Technology & Learning - April 2009 - (Page 27) W W W.T E C H L E A R N I N G . C O M GET NETWORKING “ I currently belong to—wait for it—63 social networks. I have lumped together a whole load of applications that enable me to post messages, see other people’s messages, comment on those messages, share files, and follow or befriend people. I’ve included social bookmarking applications, video-sharing Web sites, general social networks like Facebook, specific or focused social networks like Wired Journalists, and what we might call quasisocial networks like Friends Reunited. It seems to me that a question like “What are the pros and cons of social networks?” and the supplemental question “And how do you keep students safe in them?” raise a number of issues. For me, it’s the same as the pros and cons of interacting with other people in real life. Safety must partly depend on how one defines “safety.” Everyone seems to think in terms of sexual predators, but without wishing to denigrate the importance of that in any way, it does strike me as a somewhat narrow definition. What about identity theft? What about safety from economic predators? What about protecting your reputation, or ensuring the “safety” of your future job prospects? —T&L blogger Terry Freedman “ Admittedly, there is the problem that young people’s physiological development is such that it is not until their early to mid-20s that they are able to assess risk properly, but to my mind that makes it even more important to give them a set of strategies and procedures which they can adopt in order to keep safe—even if they don’t understand how the measures are keeping them safe. On the whole, the worst thing we can do is ban the use of social networking in schools. As for saying that kids shouldn’t be using Facebook at all, the fact of the matter is: they are! I think we should proceed on the basis of what is, not what some people would like it to be. “ The concept of social networking in the K-12 school environment is very attractive. It employs the latest technology, it’s fun, and you can even justify incorporating it into most curriculums. This does not make it appropriate in a K-12 school environment. Most of us spend hours teaching students proper online behavior. With social-networking sites, we encourage students to supply the exact information someone needs to prey on them. The sites that do not allow a parent to be a view-only member are even more of a problem. Do we ban all social networking from K-12 schools? The answer is no. We need to find sites that allow students to have the benefits of social networking yet remain safe while under the school’s supervision (and also outside school). ” —Forum post ” —Joe Huber, director of information systems, Greenwood Schools, IN ” | 27 TECH & LEARNING http://WWW.TECHLEARNING.COM
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