Saturday, January 13th, 2007...3:27 pm
Social Networks too Scary for School?
I will admit to being only slightly familiar with MySpace, Xanga, , and social networks in general. Our district’s policy is to block access to these and most other social network sites. Having done a little browsing through a few dozen pages in the past, I can’t say that I disagree with this policy in the least. To say that there is inappropriate content available would be an understatement. Adult content, including language, images, and videos abound. The threat of Internet predators is certainly a real issue. However, is it simply enough to block the sites?
Will Richardson makes some good arguments that more needs to be done (Kids + Social Networks = Learning?). He advocates a policy that goes beyond blocking to educating. Most importantly, he advocates teaching students about the good that social networks have to offer:
“Certainly, MySpace and Facebook should be in the curriculum to facilitate the conversation about everything that could go wrong. But what about to talk about everything that could go right? What about teaching them how to use social networking sites to connect to potential teachers, to publish their ideas, share content? What about making sure that they know how to leverage what MySpace offers?”
This must first involve educators becoming familiar enough with these networks to make educated judgments on their merit. Most (including myself, to be perfectly honest) know primarily what they see on the news, and that involves only the images of the child predator seeking hapless victims through their MySpace pages. Richardson continues:
“The social interactions that our students are having online are steepedin information gathering of one sort or another, as well they shouldbe. Aren’t ours? Whether they know it or not, they need to understandthe ins and outs of reputation networks and filters. And I’ll ask itagain…who is teaching them?”
There is a gulf between students and educators when it comes to social networks. I know that I, for one, and I dare say most, are ill-equipped to even discuss the matter, due to our own inexperience. Because of that, we need to get our feet wet. It’s a nasty, icy 3-day weekend here in supposedly warm Texas, so I have plenty of time to kill (It’s even too cold for ME to go fishing–that is cold!), and I intend to take the first step by creating my own MySpace account/page. I would challenge others to do the same. To quote Dorothy Thompson:
“Fear grows in darkness; if you think there’s a bogeyman around, turn on the light.”
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5 Comments
January 13th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
I actually created my MySpace page from my role as a dad to a young teenage boy, and not from my role as school counselor. I felt it was important to be able to keep up with who he’s having conversations with.
As an educator, though, I feel that it’s important to be able to speak intelligently with young people about the technology that they’re using. My ultimate dream is that we would find a way to use this in such a manner that would satisfy school districts’ need to protect students and the students’ need to learn through connections.
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January 14th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
I have hours of opinions about this and will not bore you here with them but I think our district “threw the baby out with the bathwater”. By blocking Xanga, My Space, Facebook, etc they also blocked every school, library, science, history etc. blog! The district will unblock the site and this may be the best way to keep kiddos from being distracted by My space, etc during the school day. My point is this…the second they step out of the classroom they can access these sites on their phones or their home computers. We need to make sure that they understand how to stay safe and be responsible social networkers. There is a brand new study out by the Pew Foundation http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=19&entry_id=12326 you might find interesting.
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January 14th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Thanks for the comments, Nancy and Rick. I found the Pew Foundation’s new study actually encouraging. The fact that 2/3 of teens report to keeping their profiles private is a great step forward. It is good to know that, either via their own network of friends, their parents, or their schools, they are learning how it should be done.
Rick, I did get signed up on MySpace. I feel like such an amateur, having to look up sites telling me how to get it set up on Google. It’s too bad my children are too young to help their old man out! I found it interesting that I received a suspicious Add request not 3 hours after signing up from a complete stranger. Hmm…
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January 15th, 2007 at 1:07 am
[...] Do social networks such as MySpace and Xanga belong in the school setting? Randy Rodgers offers some persuasive arguments for utilizing them in education. To be sure, there are some content hurdles to overcome when allowing these sites into the schools. Many districts–including my own–have simply blocked access to those sites, and perhaps with good reason. My personal experience is that, in MySpace anyway, my page regularly gets hit up by smut-peddling bots, or worse. Regardless of the educational potential, we must first protect students from inappropriate content. [...]
February 4th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
[...] Randy Rodgers - Social Networks too Scary for School? (echoes what I’ve been thinking about r.e. my Ed.D. thesis that 21st century literacies are different from 20th century ones - includes the great quotation, “Fear grows in darkness; if you think there’s a bogeyman around, turn on the light.”) [...]
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