more democratic and engaged system. One in which – lets use the old terms – everyone from the scribe to the troubadour to the person spreading news in the pub or market touched, adapted, and recreated “the news.”
But schools, of course, are creations of the Reformation/Gutenberg Era. Designed to prepare workers for jobs with unchallenged information hierarchies, to prepare citizens for societies with tightly controlled information channels (crown, church, wealth), to prepare “scholars” unable to doubt the system because of the hierarchies of education. The “school as we know it” could not have existed before Luther, Calvin, and Gutenberg, and can not really exist as that era comes to a close.
This terrifies educators – not because of the technology – but because they lose all the power and status that came with information control. Pointing out to them that they can rebuild that status by being mentors, supporters, tutors, doesn’t help, because most educators are fairly risk-averse people, and change is risk.
When I have addressed this topic with fellow educators, they don’t know where to start to teach this curriculum. We have lots of resources on cyber-bullying or internet safety(mostly in regards to privacy concerns). What would you recommend as a resource for teaching students about appropriate online behavior in regards to social networking or Web 2.0 tools?
Most of my middle school students have an attitude that none of it matters, they can do whatever they want online. The only thing that seemed to effect them were the above mentioned topics, and even then, mostly only when the videos/activities freaked them out.
How are you defining inappropriate? At school or in general? “Accessing inappropriate sites is another issue. The inappropriate use of technology is a social issue that must be addressed through education. The consequences for abuse or misuse of technology must be taught to our children at an early age.” Again, my middle school students have had so much technology that they believe that any site they can get to is appropriate, as long as they completed their work.
I say, “Deal.”
Jennifer,
If you’re interested in a resource for teaching students safe and appropriate use of technology, you may want to look at Digital Citizenship in Schools from ISTE. It discusses integrating digital citizenship concepts into the classroom and includes lesson plans for digital citizenship concepts. http://www.iste.org/source/Orders/isteProductDetail.cfm?product_code=digcit
Another resource from ISTE is Security vs. Access: Balancing Safety and Productivity in the Digital School. Like this discussion, it talks about the problems with a lot of common security measures that end up hindering technology use. The authors have recommendations and stress the importance of balance and involving multiple stake holders.
http://www.iste.org/secure
The question was never what to teach or what resources are available. The question is will teachers be allowed to teach it at all. Bans and Filters!
I think the view that we will not be allowed to teach certain things is rather fatalistic. I strongly feel that if you engage with the right people and make a compelling case which, in this case I think its easy to do, there is a very good possibility you can come to an agreement.
After all, collaboration is one of the skills we need to be both modeling and teaching to this generation!
Yes, Tom. School officials responsible for setting Internet access need to consider these issues and develop appropriate strategies. Unfortunately for me, being a foreigner I’m at the bottom of the pecking order, and being a substitute teacher, that’s even more so. This limits my ability to influence the situation – particularly with the added problem of the language barrier, since most staff understand little English.
Just a couple of points:
(1) some teachers DO abuse the Internet – I know one here in Taiwan (a local) that spends many spare hours looking at pictures of ladies – and some in the school know
(2) I think there actually ARE playground use policies at schools – like when they can play, where they can mingle with kids of other ages, teacher supervision, how to handle incidents, safe use of equipment, etc.
Tom, you make some great points and show some of the potential problems that can arise. I wholeheartedly agree that we need to deal with it rather than trying to ignoring it and passing the issue on to someone else.
I read an article with a similar tone early today: http://www.allfacebook.com/2010/04/principal-asks-parents-to-ban-social-networking-to-prevent-cyber-bullying/.
If we accept the reality that we as educators need to be actively dealing with it, I hope more people will start working on how we should do so. I am trying to, but it will take a lot of us working together to begin scratching the surface of this real challenge.
Sorry these comments are a little rough, just wanted to chime in on what I feel is a very important topic!
I think there are two sides here… Some sites are clearly innapropriate and probably should be blocked, I’d say the gambling sites worry most.
However, for sites to be blocked as “social media and interaction” for safety reasons is naïve…. There are real dangers, but we need to teach digital responsibility to our students – they WILL be using these sites at home.
