Submitted by Chris O'Neal (not verified) on January 30, 2008 - 08:34.
I feel like the bigger discussion of teacher judgment calls is a whole topic unto itself! While I don't disagree at all that there are inappropriate things happening on myspace/facebook, etc., my bigger concern is if all we do is block these sites, and never have discussions about them, then what's going to change?
Students get into fights at football games, and some of them even sneak alcohol into post football game parties. But, do we block football games? Nope. We try to teach them appropriate behavior, we enforce consequences for them when they violate rules, etc. But, we don't hide them under the rug and try to stop children from playing football. We teach them the correct way to play the game, strategies for not getting hurt, and the rules of the road.
I guess my point is yes, there are bad things happening on myspace, there are teachers who get carried away with those sites, and students who do the same. We deal with teachers in a different way - we expect them to have better judgment, or we react accordingly when they don't. But, in the case of students, how will they learn what's appropriate and what's not if we don't have those discussions with them, and we simply set up roadblocks, etc.? I don't at all suggest unblocking myspace/facebook in a school at this point. That might be disastrous. But, even more disastrous is an educational system that doesn't acknowledge some of the important skills being used inside these sites.
It's a tough place to be for all of us in education these days. I just hope we're trying to pull out the positive, and use it to our advantage.
Just a few thoughts
Submitted by Chris O'Neal (not verified) on January 30, 2008 - 08:34.
I feel like the bigger discussion of teacher judgment calls is a whole topic unto itself! While I don't disagree at all that there are inappropriate things happening on myspace/facebook, etc., my bigger concern is if all we do is block these sites, and never have discussions about them, then what's going to change?
Students get into fights at football games, and some of them even sneak alcohol into post football game parties. But, do we block football games? Nope. We try to teach them appropriate behavior, we enforce consequences for them when they violate rules, etc. But, we don't hide them under the rug and try to stop children from playing football. We teach them the correct way to play the game, strategies for not getting hurt, and the rules of the road.
I guess my point is yes, there are bad things happening on myspace, there are teachers who get carried away with those sites, and students who do the same. We deal with teachers in a different way - we expect them to have better judgment, or we react accordingly when they don't. But, in the case of students, how will they learn what's appropriate and what's not if we don't have those discussions with them, and we simply set up roadblocks, etc.? I don't at all suggest unblocking myspace/facebook in a school at this point. That might be disastrous. But, even more disastrous is an educational system that doesn't acknowledge some of the important skills being used inside these sites.
It's a tough place to be for all of us in education these days. I just hope we're trying to pull out the positive, and use it to our advantage.