Great post – for most educators already engaged in technology this is a no-brainer but as ever change and the future causes some peole to bury their head or react negatively. Unfortunately some of these people can find themselves in positions of influence.
Most pertinent element is one of common sense – cars aren’t dangerous, drivers are. Dogs aren’t dangerous, owners are. The issue is clearly one of society’s acceptance of responsibility for people’s behaviour.
Quick answer – deal.
Via Twitter, I posted the following quote earlier this week: “For every complicated problem, there’s a simple solution. But it’s wrong.” The technology/social media issues discussed in your commentary are complicated. Simple solutions–banning access or complete elimination of monitoring–are guaranteed to spawn new problems of significant proportion.
Your assertion that “the biggest obstacle we have in education in regard to technology is the parent perception of child safety on the internet,” is as poignant as any in your commentary and central to the problem-solving process.
I always enjoy reading your posts. I agree with much of what you say. Complicated problems, even if based on perception, often require simple solutions. I believe we will be in a much different, and better, place within a few years.
Sam
School filtering works better when less restrictive and blended with teaching students how to “take responsibility themselves for using new technologies safely,” said a study released in Feb. by British education watchdog Ofsted (I blogged about it here http://www.netfamilynews.org/?p=28736). It’s a new media literacy that teaches critical thinking about what’s posted, produced, and uploaded as much as what’s read, consumed, and downloaded. I’ve been following the youth-risk, and now social-media, research for over a decade and am now sitting on a second national task force on the subject, and I can only conclude that new-media literacy and citizenship (both digital and non-) are key to young people’s constructive use of technology – as well as online safety. But just as technology/social media aren’t add-ons to teens’ lives, and to build on Patrick Larkin’s comment above, it’s absurd to add “online safety” on to a school curriculum as a subject in itself – I so agree, Tom, that at the very least we have to understand how young people use digital tech and media (a great resource is Hanging Out, Messing Around & Geeking Out: Kids Living & Learning with New Media from the researchers of the Digital Youth Project, MIT Press http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11889). That’s exactly what helps us see that filtering is, in effect, the opposite of schools’ successful online-safety practices.
Filtering blocks incoming content. It’s like deciding what books to allow in school. I don’t understand why so many policy setters think filters protect much, now that the Internet is participatory/social/behavioral. Filtering’s fine, and needed, to the extent that it blocks incoming hate, violence, and porn, but that barely affects “online safety” on the participatory, user-produced, multidirectional Web that’s on students’ phones as much as school computers.
Also, the research shows (lit review here http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/pubrelease/isttf/) that cyberbullying is by far the online risk that affects young people the most, and those who engage in aggressive behavior online are more than twice as likely to be victimized – so critical thinking, civility, respect for self, peers, and community (online and offline) are *protective*. It doesn’t make sense to teach these as stand-alone subjects or in a vacuum separate from everyday school life and classwork. Risk practitioners and researchers rightly talk about the need for a “whole school” and social-norming approach to bullying and cyberbullying. Absolutely. But why do online/offline risk prevention only *around* the academic part of school? We have “Citizenship” on report cards – can’t that include *digital* citizenship? Ideally, we’re modeling, teaching, and experiencing civility and respect in the “community” called a classroom as well as in class wikis, Google Docs, QuestAtlantis.org, and other collaborative-learning “spaces” in the classroom. During everyday academic work as well as at “teachable moments.” Stuff comes up in communities, online and offline, so we need reminders to be good citizens and critical thinkers (adults and kids). I call it the guild effect because strong communities are self-supporting and self-policing, if the infrastructure around them allows. So there’s less burden on acceptable-use policies, because students become *stakeholders* in their own well-being and the success of their collaborative learning environments.
Citizenship is a verb. If students don’t have opportunities to practice it in new-media environments in and out of school, they don’t learn it as well. Bullying, the research shows, has actually gone down (http://www.netfamilynews.org/?p=28752). Cyberbullying *seems* to be an epidemic partly because in the news a lot (news reporters understand it much less than educators and know that adults fear it because they think the problem is technology and tech intimidates them, which “sells papers”). But I think we (society) will get a handle on cyberbullying when we stop seeing tech or media as the problem, as you said, Tom.
There has been too much fear and angst around new media on the part of adults in our society – a very destructive predator panic, even. I try not to get discouraged about all the damage-reversal needed. If we hadn’t turned “online safety” into a big, complicated “solution” to a “problem” called technology and 1) focused on behavior & child development and 2) put constructive tech use in the context of full, healthy participation in participatory media, we would not be looking for special curricula and we would be so far ahead of where we are now (I think, maybe, possibly). We would have core subjects being taught with new media and students (and educators) learning (digital) citizenship and literacy – or new media literacy – in the process. We talk about this, putting online safety or, better, constructive tech use, in a positive context in “Online Safety 3.0: Empower and Protecting Youth” (http://os3.connectsafely.org) at ConnectSafely.org, where we have a lot of other resources.
Jennifer, if you really need a curriculum (and maybe this is a needed stopgap measure while teachers of all subjects reach a comfort level with collaborative, tech-enabled learning), I’d recommend one developed by Common Sense Media (being piloted in schools now), based on amazing work at the New Media Literacies Project (was at MIT, now at USC: newmedialiteracies.org) and the Harvard School of Education’s Goodplay Project on digital ethics. Here’s CSM’s 4/1/10 press release about the curriculum (http://www.commonsensemedia.org/about-us/press-room/press-releases/digital-citizenship-initiative).
Thanks, Tom, for your great post. Ira, that’s fascinating about our return to pre-Gutenberg communication (and participation). Based on what I’m learning from social-media researchers, educators, and risk-prevention practitioners, that feels so right. Here’s my own little riff on Gutenberg & social media (http://www.netfamilynews.org/?p=28462), and, based on all the privacy news of the past 2 wks, on what seems to be a new kind of, multi-party social contract we all find ourselves signed onto (http://www.netfamilynews.org/?p=28799) – would love anybody’s thoughts!
If helpful to anyone, here’s a talk I gave in Second Life about “Online Safety 3.0” (as my avatar, Anny Khandr–http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_eqbol58P8).
Sorry about this endless comment. Chalk it up to weekend reflection time. What an amazing conversation and group! Thank you, Tom.
thank you Tom,… great post…
to me – esp this part:
We do not need Acceptable Use Policies for technology. We do not have Library Use Policy, Cafeteria Use Policy or a Playground Use Policy. The misuse and abuse of technology is behavior and requires a common sense conduct policy. Any such policy will define the infractions and also the consequences of the poor decisions. Technology is not outside what we do in Education, it is a big part of what we do in education. If it is integrated, then it should not require a different set of rules to govern it. We educate and test people in driving and our laws cover traffic infractions. I do not remember agreeing to an automobile use policy.
Terrific article. All the previous posters said what I would have. Common Sense doesn’t seem so common anymore–our first impulse seems to be to react, immediately and without reflection or consultation, with Fear.
Excellent post and follow-up discussion! In my district all social media is on the banned list for no other reason than it is social media. And as of the last few months, the crackdown is worse than ever. Students can no longer even access their email. I can’t even access my Delicious bookmarks or my server files anymore. Serious difficulties managing information in our already-tech-strapped school.
As others have said before me, I think we’re doing our students a huge disservice by banning these resources rather than educating them on how to use the tools responsibly. We’re hurting them by trying to protect them…or maybe we’re really just trying to protect ourselves.
[…] Ofsted I blogged about in February). Educator Tom Whitby and the amazing comments to his blog post, “Deal or No Deal” got me thinking about this all over again this […]
Here’s a helpful resource if the school or organization is considering blocking access to social media apps. It’s a whitepaper called To Block or Not. Is that the question?”
http://bit.ly/d2NZRp
It has lots of insightful and useful information about identifying and controlling Enterprise 2.0 apps (Facebook, Twitter, Skype, SharePoint, etc.)
Share it with the IT Dept.
We aren’t teaching children how to properly think about and interpret the world in which they live by blocking them from it. Rather, we only accomplish tricking ourselves into thinking that we are doing the right thing so we can feel good.
Change, people, change! You are only going to be less and less relevant to your students because you are afraid to look directly into the world in which they live.
I am frustrated every day with our Internet filtering as it keeps me from getting to, viewing, and sharing resources with my staff. The adult filtering is a huge issue for our district, and even as they have created work arounds on the issue, it still feels like you are doing something wrong when you go to youtube for a lecture or resource for the classroom.
As for the kids, I love the idea that acceptable use policies are redundant. The behaviors dealing with technology are covered and recovered through the norms and guidelines of the building.
Thanks for making me think.
So…sounds like everyone pretty much agrees with everyone except on a few details.
Ho ware YOU going to do more about it than just rant? Id love to see some specific examples.
For instance, for the past 3 years, I include a week on information security online which includes a 2 day project where teams of 2 students find someone anonymous on a social network who posts first name, last name, city & state of residence and has an identifiable gender (leads to 87% positive ID in the USA) and researches them with these tools I provide: http://www.delicious.com/jessethecsguy/datamining with a presentation of their findings to the class including key concerns/issues using the vocabulary we cover.
The deal I struck w/administration is that if this requirement is met, they are allowed to access social networks in my lab. Works out well and students DEFINITELY learn something.
What do you do?
Dear Tom,
I am writing this comment both as a teacher and a parent. I am 32 years old and I, first used the internet when I was 20 which is quite late compared to the kids that were born in the 90’s. I have a three-year-old daughter and one of the first things she said was , “www “ because she had heard it all the time from us, from advertisements, and other forms of media. She can start a computer, use a mouse, knows how to click the left but not the right button on the mouse, can play a DVD, call the last number dialed from my phone, can start, choose and play any games on the internet and iphone! As a parent and a teacher some typical but important questions come to mind. Is it good or bad that a very young child can use technology so easily, will this make her less sociable in the future, is she too young to be learning certain inappropriate topics and so on… On the other hand when I think of the influences has had on my own life I feel it is great that my daughter will have the opportunity to use this form of media. She will be introduced to much more information at a younger age which means more learning, more progress, more input and output, creativity, exploration and the ability to question things. So, as Larry D Rosen, a psychology professor at California State University, says “the goal is not to yank them off the computer and pull the plug, but to figure out how to help them grow up as good human beings, while they get to use their technology and to multitask.” There are many things you can do to prevent your child or students from the bad effects of technology. You should definitely use parental control software and filtering, control kids’ passwords, place the computer where you can easily see and check where they go online and what they like. One should always talk to their children about the possible dangers of sharing personal information online and meeting strangers online. Other than special school projects and homework research, limit their time of internet usage. Encourage them to use child-safe search engines and have them come and tell you if anything goes wrong when they’re online. There are billions of things you can do to limit and prevent your child from the dangers of technology but the most important thing is to make sure that they are aware of these dangers and what can happen if they don’t avoid these pitfalls. You shouldn’t limit a child’s freedom more than is necessary. Give them freedom within certain boundaries. This is what I think:)
Ekamin
At the risk of having your dog exposed to some more expletives, I need to let you know that our school has indeed got a Cafeteria use policy, a Playground policy and a Library Policy. We have teachers on yard duty in all these areas, and beware the student that does anything against the Policies! So we also ban YouTube, we ban Facebook. We have a one to one laptop program for one cohort, but the kids have access to more sites via their mobile phones than via our exceedingly filtered and firewalled school internet. And the more I try to explain that the only people we stop from using YouTube are the teachers, the more I get stonewalled and white-anted by those on staff that would like to take a proper “stand against the onslaught of technology”. Hmpf, my apologies to your dog.
BTW, since I have now left a comment on your blog, am I now back on your Twitter friends list? 😉 I always read your stuff, just not always comment! A bit scared my controversial views may cost me more than my dog’s company!
[…] Deal Or No Deal? A call for education management to get real! […]
[…] safety is about critical thinking and appropriate behaviour. As Tom Whitby says “We do not need Acceptable Use Policies for technology. We do not have Library Use Policy, […]
Folks need to understand that we are at a “printing press moment” in the history of mankind. This means new thinking and a realization that we are ten years into the “next chapter”. As the printing press turned every system of that day upside down, creating new systems, we are now at the same place. It is in our time that new systems are emerging. These new systems require new protocols and procedures for learning and creating.
I cannot imagine mankind evolving without social networking!